= Advance Configurations =

Maintaining a pfSense can be problematic if the configurations are not fine tuned to meet your network requirements.

== pfSense Advanced Settings ==

The advanced settings available under System > Advanced. There are there for additional tweaking or for those who need the functionality given. 

=== Admin Access ===

==== webConfigurator ====

These will change settings related to web interface of your pfSense instance

- Protocol: HTTPS
- TCP Port: defaults to 443 but you may change to a non-common port in production
- Max Processes:  2 (number of webConfigurator processes to run allowing more users/browsers to access the GUI concurrently), and many more...

==== Secure Shell ====

You need to enable ssh to access its CLI remotely. SSH key methods and port number can be configured

==== Serial Communication ====

If you desire to use serial communication as of a router or a switch you may configure these options.

==== Console Options ====

If you dont tick the option, it will allow anyone to access the physical console of the pfSense server

=== Firewall & NAT ===

In production, depending on number of hosts and concurrent connections, you may need to  increase values of '''Firewall Maximum States''' or '''Firewall Maximum Table Entries'''.

If you tick '''Disable Firewall''' option, it will convert the pfSense in to a normal routing device, remember it will remove NAT functions as well.

=== Networking ===

You may control IPv6 capabilities of the pfSense from this section and enable/disable IPv6 on the device. 

> We recommend not to touch this.

By any chance, if you need to change WAN interface addresses regularly, it is a good option to tick '''Reset All States'''

=== Notifications ===

In production environment, it is a good idea to configure SMTP settings for your pfsense.