Routing & Remote Access WinServer2016

[flaviogulmanelli]

Hi everyone (this is my first topic on this forum) I'm into a networking setup: I have a 2U machine with:

- VDSL pcie interface (that act as an actual router, with 192.168.1.1 IP and DHCP capabilities https://www.draytek.com/en/news/latest-news/2016/06/08/vdsl2-hybrid-nic-vigornic-132-series/ )

- Ethernet NIC (going to my switch, but actually it's connected to a laptop as testing)

- Wifi ASUS 88ac pcie 

 

I want to make this machine (actually running WServer2016) to act as router, firewall, dhcp and everything I need to make this network up and running (I thought to use pfsense but no support to ac wifi and no support to vdsl pcie card)

 

So if you guys have some others easy to setup OS to use feel free to suggest me, but I prefer to use WServer the point is that I don't know how to setup the Routing and Remote Access (everyone online does this differently and no one actually used a vdsl card on Windows Server) 

 

Thank you to everyone replies

[Falconevo]

You can do this with a virtualised pfSense box on the Windows machine.

 

Enable HyperV as a role

Create a pfSense VM

 

Enable the WiFi adapter to be in access point mode via the following command (replacing SSID and password for your choice)

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="<SSID>" key="<PASSWORD>"

 

Add a vSwitch for the Ethernet Device you have selected (Internal vSwitch Type)

Add a vSwitch for the ADSL PCIe adapter (External vSwitch Type)

Add a vSwitch for the WiFi adapter (Internal vSwitch Type)

 

Add 3 network interfaces to your pfSense VM one on each vSwitch

 

Enable PPPoA/E on the vSwitch interface for the ADSL adapter (WAN)

Enable DHCP and select the Ethernet Device (LAN)

Enable DHCP and select the OPT1 for (WIFI)

 

Will give you what you need using an actual piece of router software.

Routing and remote access is piss poor, I would stay away

[flaviogulmanelli]

2 hours ago, Falconevo said:

You can do this with a virtualised pfSense box on the Windows machine.

 

Enable HyperV as a role

Create a pfSense VM

 

Enable the WiFi adapter to be in access point mode via the following command (replacing SSID and password for your choice)

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="<SSID>" key="<PASSWORD>"

 

Add a vSwitch for the Ethernet Device you have selected (Internal vSwitch Type)

Add a vSwitch for the ADSL PCIe adapter (External vSwitch Type)

Add a vSwitch for the WiFi adapter (Internal vSwitch Type)

 

Add 3 network interfaces to your pfSense VM one on each vSwitch

 

Enable PPPoA/E on the vSwitch interface for the ADSL adapter (WAN)

Enable DHCP and select the Ethernet Device (LAN)

Enable DHCP and select the OPT1 for (WIFI)

 

Will give you what you need using an actual piece of router software.

Routing and remote access is piss poor, I would stay away

Actually I suspected that Routing and remote access was a piece of crap... (seriously Microsoft?)

But correct me if I am wrong, using pfsense VM wouldn't bottleneck with ac WiFi since is not supported?

I'm sure that with a vSwitch pfSense would not notice the incompatibility but I'm afraid it will limit the ac capability (running it at gigabit speed since is seen like an ethernet)? 

Anyway I don't have others suggestions so I'll give it a try, thank you a lot! 

[brwainer]

7 hours ago, flaviogulmanelli said:

Actually I suspected that Routing and remote access was a piece of crap... (seriously Microsoft?)

But correct me if I am wrong, using pfsense VM wouldn't bottleneck with ac WiFi since is not supported?

I'm sure that with a vSwitch pfSense would not notice the incompatibility but I'm afraid it will limit the ac capability (running it at gigabit speed since is seen like an ethernet)? 

Anyway I don't have others suggestions so I'll give it a try, thank you a lot! 

the only thing that PFSense doesn't have support for is how to actually operate the wireless card to it's full potential. If you make a virtual switch on the wireless card and then give the PFsense VM a port on that virtual switch, then Windows will handle all the wireless stuff and the VM just has to do ethernet. Most APs are just translating from ethernet to wireless anyway so it's little difference. Although, you would have to have a way to make the wireless NIC operate in station mode (which is the mode that broadcasts an SSID and allows clients to connect), it looks like @Falconevo has given you a command that will do this properly but I'm not familiar with it.

[Falconevo]

15 hours ago, flaviogulmanelli said:

Actually I suspected that Routing and remote access was a piece of crap... (seriously Microsoft?)

But correct me if I am wrong, using pfsense VM wouldn't bottleneck with ac WiFi since is not supported?

I'm sure that with a vSwitch pfSense would not notice the incompatibility but I'm afraid it will limit the ac capability (running it at gigabit speed since is seen like an ethernet)? 

Anyway I don't have others suggestions so I'll give it a try, thank you a lot! 

No, because the driver is handled by Windows, you simply add DHCP to the vSwitch and let pfSense handle the routing of traffic inside that vSwitch.

 

Windows handles the WiFi traffic, the vswitch allows for it to be routed via the pfSense VM.