pfsense, google wifi and port forwarding

steven81

Hello and good afternoon. New user and first time member here. I am writing this hoping for some help as I believe I have followed all the directions properly but still no joy.
I have my ISP modem > pfSense > Google Mesh WiFi > Smart Switch.
Switch then feeds a hardline connection to another Google Mesh unit on the other side of the house. I have a device I am trying to put online, but it needs a specific port forwarded to it.

I believe the physical setup is proper as everything has a connection and I am able to have a Google Mesh provided IP on my laptop and am able to access the pfSense dashboard and interact with it.

I created a port forward following the instructions of a few videos that all lined up together but when I check to see if the port is open, no joy.

Any assistance with this is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance
Steven

johnpoz

@steven81 doesn't google mesh actually do nat itself? That could be problematic, you would have to make sure google thing is also doing port forward.

steven81

@johnpoz I do have the port forward setup in the google settings. but when I check the port is still closed.

johnpoz

@steven81 not how it would work if your google thing is doing nat, the IP address you would have to forward to would be the IP address of google thing wan in your pfsense local network..

You shouldn't be using the same network on pfsense lan as what is behind your google thing either..

so like

internet -- publicIP -- pfsense -- 192.168.1.0/24 --- googlething --- 192.168.86/24

So in pfsense you would forward to the google things 192.168.1.x address, and then in google you would forward to the 192.168.86.x address.

steven81

@johnpoz

mine is internet -- publicIP -- pfsense -- 10.40.##.## the thing on the google network is the 192.168.86.38.

Screenshot 2023-03-13 170504.jpg
like this?

johnpoz

@steven81 well then in pfsense you would forward to whatever the googlethings wan IP is in this 10.40.x.x network, then in your google thing you would forward to the 192.168.86.38 address..

And can tell you right now the use of source port is WRONG.. Source port should pretty much ALWAYS be any.. Unless you have specific app that uses a specific source port, you have no idea what will be - its going to be something above 1024 and 65k

steven81

@johnpoz updated settings to match what you said and still no joy.

johnpoz

@steven81 well then go through the troubleshooting guide.

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/nat-port-forwards.html#troubleshooting-nat-port-forwards

Did you remove the source Port - that for sure is wrong.

Go to can you see me . org, send traffic to your public IP of pfsense, sniff on pfsense (packet capture) do you see the traffic hit your wan.. Do you see pfsense send it on?

I don't have a googlething to play with.. But for example forwarding that port to box on my lan.. (lets say 192.168.9.100 is your googlething wan IP)..

I send traffic from can you see me, sniffing on wan I see that traffic hit my wan public IP, sniffing on lan side of pfsense I see it send that traffic on to my 192.168.9.100 IP.

Pfsense did what I told it too - pfsense can not forward what it doesn't see on its wan, so make sure the traffic hits your wan.. Pfsense then sends it to what I told it too, pfsense has no control over if that thing is listening and answers, or its another router and send the traffic somewhere else, etc..

But from the pfsense side, validating its wan sees the traffic and sends it on should take you no more than couple of minutes.

Do you have any rules on say floating that could block the traffic, or something on your wan interface that could.. See how my wan has a rule that allows it, and nothing above that would block said traffic.

steven81

ok. so I removed the google from the scenario.

now it is setup as ISP Modem > pfsense > smart switch (hotspot)
Smart switch then goes to a standard switch where the google is located

Since it has never been online. I did a hotspot reset.
It turned white for awhile, rebooted and now is that yellow/green.

The hotspot is pulling a 10.40.20.12
I believe the port forward is set proper.
Still getting the OTA error
DHCP leases.jpg port forward.jpg

also, when in the web UI and I click on Explorer, it gives this:
helium explorer error.jpg

johnpoz

@steven81 said in pfsense, google wifi and port forwarding:

The hotspot is pulling a 10.40.20.12

And did do the 2 minute test I showed you exactly how to do? Or any of the steps in the troubleshooting guide I linked to?

What are you firewall rules? Do you have rules on floating tab?

Are you doing any outbound filtering from the network help on the helium site it says to make sure the outbound is open as well, your not filtering any outbound traffic are you, or sending your traffic out a vpn?

steven81

@johnpoz when I pull up the packet capture and start it then go to canyouseeme and run the check.. the packet capture shows 0 information.
firewall rules.jpg

no floating rules.

outbound

I do not have a VPN setup or enabled at this time

when I go to the web ui and click on speed test. i get a result:
{
"DownloadSpeed": "17 Mbit/s",
"UploadSpeed": "18 Mbit/s",
"Latency": "78.457903ms"
}
redirect to helium api = {"error":"Not Found"}

johnpoz

@steven81 said in pfsense, google wifi and port forwarding:

the packet capture shows 0 information.

Well then how can pfsense forward traffic if it never sees any traffic to forward?

steven81

@johnpoz and thus part of my issue.
the hotspot appears online, has an ip but not started/connected.

this is my first physical hardware appliance. I have a decent understanding of networking. I feel like I am missing something stupidly simple and I am just overlooking something.

If my connections run ISP Modem > pfsense > switch.. how can pfsense not see ANY traffic if everything is going through it?

johnpoz

@steven81 not sure what part your not understanding there is zero anything you can do on pfSense if the internet sends you traffic on port x to your ip and you don’t get it then something is blocking it up stream

Or your not sending to your ip - you behind a proxy? Your client use to access can you see me is using a vpn??

If you have the correct ip in can you see me and send traffic and pfsense never sees that traffic it is impossible to forward nothing

Can you eat a pizza you order if you never get the pizza?

Did you give them the correct address when you ordered? Maybe he got in accident on way to your house - if the case nothing you can do, you can’t eat a pizza that never gets there

steven81

@johnpoz I appreciate the help. according to the discord, current info is that the port forwarding is no longer needed. the issues I am having, is I am simply having to wait for the OTA updates to bring me to current.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

johnpoz

@steven81 said in pfsense, google wifi and port forwarding:

current info is that the port forwarding is no longer needed.

And what does that have to do with you sending traffic from can you see me and not getting it?? You either sent it to wrong IP, but they no what IP you are talking to the website for. So either vpn or proxy so they have wrong IP, or there is something blocking traffic to your IP upstream of pfsense.. Or you just not sniffing correctly?

Either way I would figure it out - what about the next thing you need to setup a port forward for?