I think this was actually caused by some power issue, maybe a brown out. A server at the site with no UPS was also down, I found out this morning.

I thought this was the latest stable version, but I've just re-checked and noticed there is a newer version available.  I'll have to spend some time and upgrade it within the next couple months.  Thanks for pointing out my out-of-date version, although I'm glad to hear that its fixed in the next stable release.

@Grim0x:

(if that is true, it still leaves the question - why doesnt mkdir work?? - try it).

Please elaborate on "mkdir doesn't work". In the web GUI if you give the command mkdir I wouldn't be surprised if it appeared to do nothing (which isn't the same as "doesn't work") - you haven't told it what directory to create!

It would be helpful if you gave more information along the lines of When I typed … as the command to web GUI menu Diagnostics -> Command  I saw … but I expected to see ...

That's what I did a year ago, I was expecting a better solution this time…

It is not a supported or recommended configuration, but I've installed Postfix on several pfSense boxes with decent success. There's a built-in configuration option (always_bcc) to do what you're looking for, at least for outgoing mail.

@submicron:

What kind of NIC is it?  Do you have traffic shaping turned on?  Do you have device polling or checksum offloading turned on?  If you look at the device status do you see errors?  Dropped packets?

Ok you hit it on the nail - was traffic shaping.  What I do not get is why does it affect Firewall -> LAN transfers?  All my queues refer to WAN <-> LAN interactions.

Thanks!

I will try that!!!

Post relocated to http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,17568.msg90888.html#msg90888

@thenewguy1979:

Hey bud I have the same problem here. With modem direct to PC connection I can sustain a 16mbit download speed with any slowdown or throttling as you mentioned.

After setting up a pfsense unit with everything default like you're my download speed is only half at 4mbit and constantly goes up and down by itself.

Testing is also by newgroup server.

For example before with direct modem to PC I can fully sustain 16mbit download with only 4 active connection. Now I can only get 8mbit with the same 4 connection.

I later found if I enable 8 active connection my speed would then be a full 16mbit. It seem like Pfsense by default is capping a single download connection to perhaps 2mbit max?  Perhaps there is a setting somewhere we can change this?

I recommend you try syro's advice and at least test checking "Disable Hardware Checksum Offloading". After checking this feature thereby disabling it and doing a reboot my dl stream is significantly less volatile. I also installed new cat5e cables and ordered new intel nics.

@syro:

is hw checksum offloading currently in use? (nic related and can be found in top menu under system -> advanced setup)

Always.

Search result is picky about input naturally and it's not always easy to know what key words have been mostly used in threads dealing with your specific problem (which you may or may not know since you may only see symptoms and your guesses as to whatr causes it may be incorrect and hence you use and search for the incorrect keywords) and what exact combination of words will yield that output with the truth…

Search for torrent and states only yields 2 pages of hits and not many seems closely relevant at first glance.

I previously only found one post that seemed 100% relevant (and have forgotten the search keyword to find it).

Thanx for your constructive reply.

@GruensFroeschli:

Currently you can run the traffic shaper only on 2 interfaces.

No workaround.

There was a bounty that lead to the addition of said new shaper.
If i remember correctly everyone commiting to the bounty back then was provided with a howto to get the new shaper running on the current version.
Not sure if you could get that if you donate some money to the developer of the new shaper (ermal).

Where to start for other distros?
Not sure actually.
How much are you willing to pay?

Try the test without the switches, i.e., just use crossover cables:

test machine   
                  ¦
                  ¦
              pfSense
                  ¦
                  ¦         
          test machine