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    Problems between iphone and dhcp?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      So during the failure you are still able to ping pfSense from other devices?

      If pfSense itself stops responding then it does sounds like know pf reload issue:
      https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/12827

      Steve

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        edpbettinelli @stephenw10
        last edited by

        @stephenw10 I confirm that with all other devices except iphone pfsense does not lose a ping. it seems like some strange management of wifi by apple

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

          @edpbettinelli ok on my iphone.. Pinging pfsense IP on that vlan.

          Restart unbound, reload firewall filters, restarted dhcp, etc..

          Not a ping lost

          PNG image.png

          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

            Mmm, there's really no reason the iphone should react at all to dhcpd restarting.

            Can we see your test results so we know exactly what you're seeing?

            Steve

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10 said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

              there's really no reason the iphone should react at all to dhcpd restarting.

              exactly - the only thing I could see having any possible effect at all is a reload of the firewall rules.. if that got hung up then maybe ok, but states are not flushed on a reload, I don't think that is a default setting - mine don't flush the states, etc..

              So if you started a ping just as the firewall rules were reloading I could see maybe an issue?

              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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                edpbettinelli @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz Last night I tried from home in vpn to reload the rules I am attaching the ping screen to pfsense.
                vpn.JPG
                vlandati.JPG
                sorvegl.JPG
                There was an iphone connected which never lost the ping during all my tests (the ping, however, was from my pc in vpn to the iphone).
                This morning I tried to activate a dhcp on a test vlan and my iphone crashed as usual,
                while the rest of the devices had no problems (same behavior of the attached snap).
                I forgot the iPhones are managed by a mdm in the cloud.
                Other tests I will be able to do only when the company is stopped.
                Do you have tests to recommend to me to get more data to find the cause of the problem?
                Thank you very much for your support, I will keep you updated on the developments.
                Luca Bottini

                stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @edpbettinelli
                  last edited by

                  @edpbettinelli said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                  my iphone crashed

                  I assume you mean it was unable to connect out via WIFI?

                  It didn't actually crash?

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                    edpbettinelli @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                    I assume you mean it was unable to connect out via WIFI?
                    It didn't actually crash?

                    I mean that the iphone has lost the connection to the pfsense for the usual minute.
                    After that everything goes back to normal even on iPhones

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      How exactly are you seeing this on the iphone?

                      You are running a ping?

                      You can't connect to the webgui?

                      Can't pull a new IP?

                      I have a phone connected via wifi to pfSense here but unless I was actively testing I wouldn't notice if it got disconnected for 1min.

                      Even if dhcp failed completely any client should just continue to use it's existing IP until the lease expires.

                      Is the iphone pulling a very short dhcp lease? Like 1min?

                      Steve

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                        edpbettinelli @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10
                        I launch an extended ping to pfsense from the iphone no problem, I do an apply on dhcp vlan test activation and the ping stops responding (between 50 and 60 lost pings)
                        The phone can only communicate with devices on the same vlan, no internet, no GUI,no routing to other vlan. When the iphone loses the ping client just continue to use existing ip.
                        Default lease time on this VLAN 7 days.

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                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
                          last edited by johnpoz

                          @stephenw10 said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                          Is the iphone pulling a very short dhcp lease? Like 1min?

                          Yeah the only thing that would make sense on dhcp issue like that is lease time crazy crazy low!! I mean insane low!!

                          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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                            edpbettinelli @johnpoz
                            last edited by

                            @johnpoz said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                            Yeah the only thing that would make sense on dhcp issue like that is lease time crazy crazy low!! I mean insane low!!

                            I don't know the details of how iPhones manage dhcp.. Sniffing with wireshark ?

                            GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Try running a packet capture on pfSense for the pings during the outage.

                              Are the pings arriving?

                              Are the replies going back to the correct MAC?

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                                edpbettinelli @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                                Try running a packet capture on pfSense for the pings during the outage.
                                Are the pings arriving?
                                Are the replies going back to the correct MAC?

                                As soon as I find the time since these tests cause voice problems in the company I try to do everything and let you know. Thanks a lot for the moment.
                                Luca

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                                • GertjanG
                                  Gertjan @edpbettinelli
                                  last edited by Gertjan

                                  @edpbettinelli said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                                  I don't know the details of how iPhones manage dhcp

                                  Look in the pfSense log for details.
                                  Look at the dhcp leases file (the file the DHCP uses to store all the leases it gave away to devices)
                                  On the apple.com site, the 'dev' part, there are tools to be downloaded to can detail much more a what can be seen in the apple phone GUI.
                                  Is this iOS 14.6 ?

                                  This is the lease duration as the DHCP server registered my "192.168.2.222" iPhone lease :

                                  lease 192.168.2.222 {
                                    starts 4 2022/03/17 15:52:06;
                                    ends 4 2022/03/17 21:52:06;
                                  ......
                                  

                                  This doesn't mean the DHCP client on the iPhone side will respect this delay.

                                  So, in theory, my iPhone will renew the lease after 3 hours.
                                  But most probably I will walk out of the Wifi covered zone, walk back into it, so the DHCP client will kick in again, and most probably ask a new lease, etc etc.

                                  Btw ; I've read here that there are VLANs in play.
                                  There is another factor, not mentioned because we can't see, smell or hear it :what about the AP used ? These devices are not all equal. What about the equality of the radio waves ? Other radio devices near by ? Is there a micro wave close by that blast out of orbit the frequency range from 0 to 5 Ghz ??

                                  I've been using iStuff from day one, on good AP's and plain crap ones. Very rare that I even suspected that the Apple stuff was doing things wrong. And if so, an Apple update took care of things.
                                  Right know, I"m using iOS 14.x 6 ? (as since this morning) : no issues known to me.

                                  No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                  Edit : and where are the logs ??

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                                    edpbettinelli @Gertjan
                                    last edited by

                                    @gertjan
                                    I'm trying to create a small factory to be able to test without impacting the company. Soon the wifi bubble created by 60 old AP extreme will be replaced with 50 AP Aruba. I will try factory testing using both an Aruba AP and an old extreme to evaluate any differences. Maybe so I'll have a little clearer ideas. A thousand thanks
                                    Luca

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Yeah, the iphones could still be requesting a very short lease time. Check the logs to see what they are actually being given.

                                      Steve

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                                        edpbettinelli @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10
                                        Hi guys update..
                                        i have implemented a small lab with a switch an ap and the same pfsense 2440 model with the same rules. After going through all the operations (dhcp restart, reservation, resolver restart) that could give me the problem, my iphone never lost a ping.
                                        At the level of the production FW I noticed that there was a problem on the pfsense ntp in the release of the lease time and after fixing this thing the problem seems to have changed, the disconnection from pfsense is much shorter and above all it affects only some phones apparently random.
                                        Occurred on multiple simultaneous voip calls only a couple of people lost the ping and consequently the call with pfsense. I am a little confused.
                                        I was able with packet capture to take a snapshot of when the problem occurs. attached
                                        error_fonia2.cap error_fonia.cap

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

                                          @edpbettinelli ok a quick look at those - and 2 things jump out at me as odd.

                                          You keep trying to talk to this

                                          ;; QUESTION SECTION:
                                          ;35.231.241.80.in-addr.arpa.    IN      PTR
                                          
                                          ;; ANSWER SECTION:
                                          35.231.241.80.in-addr.arpa. 38400 IN    PTR     mx1.ot-mail.it.
                                          

                                          on port 443, sending lots of syn - but never see a syn,ack back

                                          Other thing this is odd - is why I assume pfsense 10.135.0.1 keeps arping for 10.135.0.146 - but never sees a response. But when .146 arps for .1 - you get a response.

                                          So you can see here - you get a ping request, but no response - .1 arping for .146... But then after .146 arps for 1 and gets a response your pings get replies..

                                          arp.jpg

                                          I also see bunch of dns queries to 8888 and 1111 but never see any responses.. Are you blocking dns to them?

                                          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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                                            edpbettinelli @johnpoz
                                            last edited by

                                            @johnpoz said in Problems between iphone and dhcp?:

                                            So you can see here - you get a ping request, but no response - .1 arping for .146... But then after .146 arps for 1 and gets a response your pings get replies..

                                            This is the picture of my problem.
                                            ot-mail (ip 80.241.231.35). is the company's mail server and 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 the dns assigned by dhcp are obviously not blocked. at that moment pfsense does not respond to the iphone, then as you can see without doing anything the connectivity restores the ping replies arrive the dns replies etc .

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