The big reason I've given up on it is because I wasn't able to get the OpenVPN server to accept from both Debian and Windows clients. I understand that pfSense is supposed to be able to do all of this, and more, but it just doesn't seem like it's 'for me.' It seems like a jack-of-all-trades solution. Basically, I want my router to see one VM that will be a virtual router, and I'd like that virtual router to think it has a straight connection to the Internet. I'd also like to be able to play around with load balancing between different VMs running the same internal website, but just for the hey of it. Similarly, if I hit the private IP address of the virtual router from within my home network then I'd like things routed correctly. For example, if somebody goes to then I'd like them to actually hit the ownCloud web UI that I have set up. I'd also like the option to have incoming requests that hit the DMZ get routed to the correct VM based on the machine name and port. I want the router to see one machine instead of a bunch of VMs. I'd like have all of my VMs get a 10 dot IP address assigned by a virtual router instead (like pfSense) so I can firewall things, and get all of the VMs off of my router's network.

Right now, each of my VMs connects to my router directly, and gets a 192 IP address. I'd like to set up one VM that I can put on my router's DMZ that will handle everything. I think I need a firewall/router/VPN system. Most of my servers are running some kind of website, and I'm getting to each of them by browsing to If I'm connected to my home network, or VPN, everything works fine. Each VM has a static IP address, and I've set up my own internal domain. I have several VMs set up running various servers (including DNS). I have a home virtualization server, and my Internet connection is coming through a cheap Linksys router. On of my main annoyances is the lack of a 'unified' VPN client experience between Debian and Windows (like Pritunl offers). I've tried pfSense, and it's OK, but the learning curve along with some configuration headaches soured me on it. I'm looking for some alternatives to pfSense which may be more appropriate to my needs, and your feedback will be appreciated, please.

Pfsense alternative