I managed to 'resolve' the issue, by restoring the configuration, do a fresh install and restore the old config. This are the steps I have followed: 1. Download pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.3-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz 2. Unzip and write to USB stick e.g. with a tool like rufus 3. Boot APU board with USB stick 4. Get a prompt using the rescue shell 5. Plugin an addition USB stick (fat32 preformated) – needed as the installer image lets you mount /dev/da1 only read-only 6. Mount partitions (mount /dev/ada0s1a /mnt && mount -t msdosfs /dev/da2s1 /tmp/usbstick) 7. Copy configuration (cp -Rv /mnt/cf/conf /tmp/usbstick) 9. Do a fresh install and assign interfaces 10. Restore configuration via webinterface 11. Check serial settings...

I did reinstall pfBlockerNG-dev yesterday before the reboot. pkg-static update -f Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue... Fetching meta.txz: 100%    944 B  0.9kB/s    00:01 Fetching packagesite.txz: 100%    2 KiB  1.8kB/s    00:01 Processing entries: 100% pfSense-core repository update completed. 8 packages processed. Updating pfSense repository catalogue... Fetching meta.txz: 100%    944 B  0.9kB/s    00:01 Fetching packagesite.txz: 100%  126 KiB 129.5kB/s    00:01 Processing entries: 100% pfSense repository update completed. 469 packages processed. All repositories are up to date. pkg-static upgrade -f pkg Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue... pfSense-core repository is up to date. Updating pfSense repository catalogue... pfSense repository is up to date. All repositories are up to date. Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) The following 1 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked): Installed packages to be REINSTALLED:         pkg-1.10.5 [pfSense] Number of packages to be reinstalled: 1 Proceed with this action? [y/N]: y [1/1] Reinstalling pkg-1.10.5... [1/1] Extracting pkg-1.10.5: 100% You may need to manually remove /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf if it is no longer needed. ls -al /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  46 May 20 11:48 /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf cat /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf ABI=FreeBSD:10:amd64 ALTABI=freebsd:10:x86:64 pkg-static upgrade Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue... pfSense-core repository is up to date. Updating pfSense repository catalogue... pfSense repository is up to date. All repositories are up to date. Checking for upgrades (0 candidates): 100% Processing candidates (0 candidates): 100% Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) Your packages are up to date. I got this in system logs : May 20 11:51:00 pkg-static pkg reinstalled: 1.10.5 -> 1.10.5

Yes the re(4) driver should show that too. Though if the BIOS reads it as the spoofed address I would expect the boot log to reflect that also: [2.4.3-RELEASE][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: dmesg | grep re0 re0: <realtek 8111="" 8168="" b="" c="" cp="" d="" dp="" e="" f="" g="" pcie="" gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0x1000-0x10ff mem 0xf7a00000-0xf7a00fff,0xf7900000-0xf7903fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1 re0: Using 1 MSI-X message re0: ASPM disabled re0: Chip rev. 0x2c000000 re0: MAC rev. 0x00200000 miibus0: <mii bus="">on re0 re0: Using defaults for TSO: 65518/35/2048 re0: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:37:30:10 re0: netmap queues/slots: TX 1/256, RX 1/256</mii></realtek> The rtl8111 chip is vey common (presumably because it's cheap!). There must be something special about your card, or broken. It would be interesting to see the pciconf output showing the actual chip used there. [2.4.3-RELEASE][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: pciconf -lv | grep re0 re0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x012310ec chip=0x816810ec rev=0x06 hdr=0x00 However I'm not sure there's a huge amount we can do here. Steve

@tim.mcmanus: If pfSense is getting an IP address on the WAN interface, the system is on the network.  If it cannot get upstream from there, the issue may be with the next device upstream. pfSense has an IP address and a traceroute fails from pfSense indicates to me that either the DHCP configuration is wrong, or the upstream device is not allow traffic from pfSense. If I add a USB network adapter as the WAN device, it all starts working immediately. I'm thinking it's hardware.

Several switching of branch back and forth helped…

You could have pfSense set up with PIA and then run the Linksys as an access point only. Do a search, there are several guides on how to set that up.

Hmm, you should not have to force the speed/duplex unless the other side is set to fixed. Sounds like you may have some issues with those bge ports. I would start thinking about swapping them out when you can. Better to have a plan in place if any of them fail again. Steve

Thanks, that's what I assumed but nice to have confirmation.

Thank you! I'll bookmark this page and go through those items next time I attempt and upgrade and it fails.  :)

Looks like I spoke too soon. I did some config, couldn't get it working, and then reverted back to a saved config which was working. Rebooted pfsense and modem, and No WAN. I set a static IP on the WAN and gateway. [image: pfsensewan4.jpg] The more I'm setting routes, the more confused I get. It's giving me inconsistent results. I actually reverted once and got it working, ran into this problem below, and reverted back now, and back to this problem. https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=147909.0

No. Use 2.4.x for new features.

Hi, Now you have secured your "can go back in a snap", try a complete fresh install.

Upgrade from what version ? "2.3" as a reply isn't enough, knowing that "2.3" might be a "32 bit" version, and "2.4.x" is "64 bit" only, which means a simple upgrade will not work. A re-install - 5 minutes more work - will be needed. edit : PHP ERROR: Type: 64, File: /etc/inc/config.inc, Line: 51, Message: require_once(): Failed opening required 'Net/IPv6.php' (include_path='.:/etc/inc:/usr/local/www:/usr/local/captiveportal:/usr/local/pkg:/usr/local/www/classes:/usr/local/www/classes/Form'). Is there a method to resolve this and return to the GUI interface Use the quick and clean method : Consider system broken. Enter console, and grab a copy of the config file (it's here : /conf/config.xml ). After that, download a fresh copy of pfSense and re install. As soon as it is up - the GUI will work on LAN, import the config, restart and you're ok.

Generally, we don't want appliances to be directly exposed to the internet for security reasons.  pfSense is great, but it's better to add another layer of protection in case there's some vulnerability discovered some day that lets hackers get into your exposed pfSense.  I do remote access all the time, but I use the built-in OpenVPN to connect to pfSense over the internet, then log into the pfSense web GUI through that.  Slightly more effort but much safer.

@mircolino: I have a pfSense 2.4.3 generation 1 Hyper-V VM running on Windows 2016. Wanted to try to migrate to generation 2 VM. What is the best way to do it? Hyper-V doesn't support USB memory sticks. So I tried copying /config/config.xml from the gen1 VM to a USB hard-drive and added that to the gen2 VM along with the installation DVD/ISO. The installation however fails to find the config.xml file and proceeds to ask me to reinitialize pfSense from scratch. Any other way I can do this? Not super familiar with freebsd. From the installation shell could I mount the HD and copy the config.xml somewhere where it would be found? I wanted to do the same thing, but eventually just went with stephenw10's solution.  During the installation, I just went with the default options.  As soon as I could log into the GUI, I went to Diagnostics > Backup & Restore, and uploaded the config file there.  I believe the end result is the same.

This file /var/log/dmesg.boot Or enter SSH : option 8, and type dmesg I hope you have the time to do so before it reboots.

stephenw10, Thank you very very much indeed. Your assistance solved my problem. Thank you so much.