[guide] setup pfsense for etisalat UAE

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Hi everyone;

This is my first topic on level1, and i hope it will be helpful for some.

Ater I installed my pfsense, I wanted to configure the connection and go online, but since etisalat made it a bit tricky to setup 3rd party routers, I couldn’t configure it at first, searched the web and no luck, so here is how:

1- set your pfsense and finish the setup wizard as dhcp for the wan port.

2- under interfaces got to “assign”

3- now this is important, first you have to create a vlan, click on VLANs then add new one, under the “parent interface” choose your WAN port, “VLAN tag” you have to get it from your old router, priority is 0, and save.

4- create “PPP” interface, so click on PPPs and add, the connection type will be PPPoE, the link interface will be the VLAN that you have just created, fill in your user name and password that etisalat provided and save.

5- go back to your interfaces/assignment page and choose under the WAN interface the port that you just created, it will look something like this "PPPoE(igb0_vlanxx) - yourusername.

And that’s it, I hope this will help.

1 Like
2

The VLAN stuff is presumably because they put other stuff over the line like TV or phone or whatever, so that makes sense, but that is about the most complicated way of setting up a router. Most routers won't even let you set VLAN tags so I guess unless you have something decent like pfsense you're stuck using their equipment.

It annoys me that most ISPs don't provide any useful documentation for how their network works and how to connect stuff which isn't theirs to it.

I recently changed my internet connection and even though it turned out to be dirt simple (just plug it in and set to DHCP) I had to just guess that because there was nothing from them to say how to configure the router.

Anyway, nice guide

3

It was really frustrating at first because as you mentioned they don't provide any documentations or guide, and even more frustrating was the tech support, they didn't even bother to help, their answer was "no you can't, you only have to use our router"!!!!!

4

Hi! Does this configuration still work on Elife? Hoping from a reply! Thank you!