Hello, I got my first mini PC in hand. Got my ATT in ip passthrough to my mini pc. From there I got it talking to my home router. So far so good, but just hold on a minute I'm not done yet. I following 2 not 3 but 2 ways of setting up the Transparent Bridge. The first one is from opnsense docs and the second is from dave on Transparnet bridge. Yes, I completely understand that I need to have a working knowledge in networking but not required. So I have a little to be bad. My first question is when you install opnsense and see the igc 0 and 1, they show me what is igc 0 and igc 1. On igc0 (WAN) it's my public IP address and on igc 1 (LAN) it shows me the ip address to opnsense dashboard. When I see the dashboard tho, it shows 2 spots that state WAN () AND WAN (ACTIVE) which has a strange ip address. What is this strange IP address? SIDE NOTE: I want opnsense security part and not the router part, as I love my home router to much.
Thank you
P.S. There are more questions, but I'm taking step by step on this as I've tried to get this working about 10 times of which 1 time I got it update itself and then locked up on me, and the other 9 times, nothing.
I can't believe that our of 70 view to a basic question, no one can offer any type of advise.
Nobody I know including myself with experience in firewalls and networks runs a transparent bridge. It's incredibly difficult, error prone, and unreliable. So I cannot give any advice but "don't".
If you like your router so much what for do you need OPNsense? Add Pihole or Adguard Home on a Raspberry Pi to your network and you have all "security" a home user ever needs.
> I can't believe that our of 70 view to a basic question, no one can offer any type of advise.
As a rule of thumb a gratitude attitude is better than an entitlement attitude.
Cheers,
Franco
Quote from: Patrick M. Hausen on October 09, 2025, 05:20:41 PMNobody I know including myself with experience in firewalls and networks runs a transparent bridge. It's incredibly difficult, error prone, and unreliable. So I cannot give any advice but "don't".
That Dave guy on youtube made a video about transparent bridging in which he claims it to be the best thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately.
At least people like him proved it works despite regular users claiming it's broken... so there's that. :)
Cheers,
Franco
Quote from: bimbar on October 10, 2025, 11:17:44 AMThat Dave guy on youtube made a video about transparent bridging in which he claims it to be the best thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately.
Never heard of him. But then I do not look for technical advice on YT.
My golden rule: never bridge when you can route instead. Layer 3 is almost always preferable. That's why IP was invented.
By Dave, the OP ment Dave Plummer.
Basically a legend of a developer that worked on Early versions of windows and is the creator of the task manager If I remember correctly.
The transparent bridge is a nice solution, and its working well. But I have to agree with Patrick here, whom said it very nicely.
"Never bridge when you can route instead. Layer 3 is almost always preferable. That's why IP was invented."
Regards,
S.
I was influenced by that video early on and it's one of the reasons I wanted to try OPNsense, but I didn't get far with setting up a transparent filtering bridge then. I think part of the problem is that OPNsense is a moving target and the software changes enough from version to version that any setup procedures don't age well. As another example, anyone trying out Schnerring's Baseline Guide today will find that it no longer works as written. For the same reason, OPNsense cannot be a "set and forget" type of appliance. It will require maintenance and user intervention.
The other problem is that networking knowledge is required and it's not as easy as the video makes it seem. Dave has requisite knowledge that gets brushed over and which his viewers might not realize or appreciate until they themselves struggle with the project.
On the plus side, a whole new hobby and learning adventure awaits those who try. :)