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

    PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    16 Posts 3 Posters 1.3k Views
    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.
    • O
      Operations @johnpoz
      last edited by Operations

      @johnpoz i can tell you a 100% sure it is not :p

      Switching van Aliases/Ports to Rules takes me 42 seconds.
      Just another example.

      johnpozJ S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Operations
        last edited by

        @operations there shouldn't be any delay there..

        switching between interfaces and or types of alias should really be instant..

        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 2.7.2, 24.11

        O 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • O
          Operations @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

          @operations there shouldn't be any delay there..

          switching between interfaces and or types of alias should really be instant..

          Yes i sort of figured that. I have one more PfSense different location and that one is way faster.

          So where do i find / troubleshoot this problem?

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

            @operations well if me I would prob use the say like the web dev tools in firefox or whatever browser your using to see where the delay is exactly

            Have you tried different browsers - browser in safe mode. Are you accessing these 2 different pfsense via the same browser and machine? Both local, one remote, both remote?

            Are you running any say major different package in one vs the other? like IPS or ntop or proxy on one vs the other?

            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 2.7.2, 24.11

            O 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              SteveITS Galactic Empire @Operations
              last edited by

              @operations said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

              Switching van Aliases/Ports to Rules takes me 42 seconds.

              I’ve seen this if

              • It’s a relatively slow CPU (2100)
              • the rules use some very large aliases (all US IPs)
              • multiple rules use the large alias

              pfSense has to generate the HTML for every row. A slow connection doesn’t help.

              Sometimes it can be worked around, for instance unlink the NAT rules from their firewall rule and create one firewall rule using aliases for the NAT target. Or similar for firewall rules.

              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!

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

                @steveits said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                the rules use some very large aliases (all US IPs)

                haha - ok.. But I have this, even more than this actually.. And its only a 4860.. My pfblocker allow alias has 97,917 records. Which is currently US, Morocco and Ireland IPs and some specific ones from statuscake and uptime robot and plex remotecheck lists, etc..

                Maybe IPv6 aliases - which I don't have?

                Not seeing any slowdown in loading that rule or any rules or moving between alias types or pages..

                Now the main gui page has a bit of hesitation in it, a few seconds. But if you remove the firewall widget it does load faster, etc.

                But yeah this is something to look at, especially is the one pfsense you have that is not slow using such large aliases in your rules?

                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 2.7.2, 24.11

                S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  SteveITS Galactic Empire @johnpoz
                  last edited by

                  @johnpoz said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                  its only a 4860

                  I humbly suggest a 4860 is faster than a 2100. :) If one uses a slower CPU and create say 20 NAT rules using Geo_US as the source it needs to load them all in 20 times in order to display the hover hint on the page HTML (so, the page code is huge). We have a couple specific cases at clients, and removing the linked NAT rule, setting the NAT source to Any, and creating our own firewall rule to allow only from source Geo_US to the target IPs made a huge difference on both the NAT and Rules pages.

                  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!

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

                    @steveits said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                    as the source it needs to load them all in 20 times in order to display the hover hint on the page HTML

                    So for example..

                    I have this alias in 5 different rules... Your saying that when I load up this interface that table of 97k records has to be loaded 5 times.. Loaded where - in the browser? What is actually loading what when I just look at the interface page?

                    5times.jpg

                    I am not a web developer or developer of any kind but I can tell you for sure that loading that alias 5 different times to "maybe" display the popup listing of whats in doesn't seem any way efficient.. I could see if they were different.. But why wouldn't the popup list not need to be populated until I actually hover over it?

                    hover.jpg

                    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 2.7.2, 24.11

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      SteveITS Galactic Empire @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                      doesn't seem any way efficient

                      Exactly. :) Presumably they were assuming aliases would be a short list. It uses jQuery to show the popup but the data is on the page:

                      <a href="/firewall_aliases_edit.php?id=3" data-toggle="popover" data-trigger="hover focus" title="Alias details" data-content="<h5>https://127.0.0.1:443/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php?pfb=pfB_GeoIPUSv4_v4 <br />[ US_v4, US_rep_v4 ]</h5><ul><li>   2.16.33.76</li><li>   2.19.128.0/20</li><li>   2.20.32.0/22</li><li>   2.56.6.0/24</li><li>   2.56.8.0/24</li><li>   2.56.9.0/25</li><li>   2.56.9.128/26</li><li>   2.56.9.192/27</li><li>   2.56.9.224/28</li><li>   2.56.9.240/29</li><li>   2.56.9.248/30</li><li>   2.56.9.252/30</li><li>   2.56.11.0/24</li><li>   2.56.20.0/22</li><li>   2.56.32.0/22</li><li>   2.56.114.0/23</li><li>   2.56.116.0/22</li><li>   2.56.120.0/21</li><li>   2.56.137.0/24</li><li>   2.56.139.0/24</li><li> 
                      ...  
                      

                      That also means it is worse if one "blocks the world" rather than "allows my country."

                      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!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • O
                        Operations @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                        @operations well if me I would prob use the say like the web dev tools in firefox or whatever browser your using to see where the delay is exactly

                        Have you tried different browsers - browser in safe mode. Are you accessing these 2 different pfsense via the same browser and machine? Both local, one remote, both remote?

                        Are you running any say major different package in one vs the other? like IPS or ntop or proxy on one vs the other?

                        I don't even use PfBlocker (no added package except speedtest). I use Adguard. I have tried chrome and Firefox on different machine. I will try use the dev tools idea.

                        My machines are Windows 11 with an AMD 3900x with 64GB on a 1TB WD 850x. Other one is and 8th gen i7 32GB on a 1TB 980 Samsung Pro.

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

                          @operations said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                          I don't even use PfBlocker

                          So you don't have any large aliases setup like with all of the internet IP ranges in 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 2.7.2, 24.11

                          O 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • O
                            Operations @johnpoz
                            last edited by

                            @johnpoz said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                            @operations said in PfSense pretty slow GUI opening FW rule:

                            I don't even use PfBlocker

                            So you don't have any large aliases setup like with all of the internet IP ranges in them?

                            Nope, couple of aliasses with one to max 6 or 7 IP's.

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