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    pfSense can ping ISP gateway but not connect to internet

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • J
      Jarhead @DominikHoffmann
      last edited by

      @dominikhoffmann
      If the pc can work then the modem has that MAC in is address table.
      Plug the router into the modem and power cycle the modem.

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      • NollipfSenseN
        NollipfSense @DominikHoffmann
        last edited by

        @dominikhoffmann said in pfSense can ping ISP gateway but not connect to internet:

        I am using the ISP’s DNS servers:

        Just to confirm whether pfSense is configured to use ISP's DNS?

        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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        • D
          DominikHoffmann @Jarhead
          last edited by

          @jarhead: I had done that multiple times, every time I tried something different. That was not the issue.

          I had realized that changing devices on the LAN side of the modem required a restart of the modem. Why does it have to take that long to re-establish the connection with cable-based service?

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          • D
            DominikHoffmann @NollipfSense
            last edited by

            @nollipfsense: A reverse lookup of 209.18.47.61 results in dns-cac-lb-01.rr.com, and 209.18.47.62 brings up dns-cac-lb-02.rr.com.

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            • S
              SteveITS Galactic Empire @DominikHoffmann
              last edited by

              @dominikhoffmann said in pfSense can ping ISP gateway but not connect to internet:

              I had realized that changing devices on the LAN side of the modem required a restart of the modem. Why does it have to take that long to re-establish the connection with cable-based service?

              Some tie one MAC address to the account and disallow others. Restarting is generally a fast way to clear it. Alternatively MAC spoofing often works.

              I had a situation recently where the data center forgot to allow outbound routing even though they configured inbound. (On a second public subnet). It could ping the gateway but a traceroute out further returned no response from the gateway.

              Pre-2.7.2/23.09: 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 restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
              Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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              • D
                DominikHoffmann @SteveITS
                last edited by

                @steveits said in pfSense can ping ISP gateway but not connect to internet:

                Some tie one MAC address to the account and disallow others. Restarting is generally a fast way to clear it. Alternatively MAC spoofing often works.

                I tried that, to no avail.

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  If pfSense can ping it's gateway and that gateway is some upstream public IP then it's nothing to do with the modem or MAC addresses.
                  If it was a DNS issue then pfSense could still ping, say, 8.8.8.8.

                  Did you check for a correct default route as I suggested?

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                  • D
                    DominikHoffmann @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10: I can’t physically get to it until tomorrow. I wish, I could check on that remotely, but then I wouldn’t have this problem, because the gateway would already be online.

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                    • D
                      DominikHoffmann @stephenw10
                      last edited by DominikHoffmann

                      @stephenw10: The gateway configuration was the issue.

                      In System → Routing → Gateways I had this
                      Screenshot 2023-01-30 at 1.14.02 PM.png

                      When I changed the setting to this
                      Screenshot 2023-01-30 at 1.14.19 PM.png
                      it started working immediately. How could I have been thinking that “Automatic” would automatically select the correct gateway.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        It normally would, it may have lost it for some reason. Did you check Diag > Routes?

                        Setting anything there re-creates the default route even if you had just resaved that page without making any changes.

                        Steve

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                        • D
                          DominikHoffmann @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10: I admit, I didn’t pursue it any further, after setting it explicitly it started working. This is what it shows now:

                          Screenshot 2023-01-31 at 12.07.33 AM.png

                          … and I honestly don’t at all know, what I can diagnose from that information.

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            You can see it has a default route at the top of the table and I would guess that it would would not have shown that before. It might show in logs still but it probably won't tell you anything.
                            If it happens again check the routing table before making any gateway changes. I doubt it will though.

                            Steve

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                            • F
                              frankb101 @DominikHoffmann
                              last edited by

                              @DominikHoffmann Thank you!

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