Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    IP Network alias block all but one

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Firewalling
    18 Posts 3 Posters 1.7k Views 4 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • M Offline
      mer @johnpoz
      last edited by mer

      @johnpoz Yep. That's why I added my version info. I'm assuming you tried it on a newer version.

      If I don't put the pass rule in, but manually do:
      pfctl -t rfc1918 -T add "!192.168.100.1"

      to say "not that address" it works fine. Of course the GUI won't let me say "not this host" when defining a network alias.

      ETA:
      Ahh I didn't look for the reply-to in the advanced. That corrects the problem, but begs the question "should it have been added by default?". Not sure of the answer to that.

      Thanks for poking at it.

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ Offline
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
        last edited by johnpoz

        @mer something odd with the reply to thing.. I toggled this in the allow 100.1 rule to get rid of it..

        replyto.jpg

        Which kind of makes sense since how does that rule know your using a vip.. So another odd thing to be aware of when using vips.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

        M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • M Offline
          mer @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz Just verified that corrects it for me also.
          Hmm. Now dig back into my pf books and see what reply-to actually does. Perhaps on "out" rules it shouldn't be there.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M Offline
            mer
            last edited by

            So refreshing my understanding of reply-to I think that if a floating rule is defined for direction "out" (not any or in), the reply-to should be disabled by default.
            If the rule is "in" or any, it should be defined. Which is the exact opposite of the current behavior, so POLA :)

            Anyway, I'm satisfied with getting it figured out, hopefully this all helps others.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M Offline
              mer @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz
              Just to make sure I'm understanding acronyms, "vip" virtual IP, aka an alias on the WAN interface? Basically gives you an explict route for the 192.168.100.0/24? I don't have that configured, I'm just letting the default route out the WAN take care of if.
              But I see the advantage of configuring pfSense that way.

              Thanks.

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ Offline
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
                last edited by johnpoz

                How are you talking to 192.168.100.1 if you don't have an address on the 192.168.100 network?

                While yes it "can" work with cable modems - it really shouldn't ;)

                Your wan is say 72.52.47.103 some public IP -- and while on the same L2, it shouldn't be able to talk to 192.168.100.1 without sending that to its gateway. Which sure runs through your cable modem to get to the gateway....

                So you create a virtual IP on the wan interface to be on the 192.168.100 network, etc and then nat your lan side network to that 192.168.100.2 address.. Now all is right with the world ;) 2 devices on the same L3 talking to each other over their common L2 network ;)

                https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/modem-access.html

                Many cable modems will work with the different L3 networks talking to each other because they are on the same L2 network, but really not "proper" ;) which is why create a vip.. And pfsense has to send traffic out its connected interface to get to this 192.168.100 address that it doesn't know about, etc.

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • M Offline
                  mer @johnpoz
                  last edited by

                  @johnpoz
                  WAN of pfSense is connected directly to the cable modem, on pfSense the default route is out WAN to ISP gateway somewhere beyond the cable modem. So I'm assuming the packet with the dest addr of 192.168.100.1 is going out default route, and the cable modem swallows it without sending it on.
                  consoled to pfSense, shell, ping 192.168.100.1, something responds to the ping.
                  I know when I browse to that IP I am getting my cable modem, so I guess it's just network magic happening.

                  Anyway, thanks for the help figuring out and I'll look at the VIP stuff.

                  johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ Offline
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
                    last edited by johnpoz

                    @mer yeah agreed with many cable modems it can and does work without the vip, but it really from normal network point of view it "shouldn't" ;)

                    It can and does because the cable modem responds.. And yes pfsense has to send the traffic to the cable modem to get to this 192.168.100.1 IP because that is its default route to get to some IP it doesn't know about.

                    To make it be more "proper" creating a vip that puts this interface on the same L3 your wanting to talk to makes it fit nicer into how networks are suppose to work ;)

                    What if for example your cable connection via your cable modem was not the default gateway? Then pfsense wouldn't know where this 192.168.100 network was - and would send the traffic out its default gateway. Ie if you had more than 1 wan connection for example.

                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                    M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • M Offline
                      mer @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz Yep, having it properly setup is better in the long run than just having it work by magic.

                      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • johnpozJ Offline
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
                        last edited by

                        @mer said in IP Network alias block all but one:

                        than just having it work by magic.

                        hehehe - not sure I would call it magic, but yeah I personally like to see it setup so it makes more logical sense..

                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • M Offline
                          mer @johnpoz
                          last edited by

                          @johnpoz Just a quick note, I was able to get the VIP stuff set up and working. Took a little bit to get the right pieces, but it worked pretty much as advertised in the doc you linked. Thanks

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • First post
                            Last post
                          Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.