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    PF Sense Setup

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • T
      TravelMore @jsmiddleton4
      last edited by TravelMore

      @jsmiddleton4 this is the back of my modem/router combo. from what i know it doesn't specify wan or lan.
      6f867118-58e8-4b23-8cc1-2ee883dc8f08-image.png
      it says 1 wan port on the doc but then when you look closer it says:
      WAN ports: 1
      WAN port(s) type: Coax F-connector
      LAN ports: 4

      sooo technically, id take that as it doesn't have a wan port and it just uses the coax as wan and gives you 4 lan ports.

      J NollipfSenseN 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • NollipfSenseN
        NollipfSense @TravelMore
        last edited by

        @travelmore It seems that you're over complicating your setup for a person that's new to pfSense...start simple for now with WAN > public IP, LAN > non-static, DHCP.

        pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
        pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

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        • J
          jsmiddleton4 @TravelMore
          last edited by jsmiddleton4

          @travelmore

          Coax for WAN….

          NOPE. That’s for “out there” WAN.

          You need “in here” WAN port.

          When you go into bridge mode one of those LAN ports is the WAN port.

          Which model modem?

          T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • NollipfSenseN
            NollipfSense @TravelMore
            last edited by

            @travelmore In bridge mode you only need the first and nothing else plug in...every thing else plugs into pfSense.

            pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
            pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • J
              jsmiddleton4 @NollipfSense
              last edited by

              @nollipfsense

              Which is the first? One closest to COAX or closest to USB ports?

              NollipfSenseN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • NollipfSenseN
                NollipfSense @jsmiddleton4
                last edited by NollipfSense

                @jsmiddleton4 yes closest to the cable port.

                pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
                pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • T
                  TravelMore @jsmiddleton4
                  last edited by TravelMore

                  @jsmiddleton4 8e2f871a-865a-420c-8b7e-17fb0921945d-image.png Hitron CGNM (model) 1C:AB:C0:65:6C:A0 (mac) 251164055728 (serial #)

                  J NollipfSenseN 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • J
                    jsmiddleton4 @TravelMore
                    last edited by

                    @travelmore

                    Your’s has wireless?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • NollipfSenseN
                      NollipfSense @TravelMore
                      last edited by

                      @travelmore I had to buy a cable modem on eBay (Motorola 3.0) without the WIFI as all Cox had was as yours, and you have to do the same unless you can find info how to disable it.

                      pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
                      pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • J
                        jsmiddleton4 @TravelMore
                        last edited by jsmiddleton4

                        @travelmore

                        They call it “IP Passthrough”? That’s what your’s says?

                        You select the port that’ll be the Ethernet WAN port. I’m gonna guess LAN port 1 is by the USB ports. 4 by the coax jack.

                        https://support.shaw.ca/t5/internet-articles/ip-passthrough-for-hitron-cgnm-2250/ta-p/6787

                        EDIT: Also if you reset the modem its default IP address I found is 192.168.0.1. People with your modem set up their own router and use the modem as only a modem. Which is what you’re trying to do.

                        T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • T
                          TravelMore @jsmiddleton4
                          last edited by TravelMore

                          @jsmiddleton4 this is what it looks like. I took a video of all the settings so if i ever had to go back and look i had an exact replica aside from a backup file.

                          2160f82b-98e7-4d00-826f-d002f8379a1e-image.png

                          Thank you for that info. I wasnt sure how to set it to be just a modem besides just throwing it in bridge mode. I appreciate your help. I will try this again sometime this week and give updates. hopefully it'll work and i can rely that!

                          J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • J
                            jsmiddleton4 @TravelMore
                            last edited by jsmiddleton4

                            @travelmore

                            You want to enable IP Passthrough and then pick the Ethernet port you want to use for the WAN.

                            Once you know for sure your modem is passing the WAN’s IP information through to your PFSense box, everything else is all PFSense configuration.

                            I have to ask what bridge mode were you setting then? We’re you braiding two Ethernet ports? More commonly called bonding.

                            Also I would consider blasting the drive with a new PFSense install.

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @TravelMore
                              last edited by

                              @travelmore said in PF Sense Setup:

                              @stephenw10 i did try swapping the cables at one point and it didn't make a difference. i cant recall if it made it worse or not i just know it was not progress moving forward when i swapped them lol. (so then i reverted the swap to keep troubleshooting.)

                              I would try it again to be sure.

                              If you can access the pfSense GUI when the laptop is connected to the modem that means the pfSense LAN must also be connected to the modem which is obviously not what you want.
                              It also explains why you see no IP on the WAN as that is in fact connected to your internal switch where no DHCP server exists.
                              Swapping the cables at the pfSense box (reversing the WAN and LAN NICs) should correct that.

                              Steve

                              J T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • J
                                jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10

                                I'm not sure the modem was in IP Pass Through mode. Which means of course no WAN information was being passed to the PFSense box. The modem was "seeing" the PFSense box as a LAN client.

                                johnpozJ T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jsmiddleton4
                                  last edited by johnpoz

                                  @jsmiddleton4 said in PF Sense Setup:

                                  The modem was "seeing" the PFSense box as a LAN client.

                                  Which is not a problem - you can for sure run double nat setup. As long as pfsense wan and lan do not overlap networks.. If your pfsense wan is say 192.168.1/24 - just make pfsense lan 192.168.2/24 or something.

                                  Doesn't matter if pfsense wan gets an IP or doesn't get an IP, or gets an IP and can not go anywhere.. You would still be able to connect to pfsense lan from client on its lan.

                                  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

                                  J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • J
                                    jsmiddleton4 @johnpoz
                                    last edited by

                                    @johnpoz

                                    I understand. He isn't or wasn't trying to setup a double NAT config though.

                                    Go back and set up the modem so its doing just the modem piece, IP Pass through. That's what I was calling bridge mode. Pick the port he wants to be the WAN port.

                                    I'd blast PFSense and start clean.

                                    Then follow the PFSense document step by step for install/setup.

                                    johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jsmiddleton4
                                      last edited by johnpoz

                                      @jsmiddleton4 I would suggest he gets it working in double nat, before messing with any sort of bridge/passthru mode on his modem.

                                      Once he has that working - it its minor to change over to pfsense actually getting a public IP.

                                      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

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                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        If you read back through this thread it seems pretty clear to me that the WAN and LAN were swapped. Everything else is secondary to that, obviously nothing will work as expected in that situation.

                                        the pfSense webgui could not be accessed from the LAN side. It can only be accessed from the WAN side. (using the LAN IP?) The only rational explanation for that is the LAN and WAN are swapped.

                                        Steve

                                        johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • johnpozJ
                                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10 quite true - and agree with you.. My point is before concerning with what IP is on pfsense wan.. I would make sure you can access it from the lan.. What pfsense internet/wan interface is doing or not doing has little to do with being able to access it via lan on initial setup.

                                          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

                                          J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • J
                                            jsmiddleton4 @johnpoz
                                            last edited by

                                            Once he gets the modem configured the way its supposed to be.

                                            johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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