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

    Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Tailscale
    33 Posts 3 Posters 5.7k 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.
    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @chudak
      last edited by johnpoz

      @chudak that rule is what seems to allow it - here I set it to log, and made a connection via my phone and you can see it showing a state

      allowing.jpg

      Did you try just access say your webgui on your pfsense lan IP?

      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

      chudakC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • chudakC
        chudak @johnpoz
        last edited by

        @johnpoz said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

        @chudak that rule is what seems to allow it - here I set it to log, and made a connection via my phone and you can see it showing a state

        allowing.jpg

        Did you try just access say your webgui on your pfsense lan IP?

        I can access via LAN IP

        Added this rule and see what you see:

        29e026ae-6834-4d22-a575-76044b615ac2-image.png

        So it passed, buy still no UI

        So I am suspecting it's something else on pfsense level

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • chudakC
          chudak @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

          @chudak that rule is what seems to allow it - here I set it to log, and made a connection via my phone and you can see it showing a state

          allowing.jpg

          Did you try just access say your webgui on your pfsense lan IP?

          Did you set up any of these?

          https://tailscale.com/kb/1146/pfsense/?q=pfsen
          https://tailscale.com/kb/1181/firewalls
          https://tailscale.com/kb/1082/firewall-ports

          In addition to the standard TS install?

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

            @chudak those are all about clients behind pfsense making their own TS connections, I have none of those.. I allowed the 41641 port to my wan that is it..

            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

            chudakC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • chudakC
              chudak @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

              @chudak those are all about clients behind pfsense making their own TS connections, I have none of those.. I allowed the 41641 port to my wan that is it..

              TCP/UDP on 41641 on WAN?

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • chudakC
                chudak @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz

                Finally made it work :)

                It does require TS port to be open on WAN + All all traffic on talescale interface

                The confusion was that TS has to be restarted in order to show the difference

                Thx @johnpoz

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

                  @chudak mine is set for UDP only - I set it up long time ago.. I must of looked to see what they require.. But Its working.. If I connect my phone from sell it shows direct connection and my rule shows a state.

                  connection.jpg

                  My phone on cell only gets IPv6, but t-mobile converts it to IPv4 when connecting to IPv4 stuff.

                  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

                  chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • chudakC
                    chudak @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

                    @chudak mine is set for UDP only

                    Changed my to UDP only and confirmed it still works fine

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
                      last edited by michmoor

                      For what its worth i do not have the TS port open on my WAN side and im able to make direction connection and access all LAN resources.

                      The snippet is from my phone on LTE.

                      60d237b3-1aa9-49c5-9172-37fce4673881-image.png

                      WAN rules

                      a0717bd2-ffe9-4e33-ae03-40da099be7b7-image.png

                      Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                      Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                      Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                      Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                      JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                      chudakC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • chudakC
                        chudak @michmoor
                        last edited by

                        @michmoor said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

                        For what its worth i do not have the TS port open on my WAN side and im able to make direction connection and access all LAN resources.

                        The snippet is from my phone on LTE.

                        60d237b3-1aa9-49c5-9172-37fce4673881-image.png

                        WAN rules

                        a0717bd2-ffe9-4e33-ae03-40da099be7b7-image.png

                        Also confirmed
                        I disabled the open port 41461 rule and still see everything working fine.

                        But you do have a rule on the TS interface, don't you? As here:

                        4084dc95-9f4b-490e-a5b5-49cb540dcf62-image.png

                        that seem like a must to have

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

                          @chudak I am pretty sure it uses stun to get through the nat. But its better to on purpose open it so you can view it, etc.

                          https://tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works

                          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

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @chudak
                            last edited by michmoor

                            @chudak
                            TS rules are not required if accessing resources on your LAN. The reason is all in how TS and FreeBSD work out the routing. Essentially the most direct interface out to your LAN will be your source IP.
                            For example, if your LAN gateway IP is 192.168.1.1 then when you access a server on that LAN from TS, the server will see incoming requests from 192.168.1.1.

                            88a57c6e-31e6-42dd-9088-40f956019d32-image.png

                            IMO, i do not like the implementation of TS on the firewall for this very reason. ACLs must be done on the TS controller but require you to write it in JSON. Its not difficult to write but its cumbersome. The default ACL on Tailsale is 'any-any' which is why communication works out of the box so to speak.
                            If this is for remote access to your home then no biggie but i would highly advise not to use this for any business deployment.

                            Here are my ACL rules which work in my limited environment i am using this.

                            0c19c10e-ab52-4fc2-9c43-146fba7dc86d-image.png

                            Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                            Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                            Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                            Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                            JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

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

                              @michmoor I by any means not a tailscale expert or even user.. I have it up and running, it works - but I don't normally use it. if I need to remote in I use openvpn as my go too.

                              But if rules are not needed on the interface - why is showing traffic when was testing if could access pfsense web gui, doing some pings, etc..

                              traffic.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 2.8, 24.11

                              M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • M
                                michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @johnpoz
                                last edited by michmoor

                                @johnpoz
                                Traffic from your Tailnet is trying to hit your Tailnet IP assigned to the interface on your pfsense.
                                If i try to access my pfsense tailscale IP or try to ping it from my tailscale device like a laptop it fails because i dont have firewall rules on the interface. But you dont need it to access your LAN anyway so rules arent required. What im saying is that its not required to access your pfSense over your tailnet.

                                I believe its all outlined in these two videos.
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_jIPVcioY&t=1315s
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-q-8R67OPY&t=923s

                                Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

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

                                  @michmoor said in Why do I need TS installed on pfsense router?:

                                  If i try to access my pfsense tailscale IP

                                  Exactly - which is what he was trying to do, use his tailscale IP.

                                  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

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