After a month of pfSense

It has been a little over a month of running pfSense and I generally like it.

During the past month of running pfSense, I've installed the Squid proxy and Squidguard. These are very easy to to install with pfSense. I've chosen to install Squid so I could keep track of the sites that were visited by people on the network.

I want to keep track because I plan on getting another Linksys router and let the neighbors us that. Of course I'll limit what they can do.

I also install squidguard so I could block sites on my network. I really like squidguard. Squidguard is really useful if you were to run a small business and you wanted to block sites.

Well that's all for tonight on this topic.

pfSense -- Open Source Routing

I recently acquired a old desktop pc, previously running windows 2000. So I figured, I'm nerdy, lets try to make my own router for home use.

I had previously worked a shop that used IP Cop and from my experience that I didn't really like the UI. Only knowing of IP Cop, I set out to find another open source router. I discovered pfSense.

From the screenshots, it looked really good and from the information I gathered from reading forums it looked like a winner to me. So I downloaded it.

It's only been a few days since I've started playing with pfSense and so far I like it. I don't currently have the internet at my house so it's kind of tough to test it all out but from what I've been able to test I like. I really like the webGUI. It makes dealing with all the options a breeze.

There is a cool setting that I did find. It's an option to authenticate the user before you allow them to use surf the net. You can set it up to ask for a user name and pass and then redirect them to another page. I'm not real sure if you need to log them in before redirecting them, which I'm sure you don't, but this would be a good way if you an extra wireless router to redirect them to a URL with the user rights to the network or what not.

I think I'm really going to like pfSense once really get into it. As of right now I've just skimmed it.

Useful advice from Bill Gates

I know this has been around for a while but here it is again:

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won’t care about your self-esteem.
The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now.
They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.
So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.
In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.
This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters.
You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.
Do that on your own time..

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life.
In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds.
Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Twitter

It's been a long time since I've blogged but I've found twitter and I love it.

Follow me @ twitter.com/mlindvall