Plone and Apache on FreeBSD 7 behind PF
Several years have passed since I wrote an article on how to configure IP Filter on OpenBSD 2.8. At the time, PF was not yet integrated into the OpenBSD kernel. OpenBSD 3.0 soon prevailed (2001) and PF was included in the kernel. Soon thereafter (2003), we saw the incorporation of PF into the FreeBSD 5.3 kernel. For those who are unfamiliar, PF is a system for filtering TCP/IP traffic and providing network address translation. However; PF also provides network traffic shaping capabilities - packet prioritization, bandwidth control, and TCP/IP conditioning. My original article from 2000 explained how to setup an IP-less bridge on an OpenBSD 2.8 server running IP Filter with dual network interface cards. The bridge filtered traffic at the data link layer and was invisible at the internet protocol level. As you will see, PF, like IP Filter, is very powerful. While I will not be going into how to configure an IP-less bridge, the PF configuration that follows is straightforward and easily adaptable to your configuration.
The article below shows the configuration for an Apache 2.2 server sitting in front of a Zope/Plone instance on a FreeBSD 7 server with PF enabled.
