Well, I got the last bit I wanted to work - I can now get into my 172.16.1.0/24 network :)
How? I found this blog post: https://networkguy.de/?p=409
I based a static route on my Netgear router (Attach 1) on his 2nd picture with the "route -p" command listed at the bottom of the
picture, mapping his numbers to approximately what I have in place on my network.
Basically: I made a static route to the destination network (172.16.1.0/24), through the WAN IP of that pfSense router (192.168.1.101).
The asymmetric routing is still there, but only in specific connections:
The pfSense router (172.16.1.1) Ping Redirects the router and any computers in 10.0.0.0/24, but pings the entire 192.168.1.0/24 normally.
VMs behind that router ping everything normally, including the 10.0.0.0/24.
My iMac (192.168.1.5) has a Redirect Host to both subnets (10.0.0.0/24 and 172.16.1.0/24)
My other pfSense router (10.0.0.1) Ping Redirects anything in 172.16.1.0/24 network.
It also Ping Redirects any computers in 192.168.1.0/24, BUT it pings the router (192.168.1.1) normally.
Any machines behind this router ping both of the other networks (172.16.1.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24) normally.
Again, my current router has no option for an additional interface (off the shelf model), but even with redirects, I managed to get everything to communicate,
so that's definitely something to be happy about - just in time for class to start tomorrow night as well, so I'll be able to do plenty of network testing.
Any thoughts about the weird redirects couldn't hurt - how can your router/gateway ping redirect to an entire network (first example), but all the machines behind it can ping that same network normally?
Weird.
Anyway, hope this can help someone, and thanks to everyone who helped me along to finally getting my stuff working (if not 100% cleanly.)
-Bryan
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