2026-09-07 01:08 UTC
I finally got my backup router VM all set up and it's pretty magical. I can reboot my main server for updates and my home network doesn't drop any all anymore.
I basically set up a FreeBSD VM on a secondary mini PC (which runs linux for gpu reasons) and I set up pfsync and carp plus an extra switch to do garp manually on the wan side (because I can't use carp there, you need 3 WAN IPs for that).
FreeBSD is so cool having all this fancy stuff. I really like the pf syntax too.
Replies (1)
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@ask@infosec.exchange 2026-09-07 01:28
There's a fun story I learned about VRRP vs CARP which are two different protocols that do the same thing to share an IP between two computers. I learned because they use the same port number and I got curious. Initially VRRP was the only way and it was patented even though they got the port reserved. Then the OpenBSD developers countered this by slapping on authentication to the protocol to say theirs is new and different so the patent doesn't apply. So now FreeBSD carries on the BSD legacy and uses CARP for redundant routers.