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Most of the questions related to mine are about virtual routers managing virtual machines. I would like to use a virtual router, either DD-WRT or OPNsense inside VMWare to manage my office's network in place of my current proxy server.

Currently testing it on a Windows 8.1 before actually implementing it out. Hosted a wifi network to be shared (intranet). Connected to an internet connection to the ethernet. Then, the virtual router connects to both physical NICs with two virtual NICs. However, trying to get either the OPNsense or the DD-WRT to share the internet connection fails.

OPNSense/DD-WRT config:

1 NIC bridged to hosted network
1 NIC bridged to ethernet

OPNSense handled the DHCP leases to devices in intranet. I'm not sure about DD-WRT, as I cannot connect to the Web GUI after setting the WAN to automatically obtain an IP from DHCP. I'm thinking that it is because of the hosted wlan, but I don't have the luxury of trying it out on the office's network.

Just want to know whether it is not possible to do what I want at all, or I have done something wrong with the configuration (e.g. I have to connect to another actual network instead of the hosted network).

ranfan06
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1 Answers1

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Yes, your host needs at least two NICs.

  1. You create two virtual networks on the machine, WAN and LAN.
  2. You connect one of the NICs to LAN and the other to WAN.
  3. Physically connect the WAN port to your router, modem, or similar.
  4. Create a firewall VM (I would use pfSense, since it has more features than DD-WRT, and is not meant for wifi routers).
  5. The firewall VM gets two network cards, one in each network.
  6. Configure the card in WAN as WAN on the FW and configure it however physical router would be configured (DHCP or static IP, depending on setup).
mzhaase
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  • Does that mean testing it by hosting a wlan network won't work? – ranfan06 Jan 26 '17 at 16:53
  • I don't understand where wifi comes into any of this. You only have two physical NICs, no? – mzhaase Jan 26 '17 at 16:55
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    Yeah, the two being one ethernet NIC, and one WiFi adapter. I use the WiFi adapter to host a wlan network, and use that as my LAN network in the firewall VM. Though it doesn't matter. You said it is possible to use a firewall VM, and that's all that I needed to know. Thanks :) – ranfan06 Jan 26 '17 at 17:05
  • VMs don't host WiFi, so it's a moot point. So long as your VM has 2 nics on 2 separate networks then all should be well unless something outside the VM you're testing isn't set up correctly. – James Snell Jan 26 '17 at 17:12