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    New pfSense install & can’t access my switch

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • E
      ErniePantuso
      last edited by

      I just changed my home router hardware so I have a newly installed/configured installation of pfSense 2.7.2. My old router was configured with a LAN address of 10.1.1.1 and I configured the new one to match but I can’t get to my switch (10.1.1.2). I reset my switch to factory defaults (which puts it at 192.168.0.1) and gave my PC a static IP of 192.168.0.111 but I still can’t get to my switch.

      Hardware/cabling is as follows:
      Modem connects to WAN port on router (Sophos XG 125)
      LAN port on router connects to port 1 on (managed) switch (TP-Link TL-SG1024DE)
      Personal workstation connects to port 2 of switch

      Until I reset the switch to factory defaults, I had access to the internet and the pfSense web GUI. Now nothing works.

      What am I doing wrong?

      johnpozJ GertjanG J stephenw10S 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ErniePantuso
        last edited by

        @ErniePantuso said in New pfSense install & can’t access my switch:

        I reset my switch to factory defaults (which puts it at 192.168.0.1) and gave my PC a static IP of 192.168.0.111 but I still can’t get to my switch.

        And what would that have to do with pfsense?

        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
        • GertjanG
          Gertjan @ErniePantuso
          last edited by

          @ErniePantuso said in New pfSense install & can’t access my switch:

          I reset my switch to factory defaults

          I'm using the small brother :

          1c8bb6fd-deb2-4fe8-a59e-acefbca55338-image.png

          and when you reset yours, doesn't it enable DHCP or is the 192.168.0.1 (255.255.255.0 - etc) static ?
          I remember unwrapping the device, finding the MAC, put a static DHCP lease into pfSEnse, hook up the device, power it up and voila : done forever : it has now 192.168.1.3 255.255.255 192.168.1.1 me not taken care of nothing == admin doing nothing == nothing can go wrong.

          Ok, I admit, had to enter that static DHCP lease into pfSense, and I consider that as 'I can take care of that / easy for me'.

          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
          Edit : and where are the logs ??

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • J
            Jarhead @ErniePantuso
            last edited by

            @ErniePantuso said in New pfSense install & can’t access my switch:

            I just changed my home router hardware so I have a newly installed/configured installation of pfSense 2.7.2. My old router was configured with a LAN address of 10.1.1.1 and I configured the new one to match but I can’t get to my switch (10.1.1.2). I reset my switch to factory defaults (which puts it at 192.168.0.1) and gave my PC a static IP of 192.168.0.111 but I still can’t get to my switch.

            Hardware/cabling is as follows:
            Modem connects to WAN port on router (Sophos XG 125)
            LAN port on router connects to port 1 on (managed) switch (TP-Link TL-SG1024DE)
            Personal workstation connects to port 2 of switch

            Until I reset the switch to factory defaults, I had access to the internet and the pfSense web GUI. Now nothing works.

            What am I doing wrong?

            You're having a rough week.
            Go to Status/DHCP Leases.

            E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Hmm, I mean that sounds like a bad switch if you can't access pfSense through it after a reset. It should just be as an unmanaged switch after resetting.

              Unless maybe there is a loop somehow and it's disabled ports to prevent that?

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
                last edited by johnpoz

                @stephenw10 @jarhead might be on to something about dhcp.. If he left port 1 on the switch connect to pfsense and reset the switch then it would of gotten its IP from dhcp, and not defaulted to the 192.168.0.1 address. If he had his machine set to 192.168.0.111 he wouldn't of gotten anywhere if pfsense was 10.1.1.1 and the switch got say 10.1.1.x from dhcp.

                If you want the switch to have a static IP on whatever network your going to run pfsense. Make sure your pfsense is setup how you want.. Connect your laptop to the lan port of pfsense... Make sure its working..

                Then you can then plug in your switch to pfsense lan and your laptop into the switch.. You should get a dhcp from pfsense on your laptop. And look to see what IP the switch got in pfsense dhcp server. Then access the switch and change it to static, or you could just set a reservation in pfsense dhcp server so the switch always gets IP xyz from pfsense dhcp server.

                If the only thing connected to the switch was his laptop and he reset the switch then without dhcp available it should default to the 192.168.0.1 address.

                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
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @ErniePantuso
                  last edited by

                  But whatever IP the switch has, in it's default config it should just pass stuff at layer2. So you should still be able to access the pfSense gui through it. Yet OP says he lost access to everything.

                  johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 well yeah he prob left his laptop on 192.168.x.x and his pfsense was on 10.x.x.x so no he wouldn't of been able to do anything.

                    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

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • J
                      Jarhead @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz said in New pfSense install & can’t access my switch:

                      @stephenw10 well yeah he prob left his laptop on 192.168.x.x and his pfsense was on 10.x.x.x so no he wouldn't of been able to do anything.

                      That's my guess too. He's very confused but he'll get it eventually.
                      Just has to stop trying to do too many things at once.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • E
                        ErniePantuso @Jarhead
                        last edited by

                        @Jarhead said in New pfSense install & can’t access my switch:

                        You're having a rough week.

                        All my weeks have been rough since I started trying to learn networking, firewall rules, VLANs, etc.

                        So all the comments here were very helpful - thank you everyone! I unplugged ALL cables from the switch, did another factory reset, plugged in my PC, got to the web gui for the switch, reset it to 10.1.1.2, changed my PC's IP to DHCP (pulled 10.1.1.11), and all is well.

                        I feel a little ridiculous for not figuring that out on my own. All this stuff has my head spinning and I'm feeling a little brain dead.

                        Thanks, again, everyone for the help! (Even though this really had nothing to do with pfsense. ;)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by stephenw10

                          Yup it's very easy to get off track when changing a lot of things at once. I agree with @Jarhead, try to change one thing at a time and verify it did what you were expecting.

                          Of course sometimes you have no choice but to make several changes and hope it all lines up! 😉

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