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

    Port-Forwarding failing for specific IP

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved NAT
    3 Posts 2 Posters 789 Views 2 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.
    • I Offline
      IamLunchbox
      last edited by

      Hello dear network fellows,
      are there specific (local) IP-addresses, which are known not to work with port forwarding? I spent a day troubleshooting port forwarding to an internal e-mail server (ports 25 and so on).

      In the end I ascertained, that forwarding the common e-mail ports would not work with the IP 10.10.30.3 - any answers from this ip were silently dropped by the firewall and no tcp-handshake succeded. When I switched the systems IP to 10.10.30.6 all connectivity succeeded without changing other external parameters, except the nat and firewall rules. Furthermore, port 80 worked fine on 10.10.30.3.

      Is this theoretically a (known) bug in pfsense or could the be another issue with my setup, which could caused this behaviour?

      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S Offline
        SteveITS Rebel Alliance @IamLunchbox
        last edited by

        @iamlunchbox The answers were dropped? That sounds like the forward was working. Was the gateway correct on the mail server?

        Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
        Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • I Offline
          IamLunchbox
          last edited by

          @steveits Ah, yes. Good point. So I guess the corresponding NAT-rule did not work while the forward was fine. I used tcpdump on the proxmox host to find out, that the vserver answered the TCP-SYN, but the pfense did not forward to the corresponding recepient.

          When I edited the port forward and pointed the same port to the different IP, the handshake succeded. I used netcat listeners on both systems and used an otherwise blank system. So, I am at a loss why it worked in one case but not in the other.

          Still, it could be external hypervisor rules. But rest assured, I checked them and they all applied to both IPs due to a /24 subnet.

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