Eben Pagan Program Updated May 2026
This paper addresses a central question: We posit it is both. Its depth creates genuine skill transfer, but its structure is deliberately recursive, ensuring the student remains within Pagan’s ecosystem to master each level. 2. The Four-Part Architecture of the Program Pagan’s signature didactic model breaks down into four non-linear quadrants:
| Quadrant | Function | Key Pagan Concept | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Cognitive priming | “Reality tunnel,” “State management” | | Strategy | Market selection | “Blue ocean of one,” “Avatar identification” | | Tactics | Execution mechanics | “Swipe files,” “Direct response loops” | | Leverage | Scaling & systems | “Virtual teams,” “Automated funnels” | eben pagan program
The Pagan program is more practical for solopreneurs but less robust for systemic understanding. It teaches how to sell a PDF course but not why certain markets collapse under regulatory pressure. 7. Conclusion: The Paradox of Depth The Eben Pagan program is a genuine contribution to adult entrepreneurial education—not because its tactics are novel (direct response marketing predates Pagan), but because its pedagogical form matches its content . It is a system about systems, a meta-curriculum on attention that demands the student’s attention. This paper addresses a central question: We posit it is both
Rather than a simple review, this paper examines Pagan’s work as a case study in the , analyzing its structure, underlying psychological models, and place within the “digital gurus” industry. Title: The Architect of Attention: Deconstructing the Eben Pagan Program as a Meta-Learning System for Digital Entrepreneurs Abstract: Eben Pagan occupies a unique niche in the information marketing industry—distinct from pure motivational speakers (Tony Robbins) or tactical SEO gurus. His programs, notably Wake Up Productive and The Virtual Event Blueprint , function not as simple “how-to” guides but as meta-cognitive frameworks. This paper argues that the Pagan program is a closed-loop pedagogical system designed to remediate what Pagan terms “reality tunnels” in the aspiring entrepreneur. Through a critical analysis of his four core modules (Mindset, Strategy, Tactics, Leverage), we identify Pagan’s core innovation: the commodification of attention management as the primary bottleneck to wealth. We conclude that while pragmatically effective for a niche audience, the program inadvertently reinforces a hyper-individualistic, zero-sum epistemology of business. 1. Introduction: The Pagan Problem Unlike many “get rich quick” products, an Eben Pagan program is notoriously dense. A typical course contains 40+ hours of video, workbooks, and “implementation guides.” Pagan’s persona is that of the analytical systems-builder —he references cybernetics, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), direct response marketing, and developmental psychology within the same hour. Conclusion: The Paradox of Depth The Eben Pagan
This article is a work in progress and will continue to receive ongoing updates and improvements. It’s essentially a collection of notes being assembled. I hope it’s useful to those interested in getting the most out of pfSense.
pfSense has been pure joy learning and configuring for the for past 2 months. It’s protecting all my Linux stuff, and FreeBSD is a close neighbor to Linux.
I plan on comparing OPNsense next. Stay tuned!
Update: June 13th 2025
Diagnostics > Packet Capture
I kept running into a problem where the NordVPN app on my phone refused to connect whenever I was on VLAN 1, the main Wi-Fi SSID/network. Auto-connect spun forever, and a manual tap on Connect did the same.
Rather than guess which rule was guilty or missing, I turned to Diagnostics > Packet Capture in pfSense.
1 — Set up a focused capture
Set the following:
192.168.1.105(my iPhone’s IP address)2 — Stop after 5-10 seconds
That short window is enough to grab the initial handshake. Hit Stop and view or download the capture.
3 — Spot the blocked flow
Opening the file in Wireshark or in this case just scrolling through the plain-text dump showed repeats like:
UDP 51820 is NordLynx/WireGuard’s default port. Every packet was leaving, none were returning. A clear sign the firewall was dropping them.
4 — Create an allow rule
On VLAN 1 I added one outbound pass rule:
The moment the rule went live, NordVPN connected instantly.
Packet Capture is often treated as a heavy-weight troubleshooting tool, but it’s perfect for quick wins like this: isolate one device, capture a short burst, and let the traffic itself tell you which port or host is being blocked.
Update: June 15th 2025
Keeping Suricata lean on a lightly-used secondary WAN
When you bind Suricata to a WAN that only has one or two forwarded ports, loading the full rule corpus is overkill. All unsolicited traffic is already dropped by pfSense’s default WAN policy (and pfBlockerNG also does a sweep at the IP layer), so Suricata’s job is simply to watch the flows you intentionally allow.
That means you enable only the categories that can realistically match those ports, and nothing else.
Here’s what that looks like on my backup interface (
WAN2):The ticked boxes in the screenshot boil down to two small groups:
app-layer-events,decoder-events,http-events,http2-events, andstream-events. These Suricata needs to parse HTTP/S traffic cleanly.emerging-botcc.portgrouped,emerging-botcc,emerging-current_events,emerging-exploit,emerging-exploit_kit,emerging-info,emerging-ja3,emerging-malware,emerging-misc,emerging-threatview_CS_c2,emerging-web_server, andemerging-web_specific_apps.Everything else—mail, VoIP, SCADA, games, shell-code heuristics, and the heavier protocol families, stays unchecked.
The result is a ruleset that compiles in seconds, uses a fraction of the RAM, and only fires when something interesting reaches the ports I’ve purposefully exposed (but restricted by alias list of IPs).
That’s this keeps the fail-over WAN monitoring useful without drowning in alerts or wasting CPU by overlapping with pfSense default blocks.
Update: June 18th 2025
I added a new pfSense package called Status Traffic Totals:
Update: October 7th 2025
Upgraded to pfSense 2.8.1:
Fantastic article @hydn !
Over the years, the RFC 1918 (private addressing) egress configuration had me confused. I think part of the problem is that my ISP likes to send me a modem one year and a combo modem/router the next year…making this setting interesting.
I see that Netgate has finally published a good explanation and guidance for RFC 1918 egress filtering:
I did not notice that addition, thanks for sharing!