WAN interface fails when cable modem restarts
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TLDR; When the cable modem restarts, the WAN interface fails and I can only fix it by rebooting pfsense (Normal reboot). I'd like to figure out why it isn't handling this more gracefully.
When this failure happens, I see the WAN interface in the Interfaces widget is cycling between the following, about a 10-15 second loop
a) up with no IP (?),
b) Up with an assigned IP (like normal), and
c) down (red X).The gateway logs show a pattern like the following snipped. I presume that the exiting/send_interval messages are consistent with the cycling, and that the 'sendto error: 50' are while the modem is down. The exiting/send_interval pattern repeats until I reboot.
Sep 8 12:40:11 dpinger 16501 exiting on signal 15 Sep 8 12:40:10 dpinger 16501 send_interval 500ms loss_interval 2000ms time_period 60000ms report_interval 0ms data_len 1 alert_interval 1000ms latency_alarm 500ms loss_alarm 20% alarm_hold 10000ms dest_addr xx.xx.244.1 bind_addr xx.xx.244.196 identifier "WAN_DHCP " Sep 8 12:39:57 dpinger 10121 exiting on signal 15 Sep 8 12:39:55 dpinger 10121 send_interval 500ms loss_interval 2000ms time_period 60000ms report_interval 0ms data_len 1 alert_interval 1000ms latency_alarm 500ms loss_alarm 20% alarm_hold 10000ms dest_addr xx.xx.244.1 bind_addr xx.xx.244.196 identifier "WAN_DHCP " Sep 8 12:37:24 dpinger 41424 exiting on signal 15 Sep 8 12:37:24 dpinger 41424 WAN_DHCP xx.xx.244.1: sendto error: 50 Sep 8 12:37:23 dpinger 41424 WAN_DHCP xx.xx.244.1: sendto error: 50 Sep 8 12:37:23 dpinger 41424 WAN_DHCP xx.xx.244.1: sendto error: 50 Sep 8 12:37:22 dpinger 41424 WAN_DHCP xx.xx.244.1: sendto error: 50I suspect that this is related to either the DHCP Client Configuration in the Interfaces/WAN , or the Advanced settings under System/Routing/Gateways/Edit
I'm hesitant to change them without understanding the nature of why this is happening. It kind of feels like a race condition or something along those lines that is triggered by the modem being temporarily down. Any help with figuring out what is happening will be appreciated.I'm running 2.7CE on a core i5 pc with a 4 port Intel NIC. The WAN port is directly connected into the ethernet port on the cable modem. This happens 100% of the time the modem restarts.
Thanks!
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@BassStation70 To resolve this issue, I had to install an ethernet switch between the cable modem and the pfsense appliance WAN interface.
Ted Quade
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That doesn't really seem like a great solution. :\
Did you try to restart the dpinger service? I noticed on my firewall that service will stop if my cable company drops offline for more than few minutes. Simply starting or restarting dpinger will bring back the connection.
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@tedquade In spite of my mental resistance to this as a "solution", I tired your suggestion. I put an unmanaged 1 gb switch between the pfsense firewall and the cable modem. It did change the behavior... Now when the cable modem restarts, pfsense resumes normally after the modem is back up.
However, when I powered the switch off and back on, I see the same behavior as I previously saw when the modem was down. Also happens if I disconnect/reconnect the ethernet cable.
my new TLDR is:
"When the WAN connection loses the link light, the WAN connection stops working until I reboot the pfsense device."This seems like there should be a way to make the WAN connection more resilient. [I had a flashback to the 1993, running windows 3.1.1, when I was first trained by Mr. Bill to reboot first, ask questions later...]
My gut still tells me that this is inducing some kind of race condition, kicking off a loop that it can't get out of without rebooting. I am hopeful that I can tune the settings, but I'm still not sure that I can change the settings without causing new issues. Still open to suggestions...
@Amodin, restarting the dpinger service didn't help, unfortunately.
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@BassStation70 All of your observations are consistent with what I have encountered.
I suspect this is an issue with freeBSD that has been inherited by PFsense. It is worth noting that it seems the WAN port on netgate devices are switches rather than a straight ethernet port. Their device internal WAN port switch would effectively mask the issue with their product. This is all conjecture on my part.
I own a netgate appliance as well as various whitebox devices.
Ted Quade
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@BassStation70 Something else that can affect this is the DNS server you have set in your configuration.
Are you using 8.8.8.8 by chance? If so, change it to one like OpenDNS or something else.
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@Amodin I use my ISP DNS and have for decades, literally.
Ted Quade
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@Amodin No, I don't use google for DNS. I'm curious as to how choosing one DNS provider over another could affect the status of the WAN interface.
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From reading about it, it's a timeout issue and the non-response basically tells the NIC you aren't connected, leaving it without a valid connection.
What NIC are you using for pfsense?
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@Amodin said in WAN interface fails when cable modem restarts:
What NIC are you using for pfsense?
Intel Pro/1000 PT PCI-E 39Y6138 Quad Port Server Adapter
