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    Frequent disconnection when with WAN network when using static IP from ISP

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    static ipwan gateway
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      It's recovering by itself?

      If it's still monitoring the WAN gateway IP directly try setting an external monitoring IP like 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. That will give you better data and it may be simply that gateway stops responding to ping when it's loaded.
      https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/routing/gateway-configure.html

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        rajnetgen @stephenw10
        last edited by

        @stephenw10 have checked the ARP table for changes when there is gateway down issues.
        I did saw that the when the gateway starts to show pack loss and goes down there is a time left under status for the gateway IP in ARP table.
        FTTH 122.17.13.1 74:22:dd:01:51:4a broadband.com Expires in 43 seconds ethernet
        FTTH 122.17.13.145 94:e1:bd:13:c6:20 broadband.com Permanent ethernet

        If I delete the entry then the gateway starts to instantly recover and come back online.
        Else I guess it will wait for the time to expire and then come back online.

        But this does not happen everytime and this time rune for 1200 seconds and sometimes it goes to zero and then again start from 1200 seconds

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          You should still set the monitoring IP to something external. The ISPs gateway is under no obligation to respond to ping. It may just drop ping requests when it's loaded.

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            rajnetgen @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10
            Yes I use 3rd party like google dns or cloudflare as default but had changed to gateway to test
            The behaviour is same for both cases.
            When the connection starts to get packet loss, if I go to ARP table and delete the gateway entry then it starts to come back online else it wait for timeout and then come back online automatically.

            Can we reduce the ARP timeout?

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              nischay @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              I tried both 1.1.1.1/8.8.8.8 even tried ip of my public VM running in digital ocean in Bengaluru, India as GW monitoring IP.

              I configured same static IP in my OpenWRT box and strangley not seeing any issue runnning fine for more then 2 weeks without any downtime.

              For now I have configured port forwarding to pfsense and added OpenWRT LAN ip as gateway in Pfsense.

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              • JonathanLeeJ
                JonathanLee
                last edited by

                Have you checked your category 5, 6 or 7 the rj45 cable with a cable tester?

                Make sure to upvote

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                  nischay @JonathanLee
                  last edited by

                  @JonathanLee

                  It is CAT6 5 Feet patch cable. Used same cable to connect OpenWRT to ISP ONT.

                  JonathanLeeJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • JonathanLeeJ
                    JonathanLee @nischay
                    last edited by JonathanLee

                    @nischay they have speed ratings for each type and use. is it a shielded one? It could be getting interference from elevators, or florescent lights, many issues. Swap out that cable for an upgraded one

                    Make sure to upvote

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @rajnetgen
                      last edited by

                      @rajnetgen said in Frequent disconnection when with WAN network when using static IP from ISP:

                      Can we reduce the ARP timeout?

                      Yes you can set it as a system tunable: net.link.ether.inet.max_age
                      pfSense/FreeBSD uses 1200s by default.

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                        nischay @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        Thanks for pointing it out. I have updated net.link.ether.inet.max_age to 60 seconds same as Linux default. I will update here if it help to resolve issue.

                        [root@pfsense-fw ~]# sysctl net.link.ether.inet.max_age
                        net.link.ether.inet.max_age: 60
                        
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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          I've once seen an ISP that would fail to arp for devices in that situation and so required a lower value there. So it's unlikely, but possible.

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                            nischay @stephenw10
                            last edited by nischay

                            @stephenw10

                            Seems like changing ARP Cache TTL to 60 seconds fixed issue I was observing. Finally I have resolution to my issue such a relief. 😌

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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