Thank you very much for that information.
What is slightly more confusing to me is why the order of the definitions in the ipsec.conf file should affect the operation of the links. I am still investigate this and a few other issues relating to the VPNs and I will report back once I have some solid information. Unfortunately, I only get limited time each week to look into these problems.
I am observing what is well documented as a memory leak in charon. I am assuming this will eventually be resolved.
I am observing some strange NAT issues with the VPNs. At this stage I am just working around these problems.
I am investigating a strange issue where VPN tunnels stop passing traffic and then mysteriously start again when a new TCP session opens via the same tunnel.
I am investigating the issue with the order of the IPsec definitions and why this should alter the behaviour of the VPN system as a whole.
As I said, thank you for the response it will be very useful. Also thanks for the work on pfsense - it is a great product. If I can get the IPsec working reliably it will be a perfect product!
Tim