PfSense is a FreeBSD-based firewall distribution, which is extremely flexible for both businesses and individuals. Additionally this platform can be installed on small ALIX hardware with Flash Memory as the storage all the way up to a full server deployment. To give you an idea of speed, the small ALIX box (I have a few) is easily able to push 20Mbps. I have a slightly larger box with spinning disks and an Atom processor, which is able to push 60Mbps (which is the maximum on my WAN). In addition to this though with the larger box I am able to deploy other packages on my PfSense box, such as Squid and many many more.
One of the things I set out to do was limit part of my Internet connection to ensure that my customers don’t experience any sort of slow down based on less important usage.
** Setup the Limiting Pipe**
With the Advanced Rule options we are able to limit either the upload or download or both. First we need to setup the Limiter “Pipes” one for upload and one for download. In this example I am limiting down to 1Mbps download and .5Mbps upload.
Figure 1 – pfSense 2.0 RC3 Traffic Shaping – Limiter Setup for Upload Stream
Figure 2 – pfSense 2.0 RC3 Traffic Shaping – Limiter Setup for Download Stream
** Apply the Limitations to the Firewall Rule**
Now that we have the limiter pipes set up it is time to apply the pipes to individual rules.
Figure 3 – pfSense 2.0 RC3 Firewall Rule Setup – Advanced Setup – Applying Filter
Figure 4 – pfSense 2.0 RC3 Rule Setup Overview
There you have it. We now have firewall rule sets which will prevent a certain type of traffic from overtaking your entire connection.