Setup in a Home Network

[waterwrangler]

Good morning all, I need help. I am trying to get Cacheguard set up and running on my small network. Cacheguard is installed on a Beelink EQ14 Mini, with a N150, 16GB DDR4 500GB NVMe SSD and 2.5G Dual LAN.
My WAN is coming in from a cellular modem to firewall/router, to a switch and out to WAP running laptops and tv boxes, a Truenas Scale server with apps running, then desktop computers and printers. There will be other systems as I expand like security cameras and a promox computer lab.

I have tried following every setup guide I can find and reinstalled multiple times changing local ip addresses from system defaults to recommended in guides to mirroring my existing firewall. The only one I was able to access the web gui on is the default of 192.168.60.11 and only on one computer with the Cacheguard machine plugged directly into it. I have tried plugging my WAN into CG machine and the desktop without luck accessing the WAN and into my network in place of the other firewall appliance without success. It sees the WAN but does not show it as active and I do not see a way to activate it.
Thank you

[david]

Hi,

Thank you for your post. There is something in your case that caught my attention: you can connect to the default internal CacheGuard IP address, which is 192.168.60.11/24. This IP address is proposed as an example during the first setup, and there is little chance that a user will have their LAN in that network. The same goes for the external IP address, which is 192.168.22.11/24 by default.

The first thing I would try is to run the

setup

command from the CLI to set the internal and external IP addresses according to your existing network.

I need to know two things:

1. How is your cellular modem connected to your firewall/router? Is it connected using an Ethernet link, or is your firewall/router wireless on its WAN side?

2. Is your wireless modem bridged with your firewall/router, or is it connected using an IP network segment? If it is connected using an IP network, please provide the modem and firewall IP addresses and network mask.

The answers to these questions will help us guide you towards the right solution.

In all cases, CacheGuard Gateway needs to be connected to two distinct IP networks (it does not support bridging). In a simple network, the external interface should be connected to the WAN and the internal interface to the LAN (in your case, your WAP, which I hope has an Ethernet interface). The important part of this network topology is that these two networks must be distinct.

When running the setup command, enter the correct internal and external IP addresses according to your existing network IP configuration. The default gateway should be set to your Internet modem/box/router IP address, which I hope supports Ethernet and IP connectivity.

[charles]

Hi,

My understanding of your network is represented by the diagram below. Am I right?

Simple-Home-Network.png (21.61 KiB) Viewed 257 times

If so, you can see three network segments in this diagram, represented by three colors: red, green, and blue. To help us determine how CacheGuard should be integrated into your network, please provide the following information for each network segment:

* Network address (e.g. 192.168.1.0)
* Netmask (e.g. 255.255.255.0 or /24)
* IP addresses of each network device

Best regards,

[david]

Another question: how do you plan to integrate CacheGuard into your network?

There are basically two possibilities:

1. Replace your existing firewall with CacheGuard:
CacheGuard would replace your current firewall and become the security gateway between your internal network and the Internet.

2. Keep your existing firewall and add CacheGuard:
You can keep your current firewall and add CacheGuard as an additional security layer in your network. In this case, both devices can provide firewall and security functions, with CacheGuard also handling features such as web traffic filtering, web antivirus, caching, and compression.

Knowing which option you have in mind will help us determine the most appropriate network configuration for your setup.

[waterwrangler]

Charles, that is how my network is set up with the exception of after the switch. Everything with the exception of TV's, laptops and phones are ethernet connections.

My existing firewall is xx.xx.74.1
switch xx.xx.74.40
WAP xx.xx.74.32

David, the firewall/router is connected via Ethernet. I can't remember but I believe it is in pass-though mode to not do anything other than pass the connection to the firewall/router. In order to confirm it needs a hard reset to access the web UI.

Cachguard will replace the existing firewall/router. I would like to run a DNS server and a VPN in addition to firewall and routing.

Thank you

[david]

If you plan to replace your existing firewall with CacheGuard, the implementation would be even easier. However, Charles asked you to provide us with your IP configuration for the three networks he mentioned, while you have provided information about only one network, and without mentioning the network mask.

I assume that these IP addresses are used on the green network. Can you confirm this? What is the network mask? Is it 255.255.255.0, or something else?

We really want to help you because your use case is a very interesting one. Our exchange can also help future users get started with CacheGuard. However, without all the information we requested, it will not be possible for us to properly understand your network and propose a solution.

There is also one point that would be useful to clarify. The IP addresses you mentioned appear to be public IP addresses (routable on the public Internet). This may be intentional in your particular setup, but public IP addresses are not normally used on private networks. For security reasons, we have hidden them in your previous post. If these are indeed private network segments, you would normally use RFC 1918 private IP addresses, such as 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x.

To help us understand your network, could you please provide the following information?

Green network

• Are the IP addresses you provided the ones used on this network?
• What is the network mask? For example, 255.255.255.0 (/24).

Red network

• What is the IP address and network mask used on the LAN side of your cellular modem?

Blue network / WAP

• Is your WAP configured as a bridge or as a router?
• If it is a bridge, there is no separate blue network as represented in Charles's diagram.
• If it is a router, what are its IP address and network mask on the blue network?
• What IP address and default gateway are used by your endpoints (for instance, your laptop)?
• What is the brand and model of your WAP?

Finally, if you are intentionally using public IP addresses on your local network, it would be useful for us to understand the reason, as this may have an impact on the CacheGuard integration and network design. Otherwise, we would recommend using private IP addresses for the local networks. For example, if your red network is 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0, you could use 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0 for the green network.

We look forward to your answers so that we can propose a plan for replacing your current firewall with CacheGuard with minimum effort.

Best regards,