virtualbox.org

How do you set up a pfSense guest on a Windows 10 host to secure the host?

The following is experimental, I have not tried it. (It sounds interesting, though, will see if I can try it this weekend.)

Set the VM with two network adapters: Bridged and Host-Only. See Virtualbox Networks: In Pictures

On the host network adapter that you will use for pfSense WAN input, turn off all network bindings except Virtualbox Bridged Networking binding:


The above is Windows-centric. I don't know how Mac/Linux/Solaris hosts do this, but the goal is the same: only let Virtualbox use the Ethernet adapter, not the host.

On Host-Only (which will be used for pfSense's LAN) turn off DHCP, and let the host adapter be configured automatically, so pfSense will load it with a valid IP address and gateway (I hope).

pfSense's WAN port goes to the Bridged adapter. pfSense's LAN port goes to Host-Only. WAN gets its IP address from your existing physical network's DHCP. pfSense will provide DHCP & gateway to the Host-Only network. Use a different private IP range than the existing physical network is using.