Hardware

Intermittent WAN packet loss - wcpu?

stephenw10 — Sun, 10 May 2026 18:21:30 GMT

Nothing shown there is unexpected. The idle processes shown as using high CPU are normal. That's what shows as using CPU cycles when nothing else requires them. I assume it was not dropping packets at that time? You should not run Kea on the 3100. There are known upstream bugs in arm32 that affect it. That wouldn't cause packet loss though. You should upgrade. 24.03 is now a very old release.

pfsense appliance crashing after being on for days

stephenw10 — Thu, 07 May 2026 11:31:55 GMT

Exactly how 'frozen' is it? Like the console stops responding? But, yes, you should upgrade anyway.

RTL8126 NIC Speed reduction on 2.8.1 compared to Intel NIC.

stephenw10 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:26:32 GMT

No set timeline for that yet.

WatchGuard XTM 5 – Full Repurpose Guide (BIOS Unlock + OPN/pfSense Working)

chpalmer — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:01:06 GMT

@stephenw10 said in WatchGuard XTM 5 – Full Repurpose Guide (BIOS Unlock + OPNsense Working): Mmm, I assume pfSense also runs fine there. It does for me. As does mine..

7100 to 8200 swap - Success

AndyRH — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 15:17:39 GMT

I swapped my 7100 for a 8200. With help from TAC the config was moved.
For future generations, a WAS-110 (XGS-PON) does work in an 8200. The only problem is the SFP+ ports are upside down, so the heat sink is down instead of up, this makes it tight for a few ports on my switch which the 8200 sits on.

SafeXcel EIP-97 only registering AES-CBC with OCF on SG-2100 (pfSense Plus 24.03)

stephenw10 — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:09:25 GMT

@JonathanLee said in SafeXcel EIP-97 only registering AES-CBC with OCF on SG-2100 (pfSense Plus 24.03): At the 'OK' loader prompt (with pfSense Plus Installer USB plugged in): OK run usbboot That should be at the uboot (Marvell>>) prompt.

NetGate 1537 running latest pfSense - SFP compat?

SEWA_Cty — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:42:27 GMT

@stephenw10 Very cool. Thank you for the assist.

PFSense XG-1540 fails to POST

stephenw10 — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:14:14 GMT

Well you will need at least some RAM. It's unlikely all RAM sticks would fail though. Otherwise you might try a different PSU. Beyond that I'm not sure what else you could do. The Supermicro board manual might have some info on the diagnostic LEDs.

SFP Cat6 insert not recognized (I think)

stephenw10 — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 19:23:44 GMT

It cannot on those CPUs. It's a limitation of the SoC as noted by Intel: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/netgate-6100/io-ports.html#sfp-ethernet-ports If the module defaults to the required rate it can work which is why some module do even though we don't officially support it. I assume you're trying to have it link at 1G and it's failing to link at 10G?

[Solved] Motherboard Replacement and ZFS RAID

mgc6288 — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:07:59 GMT

In answering my own question, I discovered that the continuous # symbols was not a rebuild and so I restarted and checked the bios. I changed from Legacy/UEFI to UEFI and the system restarted without a hitch! A+ pfSense!!!

6100 SFP+ Port negotiation speeds

stephenw10 — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:26:48 GMT

Hmm, I'm not aware of that specifically. Only that the modules will generally run at their 'native speeds only because the rate cannot be set. For most dual speed modules that means 10G but some will select 1G and run fine. The actual restriction as noted by Intel is shown here: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/netgate-6100/io-ports.html#sfp-ethernet-ports

Homelab Firewall Experiencing Odd Behavior Since Converting Back to CE Build

stephenw10 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:18:44 GMT

Yup I'd be amazed if it was anything but soemthing worn and/or blocked in the cooling system.

Build help please - urgent

Waqar.UK — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:01:28 GMT

@stephenw10 Thanks again. I just need it to install pfsense. I will be using a HDMI computer monitor. Then the webgui will take over.

Netgate 4200 freeze and a possible fix

belajasmert — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:47:48 GMT

Just checking in to confirm that everything is still running smoothly without any issues. I did end up setting up additional services like Avahi but all freezes are history.

Sanity Check My New Build

MeCJay12 — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:39:22 GMT

@stephenw10 Whoops! Should be Xeon E-2174G (4c/8t 3.8/4.7GHz)

Verification needed: disabling bypasses on CloudGenix ION 3000

NC1 — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 22:02:03 GMT

OK, complete and total replication. Ran the routine on two more ION 3000 devices, verified the disablement of bypasses by bridging all eight ports on the expansion board into a single network, connecting multiple devices to those ports, and accessing one device from another, including making the remotely accessed device access the Internet. Found a small refinement: you can actually install pfSense on the device (no need to resort to installing on another device), as long as you remember to use the right settings. Anyway, here's the refined procedure: One. Turn off the device (completely, as in, disconnect the power cable) and open up the case (there are four screws holding the top in place, one on each side and two in the back; once you remove the screws, the top slides off). Two. Disconnect the SATA SSD and remove the CF card. Three. Reposition a jumper on the expansion board and do some OpenWrt magic. For details on this step, see my post on the OpenWrt forum: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/report-openwrt-on-cloudgenix-ion-3000/246014 Briefly, you prepare a bootable device with OpenWrt (I used a CF card, but there's no reason you can't use a USB stick), boot the device from it, install three additional packages, make a slight edit to /boot/grub/grub.cfg to configure the disablement of bypasses, reboot the device (which should disable the bypasses), let the boot sequence run, then shut the device down. Four. Remove OpenWrt media, reconnect the SATA SSD, connect a USB stick with pfSense installer, and install pfSense. Remember the settings: UFS file system, entire drive, MS-DOS partitions (the layout suggested by the installer should work). Once the install is complete, shut the device down, disconnect the installer media, and boot the device. It should boot from the SSD, and bypasses should be disabled, so you can assign interfaces and as usual. Remember, the port map is weird: = Expansion board = ====== Onboard controllers ====== igb6 igb7 igb8 igb9 igb10 igb11 igb12 igb13 igb0 igb1 igb2 igb3 igb4 igb5 so by default, the rightmost onboard port (igb1) will be LAN and the one to the left of it (igb0), WAN. Five. To get the little LCD screen working, install lcdproc and configure it to use parallel port (/dev/lpt0) with 2x20 screen size and the Watchguard Firebox with SDEC driver.

Intel X550-T2 Dual Port - RJ-45 10G Low Profile PCIe3.0-x4 CNA

patient0 — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:21:43 GMT

@Waqar.UK the X550 is supported well, yes.

igc interfaces not seeing link when plugged into a 2.5G modem

timbaeten — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 17:54:56 GMT

@stephenw10 It could be a combination of a bad patch cable AND a faulty igc3 port on the 6100. After swapping cables and ports, igc0 sees the LAN and igc1 sees the ISP/WAN. However, switching the working cable from icg1 to igc3, no link is detected. @patient0 my WAN connection is pure DHCP. I'll open a ticket with Netgate. Thanks, Tim

Kernel Panic upgrading from 24.11 to 25.11

jeoff — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:58:11 GMT

@stephenw10 - This is nice. Thank you very much. We will do the upgrade tonight.

Port Speed issue on 25.07.1 and Netgate 4200-S

scruzuser — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 02:00:02 GMT

@stephenw10 My experience (posted above), with the older firmware, showed that even if I set 2500BaseT and other side was auto-negotiate I still had flapping. I still have 1000BaseT set now and it has been stable for months. This is on my WAN side, igc3. LAN side, igc2, is set to auto-negotiate and other side is 1000BaseT and it has been stable since day one. Looks like @workaholiker has proven that with new firmware setting speed to 2500Base-T stops flapping. I also had purchased new 1m Cat6a cables to rule them out.

CPU advice

stephenw10 — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:07:47 GMT

A x4 PCIe 3.0 slot will pass 32Gbps. That shouldn't be a restriction.

High latency to gateway and ISP when multiple switches are connected – possible pfSense overload?

Derelict — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:59:16 GMT

@joy786 said in High latency to gateway and ISP when multiple switches are connected – possible pfSense overload?: What’s strange is that everything becomes stable as soon as I disconnect any one of my access switches. It doesn’t matter which switch I unplug — the problem immediately disappears. Current behavior Ping to pfSense gateway becomes unstable and increases significantly Ping to public IP / first ISP hop also increases pfSense CPU usage goes high during the issue As soon as one switch is disconnected: CPU drops Ping stabilizes This sounds like you are introducing then removing a Layer 2 loop.

pfsense on lanner 7551w

NC1 — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:31:37 GMT

@susamlicubuk The two rightmost pairs of ports have bypasses on them. You need to disable those bypasses. The steps below assume that you have BIOS in factory configuration. If you already made changes, adjust accordingly. Turn off the FW-7551. Set console speed on your computer to 9600 bps and connect your computer to the FW-7551 using its console port. Start the console software on your computer. Turn on the FW-7551. When you see the BIOS prompt asking you to hit Esc or Del, hit Tab. (This is a common occurrence when dealing with BIOS on the console; Tab tends to work best.) Next, enter the password (usually, it's either Kilimanjaro1 or Cheyenne1). This will get you into BIOS. In BIOS, go to Advanced. Under Advanced, select Watchdog mode and set it to Disabled. Next, still under Advanced, select Generation 2 LAN Bypass Configuration. On the screen that appears next, set LAN3-4 Runtime Bypass and LAN5-6 Runtime Bypass to Disabled. As to the two matching System Off Bypass options, you can leave them enabled (so when the device is off, data will pass through it, as if it were a mere keystone) or disable them (so when the device is off, there will be no data traffic through it). Next (optionally), hit Esc to return to Advanced and select Serial Port Console Redirection. On the screen that follows, select Console Redirection Settings. On the screen that follows, select Bits per second and set it to your desired value (since pfSense operates at 115200 bps by default, it makes sense to set BIOS to the same data transfer rate). Hit Esc two or three times to return to the main menu. Then, navigate to Save & Exit and choose Save Changes and Exit. This should do it.

QNAP LAN-10G2T-X550

mvikman — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 18:51:14 GMT

Yes, Windows 11 auto-detected and installed Intel driver for the card. I'll need to do a test install with CE when I can find some extra time...

x540 t2

stephenw10 — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 19:24:14 GMT

Yes I would expect it to link at 10G to that switch.