OPNsense, from boot to firewall.

Start here

The reverse-chronological list above rewards whatever was written last. These are the pages worth reading first, in the order a new OPNsense box actually needs them.

• Initial setup Install, assign interfaces, and harden the management plane.
• Firewall rules Evaluation order, every field, and reading the live log.
• VLAN segmentation Isolate IoT, guest, and trusted traffic and make it stick.
• Port forwarding and NAT The NAT rule, the filter rule that matches it, and hairpin.
• DNS blocklists Ad, tracker, and malware filtering with per-VLAN policies.
• WireGuard remote access Reach the LAN from outside without exposing anything to it.
• Suricata IDS/IPS Inline intrusion prevention and tuning out false positives.
• Hardware sizing CPU, NICs, RAM, and power draw across three price tiers.
• OPNsense vs pfSense The platform decision to settle before you buy anything.
• Rule Builder Turn a goal into an ordered, copy-ready OPNsense rule plan.