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    New PPPoE backend, some feedback

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    • RobbieTTR
      RobbieTT @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10

      The GUI stalls and I get this:

       2025-04-30 at 17.02.53 copy.png

      With the fqdn it's like as soon as the WAN is lost it forgets that local access is still available. Perhaps unbound is restarting and local look-ups are dropped but I'm not really sure of the cause. I'm not using Kea, if that is a factor.

      If I use the GUI via the IP address instead and take the PPPoE interface down / up then the GUI stays alive.

      ☕️

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

        Hmm, yeah that does seem like it must be an Unbound issue. I guess I'm not seeing it here because I'm not using that box for DNS... 🤔

        patient0P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • patient0P
          patient0 @stephenw10
          last edited by

          Just a reference: There is another thread where a user reports an issue with connecting to the webGUI (503 error) after upgrading from 24.11 to 25.03-BETA and then switching on the if_pppoe module:

          Problems after enabling if_pppoe

          w0wW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • w0wW
            w0w @patient0
            last edited by

            @patient0
            This may be a manifestation of the same bug: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/197119/dns-resolver-exiting-when-loading-pfblocker-25-03-b-20250409-2208. Some ISPs send RA packets too aggressively, and due to a bug, pfSense starts endlessly restarting related services and daemons. On certain hardware, it's even possible that PHP hangs as a result.

            RobbieTTR C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by stephenw10

              Yup I'd bet it's that ^. Should be fixed in the next beta build.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • RobbieTTR
                RobbieTT @w0w
                last edited by

                @w0w said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                @patient0
                This may be a manifestation of the same bug: Some ISPs send RA packets too aggressively...

                Thankfully my ISP is very mild with the RAs (and complies with the standards), so it is very rare for the process to be triggered by an RA and is almost exclusively an RS from pfSense kicking it all off.

                The dns-resolver loosing its mind when pfBlocker does its thing would probably explain why the fqdn gets tossed.

                Whilst it doesn't solve everything the 171.diff experimental patch has really calmed things down on boot & interface status change. Looking forward to all this being collected in a new beta. This is all looking positive.

                ☕️

                w0wW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • w0wW
                  w0w @RobbieTT
                  last edited by

                  @RobbieTT said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                  171.diff

                  Where can I get it?

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

                    Here's the file to test. This is not the final fix that will be in the build though.
                    171.diff

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

                      @stephenw10
                      Oh yes, I tested an earlier version too, but this one at least works with the latest snapshot.
                      It looks promising. 👍

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • RobbieTTR
                        RobbieTT @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        I'm not sure if my buffer bloat on 23.05 / PPPoE is truly related to all this so I have opened a different thread here.

                        ☕️

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • C
                          chrcoluk @w0w
                          last edited by chrcoluk

                          @w0w said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                          @patient0
                          This may be a manifestation of the same bug: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/197119/dns-resolver-exiting-when-loading-pfblocker-25-03-b-20250409-2208. Some ISPs send RA packets too aggressively, and due to a bug, pfSense starts endlessly restarting related services and daemons. On certain hardware, it's even possible that PHP hangs as a result.

                          I think the service restarting code needs a looking at, I will confess on my personal install of pfSense, I have disabled a lot of it, as I found its way too aggressive at mass restarting services.

                          As an example is no need to restart the ups daemon if a VPN cycles.

                          I would either restrict the services that restart, instead of a blanket restart all services, or make it optional tick box in advanced settings. Most people are probably only using services LAN side anyway so restarting them because of a change of WAN conditions seems excessive.

                          pfSense CE 2.8.0

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

                            @chrcoluk
                            You may be right. Everything eventually needs to be reevaluated. We're dealing with a complex software construct that tries to account for all the situations that may arise from thousands of different user configurations. And as far as I remember, the whole reconfiguration/restart behavior has been around for a long time, even though some services might no longer need it.
                            As the saying goes... if you want something done — submit a feature request, or maybe… a bugfix.

                            C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • C
                              chrcoluk @w0w
                              last edited by chrcoluk

                              @w0w Thats the plan, but I need to be sure I am not submitting something that only works for me and breaks for others, it needs care taken on this issue.

                              pfSense CE 2.8.0

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • L
                                louis2
                                last edited by

                                I did test the new PPPoE this morning trying multiple settings on a simple fiber connection.

                                It did work for IPV4 however NOT for IPV6. So after a short test trying multiple settings I switched back to the old PPOE.

                                For info:

                                • internet is arriving via vlan6
                                • PPOE is listening to that vlan

                                The settings for the old PPOE and also supposed settings for the new version

                                • IPV4: PPPoE
                                • IPV6: DHCP6
                                • MTU: (default)
                                • MSS: 1492
                                • Use IPV4: YES
                                • Request only IPv6 prefix: YES

                                That did not work for IPV6 so I did try SLAAC and using the default MSS etc did not work.

                                So I switched back after this short test.

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

                                  If you can test again try enabling DHCP6 Debug in System > Advanced > Networking.

                                  I have that setup running here without issue. It can take a minute or so to connect depending on what your ISP does.

                                  Do you have Do not wait for a RA set in the DHCPv6 client setup?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • L
                                    louis2
                                    last edited by louis2

                                    I did not use the debug mode, but I think I did test with the "Do not wait for a RA". But of course not in combination with all possible other options. None of the options I tested this morning did work (for IPV6).

                                    I will explicitly test my actual settings in combination with the suggested setting and debug. However I have to wait for a test window :( before I can execut a network interrupting test like this one.
                                    ( My kids are staying here at the moment and are using the network for there work).

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • L
                                      louis2 @louis2
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10

                                      With the describes settings with ^Do not wait for a RA^ added (I think that is necessary), the IPV6 gateway shows

                                      7bafe7bb-fc10-4ce6-adca-14d9dd610e6e-image.png

                                      but testing using ^https://test-ipv6.com/^ and pinging ^2606:4700:4700::1001:^ show that it is working in reality.

                                      So, I had to change the config and the gui is not ok, however it seems to work.

                                      Attached, the dhcp log.

                                      20250604_DHCP-messages.txt

                                      Actually running
                                      25.03-BETA (amd64)
                                      built on Thu May 15 16:15:00 CEST 2025
                                      FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT

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

                                        The gateway may not respond to ping. If you're requesting a prefix only the gateway will be a link-local IP which means you cannot set an external monitor IP. But it should work otherwise.

                                        That's the same setup I use though I do not set Do not wait for a RA. But that wouldn't change the gateway once it connects:

                                        Name              Monitor                           Source                                Delay   StdDev  Loss  Status  Substatus
                                        BT_DHCP6          fe80::2621:24ff:fed9:623f%pppoe1  fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1     2.447ms  0.271ms  0.0%  online       none
                                        

                                        Gateway log shows dpinger starting:

                                        Jun 4 21:58:32 	dpinger 	83847 	send_interval 2000ms loss_interval 4000ms time_period 60000ms report_interval 0ms data_len 1 alert_interval 2000ms latency_alarm 500ms loss_alarm 20% alarm_hold 20000ms dest_addr fe80::2621:24ff:fed9:623f%pppoe1 bind_addr fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1 identifier "BT_DHCP6 " ```
                                        
                                        P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • P
                                          Phil2025 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by Phil2025

                                          @stephenw10 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                          The gateway may not respond to ping. If you're requesting a prefix only the gateway will be a link-local IP which means you cannot set an external monitor IP. But it should work otherwise.

                                          That's the same setup I use though I do not set Do not wait for a RA. But that wouldn't change the gateway once it connects:

                                          Name              Monitor                           Source                                Delay   StdDev  Loss  Status  Substatus
                                          BT_DHCP6          fe80::2621:24ff:fed9:623f%pppoe1  fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1     2.447ms  0.271ms  0.0%  online       none
                                          

                                          Gateway log shows dpinger starting:

                                          Jun 4 21:58:32 	dpinger 	83847 	send_interval 2000ms loss_interval 4000ms time_period 60000ms report_interval 0ms data_len 1 alert_interval 2000ms latency_alarm 500ms loss_alarm 20% alarm_hold 20000ms dest_addr fe80::2621:24ff:fed9:623f%pppoe1 bind_addr fe80::201:21ff:fe01:6775%pppoe1 identifier "BT_DHCP6 " ```
                                          

                                          This is the similar issue I've reported before and we seem to keep getting told one way or the other its not a problem in the code, but it is as it never ever happened with 2.7.2.

                                          On 2.8.0 and the BETAs, more often than not, the monitoring of the IPv6 gateway remains Unknown when PPPoE is connected, even though IPv6 connectivity for clients is up and working just fine. The fix is to jump into Gateways and restart the Gateway service, then its all okay until the next time PPP drops and comes back up again.

                                          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • L
                                            louis2 @Phil2025
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10

                                            I have been thinking about the

                                            @Phil2025 said in New PPPoE backend, some feedback:

                                            Do not wait for a RA

                                            I wonder if it is a valid setting!!
                                            Is it not a work around a bug. If the provider is sending a RA and it is not handled correctly by the PPOE-software, is 'Do not wait for a RA' not the wrong way out. !!??

                                            P RobbieTTR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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