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Hello OPNSense forum,
As the title suggests, I'm relatively new to the world of OPNSense. My goal was to significantly overhaul my home network solution (moved in with my GF who was using Verizon's router and AP combo), and bring on all the benefits a next gen solution like OPNSense has to offer.
After some research, I decided to leverage one of my old laptops (an ASUS Q524U laptop from eons ago) with 2 USB NIC adapters as WAN and LAN plugged into the Verizon ONT and then a TP Link managed switch on the LAN side (wanted to run a couple VLANs too for separation).
Immediately ran into issues, biggest of which was that Verizon refused to give the device an IP over the WAN interface. I tried everything short of actually calling Verizon (did this on a Sunday) that I could think of and eventually had to give up so we could have wifi at the house.
My questions are as follows:
1.) Am I missing a step or ignorant to some hardware requirement here? I'd really love to repurpose this device as a dedicated firewall, particularly given that otherwise its just going to collect dust. I know its working fine, this used to be my Home Assistant server before I got a dedicated Proxmox host for this and other VMs.
2.) More of a follow on to the above question, in the event that the laptop is just a bad option in general, what would be a good alternative? Really not looking to break the bank here, I'd love something in the sub $100 range if I do need to get a dedicated appliance to do this.
3.) Any quirks with OPNSense and Verizon I should be aware of in general? Everything I'm reading online indicates it shouldn't cause issues, but as with most things in IT, the devil is in the details and I'm pretty new to all of this.
Thanks in advance for any help. Also, before someone says that I could just use Proxmox as the OPNSense firewall, this sadly is not an option - the Proxmox host is in a separate structure away from the house and connected via MoCA to a switch that sits in the outside area. Not enough room to move the host into the area where the ONT lives, and moving the ONT is likely to cost at least $150 - $200 based on estimates I'm seeing online (if not more).
As the title suggests, I'm relatively new to the world of OPNSense. My goal was to significantly overhaul my home network solution (moved in with my GF who was using Verizon's router and AP combo), and bring on all the benefits a next gen solution like OPNSense has to offer.
After some research, I decided to leverage one of my old laptops (an ASUS Q524U laptop from eons ago) with 2 USB NIC adapters as WAN and LAN plugged into the Verizon ONT and then a TP Link managed switch on the LAN side (wanted to run a couple VLANs too for separation).
Immediately ran into issues, biggest of which was that Verizon refused to give the device an IP over the WAN interface. I tried everything short of actually calling Verizon (did this on a Sunday) that I could think of and eventually had to give up so we could have wifi at the house.
My questions are as follows:
1.) Am I missing a step or ignorant to some hardware requirement here? I'd really love to repurpose this device as a dedicated firewall, particularly given that otherwise its just going to collect dust. I know its working fine, this used to be my Home Assistant server before I got a dedicated Proxmox host for this and other VMs.
2.) More of a follow on to the above question, in the event that the laptop is just a bad option in general, what would be a good alternative? Really not looking to break the bank here, I'd love something in the sub $100 range if I do need to get a dedicated appliance to do this.
3.) Any quirks with OPNSense and Verizon I should be aware of in general? Everything I'm reading online indicates it shouldn't cause issues, but as with most things in IT, the devil is in the details and I'm pretty new to all of this.
Thanks in advance for any help. Also, before someone says that I could just use Proxmox as the OPNSense firewall, this sadly is not an option - the Proxmox host is in a separate structure away from the house and connected via MoCA to a switch that sits in the outside area. Not enough room to move the host into the area where the ONT lives, and moving the ONT is likely to cost at least $150 - $200 based on estimates I'm seeing online (if not more).
