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    Please help me oh mighty gods of pfsense and nat reflection

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved NAT
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    • F
      fagoti @viragomann
      last edited by

      @viragomann

      oh that i could understand, ok, sucessfully did that, new zone , new host.

      but no success on that doing the trick.

      i did some testing here ...

      i took one of this hosts behind router (192.168 behind a 172.16.200.x) , and assigned to it only my AD dns, and no gateway, and no escape to internet.
      i does translate mypfsense.com to the local ip correctly, wich means my ad/dns is doing its job. but it cant use ports with pure nat for some reason, it can only use the (nat + proxy)

      besides, even if i use the actual ip of the pfsense in the addressbar, with the ports.. it doesnt work with the port set in pure nat, only on the ports with nat + proxy.
      and that is a case only for hosts behind routers (using the common 192.168)

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      • F
        fagoti @fagoti
        last edited by

        @fagoti i can only think proxy is interfering in some way, and blocking pure nats when source is from different ip class other then his own. because hosts not behind routers, sharing same network manage to access it alright..

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        • V
          viragomann @fagoti
          last edited by

          @fagoti
          Ah yes, that's an issue. DNS does not consider your port translations.

          You can only resolve a single host name to a single IP.
          E.g.
          host1.mypfsense.com > 172.16.100.11
          host2.mypfsense.com > 172.16.100.12

          So you would need to call host2.mypfsense.com:2222 to get to 172.16.100.12:2222.

          i can only think proxy is interfering in some way, and blocking pure nats when source is from different ip class other then his own.

          The NAT proxy is out of play with DNS overrides.

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          • F
            fagoti @viragomann
            last edited by

            @viragomann

            thats a bummer :(
            well, i guess thats thats a way to solve it .

            maybe i should create and redo all links in that fashion

            dont know if im really happy with it, but i think i will start doing it right away, so that really becomes an option.

            its sad cause.. it would be fantastic if a single domainlink could work inside and outside my network, always reaching for the pfsense and always getting translated to according port.

            but for now i think i gonna stop the efforts.

            now im just eager to know why pure nat over proxy still works on the same network but not in the subnetworks routed.....

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            • V
              viragomann @fagoti
              last edited by

              @fagoti
              The issue with the NAT reflection, which you described in the first post, may possibly indicate an asymmetric routing issue. But you would have to investigate this.
              You can use packet capture on pfSense to check if request and response packets passes pfSense properly.

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              • F
                fagoti @viragomann
                last edited by

                @viragomann i will try that, im afraid im not exactly great on that , but im try my best.

                as for your suggestion , i just did a sample here, and it works well.. but yes... im gonna have to notify every client, change every link in every station.
                and will be exactly like this
                host1.mypfsense.com > 172.16.100.11
                host2.mypfsense.com > 172.16.100.12

                the ultimate bummer, is that, one might think it would be really nice to use that oportunity to have outside domainnames that can be typed without the ports and redirected apropriatedly,...
                but, if i do that, i will have to use a link for for external (with no ports) and a link for internal (with ports)... and to have 2 links will drive people nuts...

                so unfortunatelly i will be creating those subdomains with the redirects without ports,, and use the ports in every link so the external and internal links match.

                thanks for all your time and attention

                greating from brazil!

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                • V
                  viragomann @fagoti
                  last edited by

                  @fagoti
                  Yes, when using certain ports with NAT reflection, it cannot be simply replaced with DNS overrides.

                  However, there is a simpler method to detect asymmetric routing, assuming the issue concerns to TCP connections:
                  In Status > System Logs > Settings ensure that "Log packets matched from the default block rules in the ruleset" is enabled.

                  After facing an issue check the firewall log. If you have asymmetric routing you would see block of TCP packets with other than SYN flags, e.g. RA, PA.

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

                    @fagoti said in Please help me oh mighty gods of pfsense and nat reflection:

                    active directoty /dns - 172.16.100.1
                    main local network 172.16.0.0 / 16
                    routers 172.16.200.0 / 24

                    Ok this problematic - so your lan is 172.16/16 but you have some other router a 172.16.200/24 - that overlaps.. Can you do a drawing.. If you have a downstream router that really should be on a transit, unless this downstream router is doing nat? if that is the case why would it be on some 172.16.200/24 that overlaps your /16?

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                    F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • F
                      fagoti @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz

                      thanks for trying to help too john,

                      my lan is indeed /16 and the subclass 200.X is reserved to routers
                      then , this routers are all 200.x on wan and have dhcp 192.168.x.x for their lan.

                      client 192.168.x.x access without problems servers on 172.16.x.x

                      but those routers are not using nat of any kind.

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

                        @fagoti so its really just 172.16/16 your just putting all your routers on 172.16.200/16 range of IPs

                        but those routers are not using nat of any kind.

                        That is going to be asymmetrical, if your downstream routers are not doing nat, then that network from your upstream to downstream should be a transit network, no hosts on it..

                        If I am understanding yoru setup this is asymmetrical.

                        ass.jpg

                        either direction ends up with asymmetrical flow, unless you were doing host routing on the clients on your 172.16/16 network

                        ass2.jpg

                        When you use downstream routers that do not nat, you should be using a transit network.

                        pfsense-layer-3-switch.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

                        F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • F
                          fagoti @johnpoz
                          last edited by

                          @johnpoz oh my, you even made diagrams... :) , thanks again, but now it got a little overwhelmed with that many networks and information

                          i wont be asking for more until i manage to study this with the same care and fully understand it

                          but it seems like a lot of changes for my already huge network.

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

                            @fagoti said in Please help me oh mighty gods of pfsense and nat reflection:

                            but it seems like a lot of changes for my already huge network.

                            Creating a transit is not a lot of work.. But running downstream routers that don't nat are going to cause you all kinds of grief without a transit network.. Or doing host routing on ever host..

                            Transit network is the correct solution..

                            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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                            • F
                              fagoti @johnpoz
                              last edited by

                              im trying to reply but i keep receiving akismet spam message :/

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                              • F
                                fagoti @johnpoz
                                last edited by

                                im gonna try breaking my reply in parts

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                                • F
                                  fagoti @johnpoz
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnpoz

                                  It seems you know what you are talking about.
                                  I will give it a shot on a smaller scale here.

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                                  • F
                                    fagoti @johnpoz
                                    last edited by

                                    @johnpoz

                                    I have just finished doing the "B PLAN" kindly suggested by @viragomann , and its working,

                                    its not pretty, and has lots of places to check when it goes bad,.. but works.

                                    i will be planning how to change all those links for everyone...

                                    but even if i later manage to use your refined transit idea, i can still use those new links i build for split dns, so.. i guess its a good idea to go all the way with it.

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                                    • F
                                      fagoti @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      @johnpoz

                                      thanks john

                                      and by the way @viragomann thanks again, because of your quick tip i ended up improving my understanding of my win.dns features.

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                                      • F
                                        fagoti @viragomann
                                        last edited by

                                        @viragomann i managed to implement a working split dns here. im quite satisfyied.

                                        i still want to test @johnpoz advices. (but its crazy here, i have like 50 routers.. i think it would be a mess to go with it)

                                        V johnpozJ JonathanLeeJ 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • V
                                          viragomann @fagoti
                                          last edited by

                                          @fagoti
                                          The transit network is needed if devices in the main network 172.16.0.0/16 should be able to communicate with devices in 192.16.0.0/24 behind routers. I didn't consider that this would be desired before.

                                          However, if you need this you can simply do that with a VLAN on the same wire. Create a VLAN on pfSense and on the routers, ensure that it doesn't overlap with other subnets, and point a static routes on both routers for the network behind them to the VLAN IP of each other.

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

                                            @fagoti said in Please help me oh mighty gods of pfsense and nat reflection:

                                            have like 50 routers..

                                            Why and the F would you have so many routers.. But ok if you had like 2000 of them you could still put them on a transit network..

                                            What are these routers.. Why would you need so many? What are they?

                                            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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