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    New PPPoE backend, some feedback

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    • w0wW
      w0w @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

      It still depends on the hardware but we were able to pass >8Gbps through a 6100 in raw testing: https://www.netgate.com/blog/optimizing-pppoe-performance-in-pfsense-software

      Thanks, great read. Too bad I missed it, but I'm glad you brought it to me today. 🙂

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • C
        claudio69
        last edited by

        I am testing pfSense 2.8 on my pppoe WAN setup that has been working for many years.
        I noticed that the weekly periodic reset I set on the pppoe WAN is not automatically performed on the weekend.
        If I try to change the setting manually the pppoe connection resets and reconnects but then it will no longer do so automatically

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

          You're setting that in the PPP settings on the interface?

          Interesting. That's an advanced setting that only applies to mpd5. It's hidden on the ppp interfaces page but looks like it's not hidden from the assigned interface and probably should be.

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          • C
            claudio69 @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10

            I use this setting on a pppoe connection with variable ip.
            I need it to avoid the connection being reset by the ISP since I do not have a fixed IP.
            On pfSense from 2.5 to 2.7.2 it worked on all versions.Schermata del 2025-04-21 15-10-18.png

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              I assume you have enabled if_pppoe?

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              • C
                claudio69 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                Yes, I have enabled system/advanced /networking marked Use if_pppoe kernel module for PPPoE client.It seems like a bug in the new version 2.8

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by stephenw10

                  Yes, there is a bug there. However currently the bug is that the mpd5 specific options are not hidden correctly. And that the cron-job is still set even thought the script it calls is not present when if_pppoe is enabled.

                  If you need this for now you should add your own cronjob. This should work: /etc/rc.interfaces_wan_configure opt2
                  Where opt2 is the pppoe interface internal name.

                  This should probably also be a feature request. Let me see here...

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                  • C
                    claudio69 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10

                    The WAN interface is pppoe1 which is on igb1.
                    There is already a cron job with the script /var/etc/pppoe_restart_pppoe1.
                    If you can tell me if this is ok or if this script needs to be modified?

                    Schermata del 2025-04-21 19-03-04.png

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      That script is created to bring up mpd5 so it's not valid when using if_pppoe.

                      Here's a bug the covers the invalid options: https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/16155

                      I'll open a feature request to add back the periodic reset for if_pppoe.

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                      • C
                        claudio69 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        Thanks for reporting.
                        I hope this feature will be included in pfSense 2.8.

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by stephenw10

                          It probably won't be in 2.8 but it's a pretty simple feature. I'd expect it could be added via system patches after release.

                          Or you can still just add the cronjob manually.

                          https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/16159

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                          • C
                            claudio69 @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10

                            The thing is I don't know how to manually make the script to put in cron.
                            If you can kindly give me a working example that would be great and would solve the problem permanently.
                            Thanks

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Edit the cronjob and change the command to: /etc/rc.interfaces_wan_configure opt2

                              Where opt2 is the internal interface name for your pppoe interface. If that's actually WAN then use wan.

                              w0wW C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • w0wW
                                w0w @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                /etc/rc.interfaces_wan_configure

                                I'll ask something else while we're at it...

                                Regarding manually starting and stopping the WAN interface, which is PPPoE — what's the proper way to do it? Especially with the new backend...

                                /etc/rc.linkup stop wan
                                /etc/rc.linkup start wan

                                Or is there something newer now?

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                                • C
                                  claudio69 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10

                                  It worked fine.
                                  Thanks for your help.

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

                                    That should work. There's nothing newer I'm aware of. Because it's now a regular interface (mostly) you should be able to do regular interface things with it. If you want/need to.

                                    RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • RobbieTTR
                                      RobbieTT @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10

                                      Is there a definitive list of PPPoE performance tweaks that should be removed before using if_pppoe?

                                      If so, it may be worth adding it to Jim's article too.

                                      Apologies if it exists somewhere but I did look... and clearly I have forgotten all the tweaks I did apply to try and get the best PPPoE performance on the current backend.

                                      ☕️

                                      stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • w0wW
                                        w0w
                                        last edited by

                                        Does anyone have packet loss on a new backend? The connection is not interrupted just loss of packets, about 5%, once a day or so.

                                        MONITOR: WAN_PPPOE has packet loss
                                        

                                        This could be something on isp or on my side also, because I haven't seen this before. IDK...

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Not seen any significant loss here. Been solid since I switched both my edge PPPoE links to it:

                                          Screenshot from 2025-04-24 19-20-59.png

                                          And I'd been running it for months before that on one WAN in 25.03.

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

                                            @RobbieTT said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                            Is there a definitive list of PPPoE performance tweaks that should be removed before using if_pppoe?

                                            There isn't. The testing we did though was without any of the previous pppoe tweaks AFAIK. So the default sysctls only.

                                            RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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