Netgate has just published the release of pfsense CE 2.8.0 (Community Edition), a distribution aimed at creating internet grinding screens and network gateways. This distribution is based on the FreeBSD code base, incorporating elements from both the M0N0WALL project and the PF package filter. Users can download the prepared ISO-image for the architecture AMD64 from the pfsense website.
The management of the distribution is primarily done through a web interface. Users can utilize features such as Captive Portal, NAT, VPN (IPSEC, OpenVPN), and PPPOE to organize their output in wired and wireless networks. The distribution also supports a variety of options for limiting throughput, the number of simultaneous connections, traffic filtering, and fault-tolerant configurations based on Carp. Work statistics are displayed graphically or in tabular form. Authorization can be done using a local user base, as well as through Radius and LDAP.
Some key changes in this release include the update of base system components to FreeBSD 15-Current and the adoption of PHP 8.3. Additionally, the user interface now utilizes the acb (Automatic Configuration Backup) service for maintaining encrypted backup copies of settings in Netgate’s cloud storage. A new backend for the PPPOE protocol has been introduced, offering higher throughput for data transmission through PPPOE network interfaces. The rules for processing connection states in the internet grinding screens have also been adjusted, with the default mode now set to Interface Bound instead of Floating.
The release also includes a fail-back mode for gateways, which resets the connection in case of recovery. These updates provide users with improved performance and security features in the pfsense CE 2.8.0 distribution.