Network

Introduction In this post, I will show you how to use policy-based routing in Unifi to route specific traffic through a VPN client (I use Private Internet Access) on pfSense. This setup allows you to retain complete control of your devices and subnets via Unifi’s Network app while taking advantage of pfSense’s ability to host a VPN client. With this setup, I am getting my full ISP speeds on devices using a VPN for encryption. Depending on your hardware, you should be able to get full speeds as well. ...

#UPDATE 11/05/2022 Original post date: 2021-04-05 This update contains specific configuration options to use 4096 bit RSA keys, SHA256 Auth digest algorithm, and AES256 encryption. The original post used the default key length of 2048 from PIA, SHA1, and allowed for AES128. Throughout the post, I will tag updated information with #Update. Introduction This post aims to show you how to use pfSense within a Unifi network behind a Unifi Gateway [in my case, the gateway is the Unifi Dream Machine Pro (hereafter referred to as UDMP)]. I will explain my current network configuration including applicable subnets, VLANs, and wireless SSIDs needed to make this setup successful. The end goal is to be able to add a client on my Unifi network to a particular VLAN either by joining this client wirelessly to a particular SSID or by tagging the client’s physical port to that VLAN. This VLAN will be tied to a subnet that sends data through the pfSense machine which is acting as a VPN client (I use Private Internet Access). This method allows the UDMP to continue to act as the DHCP server for these clients while allowing pfSense to anonymize and encrypt the data of the clients in question. ...

Update 05/09/2022: The conclusions of this post will route your traffic externally, requiring your local devices to reach external DNS servers (e.g., in my case, CloudFlare) in order to resolve your Unifi Gateway address. If you want to handle all of this completely locally/internally, check out my newer post: HTTPS for Internal Resources Alright, if you have a Unifi device like a Dream Machine, Dream Machine Pro, UNVR, CloudKey, or other device, you likely have been met with the dreaded red triangle followed by the tedious words, “Your connection is not private.” ...

Reverse proxies are powerful tools used typically to forward client traffic to a server. In contrast to a forward proxy, a reverse proxy sits in front of web servers or other servers and forwards client traffic to the appropriate server. In this post, I will show you how to easily setup a reverse proxy using Docker, forward the necessary ports to the reverse proxy, and configure the reverse proxy to forward traffic to various servers on your network. Specifically, I will show how to setup the reverse proxy for se with WordPress, though the applications of this reverse proxy are endless! ...

IoT Overview The smart world of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is ever growing. From everyday lightbulbs to the sprinkler out front, just about every household appliance and utility has a smart-counterpart. For example, my smart home is fully Apple HomeKit compatible and consists of a Hue bridge with lightbulbs, Lutron Caseta smart dimmers/switches, Eve Aqua outdoor water hose control, iSmartGate garage door opener, Schlage deadbolt, Eve motion sensor, Sonos speakers throughout the house, a Vocolinc oil diffuser, Vocolionc power strip, a couple iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaners, some Vocolinc pluggable outlets, an Ecobee thermostat to replace each analog thermostat in the house, and a Unifi G4 Doorbell (the doorbell is not technically compatible with HomeKit, but I added support with a third-party tool known as “Homebridge”). On top of all these smart home devices, I have a handful of other Unifi Protect cameras around my property. ...