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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:

      /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?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 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...

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 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
                  • RobbieTTR
                    RobbieTT @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                    @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.

                    I know, I just need a nudge on what I now need to remove (eg deleting the top entry for a start):

                     2025-04-24 at 20.24.17.png

                    ☕️

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

                      I think only the net.isr.dispatch value there is non-default.

                      Default values I see here are:

                      Tunable Name 	Description 	Value 	
                      net.inet.ip.portrange.first 		1024 	
                      net.inet.tcp.blackhole 	Do not send RST on segments to closed ports 	2 	
                      net.inet.udp.blackhole 	Do not send port unreachables for refused connects 	1 	
                      net.inet.ip.random_id 	Assign random ip_id values 	1 	
                      net.inet.tcp.drop_synfin 	Drop TCP packets with SYN+FIN set 	1 	
                      net.inet.ip.redirect 	Enable sending IP redirects 	1 	
                      net.inet6.ip6.redirect 	Send ICMPv6 redirects for unforwardable IPv6 packets 	1 	
                      net.inet6.ip6.use_tempaddr 	Create RFC3041 temporary addresses for autoconfigured addresses 	0 	
                      net.inet6.ip6.prefer_tempaddr 	Prefer RFC3041 temporary addresses in source address selection 	0 	
                      net.inet.tcp.syncookies 	Use TCP SYN cookies if the syncache overflows 	1 	
                      net.inet.tcp.recvspace 	Initial receive socket buffer size 	65228 	
                      net.inet.tcp.sendspace 	Initial send socket buffer size 	65228 	
                      net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack 	Delay ACK to try and piggyback it onto a data packet 	0 	
                      net.inet.udp.maxdgram 	Maximum outgoing UDP datagram size 	57344 	
                      net.link.bridge.pfil_onlyip 	Only pass IP packets when pfil is enabled 	0 	
                      net.link.bridge.pfil_member 	Packet filter on the member interface 	1 	
                      net.link.bridge.pfil_bridge 	Packet filter on the bridge interface 	0 	
                      net.link.tap.user_open 	Enable legacy devfs interface creation for all users 	1 	
                      net.link.vlan.mtag_pcp 	Retain VLAN PCP information as packets are passed up the stack 	1 	
                      kern.randompid 	Random PID modulus. Special values: 0: disable, 1: choose random value 	347 	
                      net.inet.ip.intr_queue_maxlen 	Maximum size of the IP input queue 	1000 	
                      hw.syscons.kbd_reboot 	enable keyboard reboot 	0 	
                      net.inet.tcp.log_debug 	Log errors caused by incoming TCP segments 	0 	
                      net.inet.tcp.tso 	Enable TCP Segmentation Offload 	1 	
                      net.inet.icmp.icmplim 	Maximum number of ICMP responses per second 	0 	
                      vfs.read_max 	Cluster read-ahead max block count 	32 	
                      kern.ipc.maxsockbuf 	Maximum socket buffer size 	4262144 	
                      net.inet.ip.process_options 	Enable IP options processing ([LS]SRR, RR, TS) 	0 	
                      kern.random.harvest.mask 	Entropy harvesting mask 	351 	
                      net.route.netisr_maxqlen 	maximum routing socket dispatch queue length 	1024 	
                      net.inet.udp.checksum 	compute udp checksum 	1 	
                      net.inet.icmp.reply_from_interface 	ICMP reply from incoming interface for non-local packets 	1 	
                      net.inet6.ip6.rfc6204w3 	Accept the default router list from ICMPv6 RA messages even when packet forwarding is enabled 	1 	
                      net.key.preferred_oldsa 		0 	
                      net.inet.carp.senderr_demotion_factor 	Send error demotion factor adjustment 	0 	
                      net.pfsync.carp_demotion_factor 	pfsync's CARP demotion factor adjustment 	0 	
                      net.raw.recvspace 		65536 	
                      net.raw.sendspace 		65536 	
                      net.inet.raw.recvspace 	Maximum space for incoming raw IP datagrams 	131072 	
                      net.inet.raw.maxdgram 	Maximum outgoing raw IP datagram size 	131072 	
                      kern.corefile 	Process corefile name format string 	/root/%N.core 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc 		1 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.enable_multiq 		1 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.use_task 		0 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.arch 		auto 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.prefetch 		1 	
                      kern.crypto.iimb.max_jobs 		256 
                      

                      Urgh, formatting fail!

                      RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • RobbieTTR
                        RobbieTT @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        Well I'm up and running on if_pppoe and I can see the pppoe load being spread across multiple cores. It works!

                        UK / Openreach FTTP / 1500MTU (baby-jumbos) / Xeon D-1736NT CPU @ 2.70GHz / HyperThreading Off / IPV4 & IPV6 / bidirectional fq_codel / 10 GbE LANs & VLANs

                        I think I will need to get the Netgate 6100 out and try this. Running pfSense+ on my Xeon provided no issues for single-core PPPoE anyway but it does seem to run at a slightly lower CPU load with the latest config.

                        No PPP logs or entries in the System logs, which I think has been mentioned already.

                        ☕️

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

                          Ooo you got full size packets over pppoe working. For some reason I can't seem to set that. I'm wondering if I'm hitting some hardware restriction.

                          Did you have to do anything special?

                          RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • RobbieTTR
                            RobbieTT @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                            Ooo you got full size packets over pppoe working. For some reason I can't seem to set that. I'm wondering if I'm hitting some hardware restriction.

                            Did you have to do anything special?

                            Didn't change anything as I did an in-place update so my config was unchanged from before:

                             2025-04-24 at 22.24.37.png

                            @Smaug ~ % ping -D -s 1472 8.8.8.8
                            PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 1472 data bytes
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=119 time=8.628 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=119 time=8.637 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=119 time=8.457 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=119 time=8.303 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=119 time=8.383 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=5 ttl=119 time=8.600 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=6 ttl=119 time=8.442 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=7 ttl=119 time=8.582 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=8 ttl=119 time=8.845 ms
                            1480 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=9 ttl=119 time=8.423 ms
                            
                            

                            So everything worked for me out of the gate; I only checked it 'just to be sure' as it is a bit of a UK oddity.

                            I can compare a few things for you tomorrow if you like.

                            ☕️

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

                              Yup, something odd Openreach are doing. I'll recheck....

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

                                Hmm, I have that set but the actual interface MTU is 1492 still:

                                pppoe1: flags=1008851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1492
                                	description: BT
                                	options=0
                                	inet 86.191.X.X --> 172.16.13.252 netmask 0xffffffff
                                	inet6 fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x10
                                	groups: pppoec
                                	nd6 options=123<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL,NO_DAD>
                                

                                Do you have the parent set to 1508?

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

                                  Ah forgot I'd added it to a bridge. 🙄

                                  That worked once I set the parent to 1508.

                                  [2.8.0-BETA][admin@pfsense.fire.box]/root: ifconfig igb1
                                  igb1: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1508
                                  	description: BT_MODEM
                                  	options=48100b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                  	ether 00:01:21:01:67:76
                                  	inet 192.168.102.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.102.255
                                  	inet6 fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6776%igb1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
                                  	media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
                                  	status: active
                                  	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                                  [2.8.0-BETA][admin@pfsense.fire.box]/root: pppcfg pppoe1
                                  	dev: igb1 svc: BTInfinity state: session
                                  	sid: 0x1a99 PADI retries: 5 PADR retries: 0 time: 00:01:24
                                  	sppp: phase network authproto auto authname "bthomehub@btbroadband.com" peerproto auto 
                                  	dns: 81.139.56.100 81.139.57.100
                                  [2.8.0-BETA][admin@pfsense.fire.box]/root: ifconfig pppoe1
                                  pppoe1: flags=1008851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500
                                  	description: BT
                                  	options=0
                                  	inet 86.191.X.X --> 172.16.13.252 netmask 0xffffffff
                                  	inet6 fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xf
                                  	groups: pppoec
                                  	nd6 options=123<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL,NO_DAD>
                                  
                                  RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • RobbieTTR
                                    RobbieTT @stephenw10
                                    last edited by

                                    @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                    Hmm, I have that set but the actual interface MTU is 1492 still:

                                    pppoe1: flags=1008851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1492
                                    	description: BT
                                    	options=0
                                    	inet 86.191.X.X --> 172.16.13.252 netmask 0xffffffff
                                    	inet6 fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x10
                                    	groups: pppoec
                                    	nd6 options=123<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL,NO_DAD>
                                    

                                    Do you have the parent set to 1508?

                                    The link to the ONT? It is set to 1508 as you would expect - the final pipe needs to be a bit bigger to carry the PPPoE overhead and I am sure you used to have it set that way:

                                     2025-04-24 at 22.54.23.png

                                    ☕️

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                                    • RobbieTTR
                                      RobbieTT @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10

                                      Yeah, that would do it for sure!

                                      Mine:

                                      igc0: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1508
                                      	description: ONT
                                      	options=4e020bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                      	ether 02:76:xx:xx:xx:81
                                      	inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.0.255
                                      	inet6 fe80::76:xxxx:fe00:xxxx%igc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
                                      	media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
                                      	status: active
                                      	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                                      

                                      ☕️

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

                                        Yup and in fact you don't have to set the parent to 1508. If you set the pppoe interface to 1500 the parent will inherit that and be set to 1508.

                                        I had the parent interface as part of an unassigned bridge and forgot. In that situation the bridge interface controls the MTU of all the members and was forcing it to 1500.

                                        All good now though. 👍

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

                                          @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                          Yup and in fact you don't have to set the parent to 1508. If you set the pppoe interface to 1500 the parent will inherit that and be set to 1508.

                                          All good now though. 👍

                                          More things I didn't know!

                                          I'll probably leave it set as 1508 just to help remind me what I am doing when I am tired and forgetting what I am supposed to be doing...

                                          ☕️

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • P
                                            Phil2025 @RobbieTT
                                            last edited by Phil2025

                                            @RobbieTT I've posted my issues over in the reddit forum but I'm not sure its been picked up.

                                            If you go to Status-> Interfaces - then Disconnect the WAN interface to drop the PPPoE, then refresh the page to get the button to change to Connect, then Connect, does it reconnect? I only get every other connection attempt work, every other one stalls saying its "UP" but no Gateways or connectivity is established, I need to drop and then reconnect again. It's fine switching back to the original PPPoE.

                                            Also the IPv6 Gateway doesn't always start monitoring correctly, and shows status Unknown, but there is IPv6 connectivity okay. Going into Gateways and into the IPv6 gateway and disabling monitoring, then saving that, then re-enabling monitoring and it starts monitoring and switches back to online.

                                            With regards to the MTU, I find a great way to check is to use Speedguide.net and from the left hand menu select their TCP/IP Analzyer, snapshot of mine below. I would think you are only seeing 1492 MTU and losing the 8 bytes due to PPPoE. Your MTU can be set to 1508 (1508 being what they call a Baby Jumbo Frame) which is supported via Openreach and most others, so that holds the extra overhead for PPPoE, and when that's stripped of you are left then with the full 1500 bytes.

                                            898927d0-fb82-448e-b820-97e69559074f-image.png

                                            aa9dc3c5-b1ff-46f7-994a-7ec5c503f5be-image.png

                                            RobbieTTR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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