January 21, 2026, 12:55pm 1
Hi all, New and noob here.
I’m working my way through Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell and setting up a hardware firewall for the first time and getting stuck in the same place.
I don’t understand enough to know what my issue is, so any kind help is appreciated.
I’ve purchased a Protectli Vault as he recommended.
I’ve got pfSense up and running. I’m in the web GUI configuring the firewall.
Everything seems to be going well, until I get to page 214.
After completing the bulleted instructions there, my computer is no longer connected to the Internet.
I’ve retraced my steps twice, including resetting the Vault to factory defaults.
Current situation is I have an Ethernet cable from my modem to the Vault and another Ethernet cable going to my lapt…
January 21, 2026, 12:55pm 1
Hi all, New and noob here.
I’m working my way through Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell and setting up a hardware firewall for the first time and getting stuck in the same place.
I don’t understand enough to know what my issue is, so any kind help is appreciated.
I’ve purchased a Protectli Vault as he recommended.
I’ve got pfSense up and running. I’m in the web GUI configuring the firewall.
Everything seems to be going well, until I get to page 214.
After completing the bulleted instructions there, my computer is no longer connected to the Internet.
I’ve retraced my steps twice, including resetting the Vault to factory defaults.
Current situation is I have an Ethernet cable from my modem to the Vault and another Ethernet cable going to my laptop. Until I completed page 214, I was on the Internet, albeit with my unprotected IP address from my ISP.
Page 214 should have enabled the VPN. I’m using Proton as recommended. Instead it disconnected me.
I’m guessing something has changed since the book was published.
Can someone please tell me what to update without compromising the privacy protections, which are the whole point of going through the book?
Many thanks in advance.
Max