OPNsense Forum

English Forums => 26.1, 26,4 Series => Topic started by: amd.64 on April 01, 2026, 05:05:54 PM

Title: Update certain firewall rules necessary ?
Post by: amd.64 on April 01, 2026, 05:05:54 PM
I created firewall rules for GeoIP blocking and spam blocking using spamhaus.

Is it necessary to update these rules every so often, or do they update on their own or is an update not needed at all?

Thank You
Title: Re: Update certain firewall rules necessary ?
Post by: Patrick M. Hausen on April 01, 2026, 05:24:25 PM
When you create the alias you define how frequently the source is pulled for updates.

I use 6 hours for most.

(https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=53669;image)
Title: Re: Update certain firewall rules necessary ?
Post by: amd.64 on April 01, 2026, 11:47:12 PM
Thanks.

It has been over a year since I created the rule I couldn't remember.

The Geo IP blocking doesn't have the update option, does it not need to be updated? If not it makes since, since they keep saying they are running out of IPs for version 4
Title: Re: Update certain firewall rules necessary ?
Post by: Patrick M. Hausen on April 02, 2026, 12:02:54 AM
The GeoIP databases are updated automatically. To check go to

Firewall: Aliases: GeoIP settings

and look at the "Last updated" timestamp.
Title: Re: Update certain firewall rules necessary ?
Post by: amd.64 on April 02, 2026, 01:43:53 AM
For others that may come across this topic with the same or similar issues.

My GeoIP was list update 2 2/2 months prior to this post. I had a previous unknown issue where I was getting the following error "In order to use GeoIP, you need to configure a source in the GeoIP settings tab". I logged in to my Maxmind account deleted my current license and create a new one. Created the link as described in this link (https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/maxmind_geo_ip.html). Pasted it in to my web browser to verify the link worked. I then had to copy it again out of the URL text field in the web browser then paste it into the proper field in OPNSense. My GeoIP rules were update

For my spam blocking rules, for some reason the update interval was blank, thus not updating. As soon as I entered a value (4 hours in my case), these too updated.

Thank You Patrick M. Hausen for your assistance.

Hopefully my spam volume will decrease with just these changes.