TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

1.  pfSense does not generally support more than one network connection per LAN. That is: Most off-the-shelf routers have one WAN port (for internet) and multiple LAN ports (for your stuff).  You can plug any/all stuff into any/all LAN port(s) and it just works. pfSense is not like this.  It expects to have one WAN port and one LAN port.  That's all .   If you want more, you're supposed to use a network switch.  This may seem counterintuitive, but switches do everything in hardware and are actually faster.  This means there is really little need to buy a pfSense box or NIC with more than two Ethernet ports (at extra cost).  It won't use the extra ports by default; they are NOT plug-and-play.  In fact, they won't even work until you set them up! I wish I'd realized this, as I purchased a pfSense box with six ports, which cost more.  I didn't realize the extra ports weren't intended to be plug-and-play for one LAN. It also means th...

Again, this is to set up a private, separate, controllable network to implement parental control for the kids, without affecting the main network. First, don't do what I did here and use a Netgear with Circle built in.  The Synology is SO much better. Very briefly: set the Synology in bridge mode, then set up Safe Access for parental control. Basically: 1.  Get an RT1900AC or other Synology router. 2.  Boot it up, go to router.synology.com. 3.  Set it to Access Point mode. 4.  Give it a unique SSID. 5.  If you want, set it to a static IP address. 6.  Let it start up.  If you haven't already, plug it into your "first" router. 7.  Go to router.synology.com or the static ip:8000 to get to the web interface. 8.  Go to "Safe Access" and set up the profiles/settings you want. 9.  If you want, download the app "DS Router" for mobile management. OK, I probably got the order wrong.  You get the idea. Compared to using the Netgear, it's...