No WAN IP after power outage

NollipfSense

@luddite See what this does, unplug the cable from the modem, reboot the modem, and when the last light (mine has six) becomes stable indicating a connection, plug back the WAN cable in. If you want to reboot pfSense while the cable is out, that's cool...just don't plug in the cable until the modem is as described above.

stephenw10

Check the dhcp logs for dhclient entries with any errors.

That rtsold error is common at boot and should not be an issue.

Steve

luddite

@nollipfsense Thanks for the reply. We had a huge storm and power went out again. Running off a generator.

I did as suggested and the router stops allocating IP's when WAN is disconnected. This results in the LAN being unusable until the WAN is back but also needs the router rebooted once when back. This is all obviously not good.

I want the modem to be able to be off without effecting the LAN and when it comes back on for it to be recognized and internet to work again.

bPsdTZpW

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@nollipfsense Thanks for the reply. We had a huge storm and power went out again. Running off a generator.

I did as suggested and the router stops allocating IP's when WAN is disconnected. This results in the LAN being unusable until the WAN is back but also needs the router rebooted once when back. This is all obviously not good.

I want the modem to be able to be off without effecting the LAN and when it comes back on for it to be recognized and internet to work again.

When you say that the LAN is unusable, do you mean that pfSense doesn't give DHCP leases to LAN clients? That LAN clients can't communicate with each other as they normally do?

stephenw10

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

I want the modem to be able to be off without effecting the LAN and when it comes back on for it to be recognized and internet to work again.

That should be the default behaviour. The fact you can't connect to the gui indicates it was not able to assign the IP to it which is usually because of an IP conflict.

Connect to the console when the WAN is down and you're unable to connect via the LAN.
See what IP addresses are shown on WAN and LAN at that time.

Steve

luddite

@bpsdtzpw thats correct. Once the modem (192.168.1.1) is up then the WAN (192.168.1.2) is active and the LAN (DHCP range 192.168.0.0-254) is allocated fine. Without the modem then no allocation.

bPsdTZpW

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@bpsdtzpw thats correct. Once the modem (192.168.1.1) is up then the WAN (192.168.1.2) is active and the LAN (DHCP range 192.168.0.0-254) is allocated fine. Without the modem then no allocation.

Then your problem is likely to be subnets. Your WAN and LAN appear to share a subnet space. They should be separate. Generally a modem gets an internet-wide address (e.g., not a private address such as 192.168.x.y) [1], while the LAN uses private addresses. Apparently your modem is accessible via a private address on the .1 subnet, so you really should use, say, the .2 subnet for your LAN (192.168.2.x). You set this on the interface page (interfaces/LAN). Make sure not to set an "upstream gateway". You probably will need to make some other adjustments to make the modem's management interface reachable from the .2 subnet.

[1] Though its management interface might be accessible via a private address.

luddite

@bpsdtzpw oh, i think this might be it.

Note: modem has internet IP but its lan range is 192.168.1.x

So 192.168.1.x (.2 for wan) 192.168.0.x (lan) are in the same subnet but 192.168.1.x (wan) 192.168.2.x (lan) are not in the same subnet?

bPsdTZpW

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@bpsdtzpw oh, i think this might be it.

Note: modem has internet IP but its lan range is 192.168.1.x

So 192.168.1.x (.2 for wan) 192.168.0.x (lan) are in the same subnet but 192.168.1.x (wan) 192.168.2.x (lan) are not in the same subnet?

Your modem probably is setup to use 192.168.1.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This collides with addresses handed out by your existing LAN DHCP server. You need to separate the spaces, and use a static route to reach the modem from a 192.168.2.x, subset 255.255.255.0 LAN. To add the static route, use system/routing/static routes, then add an entry with "destination network" = 192.168.1.1/32, "gateway" = whatever your WAN gateway is (yeah, the modem is on the WAN from the point of view of pfSense), and a nice description.

Also remember to make your modem's admin page inaccessible from the internet at large, so as to minimize security issues.

stephenw10

If those are all /24 subnets then you're probably OK.

Please post the actual interface IPs and subnets as shown in Status > Interfaces.

Steve

luddite

@stephenw10

MODEM

MAC Address: 
B0:A7:B9:01:92:26
IP Address: 
192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask: 
255.255.255.0
DHCP: On

WAN Interface (wan, igb0)

Status
up 
DHCP
up     Relinquish Lease
MAC Address
00:1a:8c:46:f4:24 
IPv4 Address
192.168.1.2 
Subnet mask IPv4
255.255.255.0 
Gateway IPv4
192.168.1.1

LAN Interface (lan, igb1)

Status
no carrier 
MAC Address
00:1a:8c:46:f4:25 
IPv4 Address
10.10.10.1 
Subnet mask IPv4
255.255.255.255 
Bridge (bridge0) <- MYSWITCH

MYSWITCH Interface (opt7, bridge0)

Status
up 
MAC Address
02:a9:e1:97:76:00 
IPv4 Address
192.168.0.1 
Subnet mask IPv4
255.255.255.0

NollipfSense

@luddite You modem is a PPPoE device?

luddite

@nollipfsense Yep. VDSL2 with dynamic DHCP from the ISP via ipoe - I can't change that.

Gertjan

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

LAN Interface (lan, igb1)
10.10.10.1

Keep in mind : the day you install pfBlockerNG-devel, you'll have a IP address conflict to deal with.

luddite

@gertjan said in No WAN IP after power outage:

Keep in mind : the day you install pfBlockerNG-devel, you'll have a IP address conflict to deal with.

Thanks- I have pfBlockerNG obviously already :-)

Bob.Dig

@luddite That is not what he has meant...

Gertjan

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

I have pfBlockerNG obviously already :-)

What IP addresses is used by the web server ??
The default is pfBlockerNG web server VIP is 10.10.10.1 ... your LAN also uses 10.10.10.1(/24).
You're good for some network fireworks.

luddite

@gertjan pfBlocker changed that for me.

luddite

This post is deleted!

luddite

@bob-dig said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@luddite That is not what he has meant...

Ah - yes I see. Thanks for pointing that out. I have the non devel version installed and no plans to install the devel version.

@stephenw10 said in No WAN IP after power outage:

If those are all /24 subnets then you're probably OK.

Please post the actual interface IPs and subnets as shown in Status > Interfaces.

Steve

I found that the WAN was /32 and I changed that to /24

@bpsdtzpw said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@luddite said in No WAN IP after power outage:

@bpsdtzpw oh, i think this might be it.

Note: modem has internet IP but its lan range is 192.168.1.x

So 192.168.1.x (.2 for wan) 192.168.0.x (lan) are in the same subnet but 192.168.1.x (wan) 192.168.2.x (lan) are not in the same subnet?

Your modem probably is setup to use 192.168.1.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This collides with addresses handed out by your existing LAN DHCP server. You need to separate the spaces, and use a static route to reach the modem from a 192.168.2.x, subset 255.255.255.0 LAN. To add the static route, use system/routing/static routes, then add an entry with "destination network" = 192.168.1.1/32, "gateway" = whatever your WAN gateway is (yeah, the modem is on the WAN from the point of view of pfSense), and a nice description.

Also remember to make your modem's admin page inaccessible from the internet at large, so as to minimize security issues.

I think this did the trick. I made the WAN IP static and also added the WAN Gateway.

I pulled the plug on the modem and everything runs as per expected. I rebooted the router and it all worked expected. I Uplugged the phone line on the modem and it was all as expected. Amazing. Such a silly oversight that I never would have discovered a fix for without everyone's help.

Thank-you All!!!! Fingers crossed it doesnt have any unexpected side effects ;-)