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    cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • S Offline
      shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10

      ok i seem to be back in the gui for some reason through the ethernet cable. It seems to have liked it when the firewall was switched into the menu first before attching the cable to my laptop, can now be opened via password on web browser.

      I can see i have two vpn clients, maybe that was where the conflict was but i was having no internet before i added the second client.

      Any idea how to proceed from here?

      on the open vpn client instance statistics page it says

      Reconnecting (Could Not Determine Ipv4/ipv6 Protocol)

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      • stephenw10S Offline
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Hmm, there are a whole bunch of things that could be an issue if you're policy routing traffic via OpenVPN.

        How did you set it up originally? Did you follow a guide?

        The first thing to do here is find the missing password and either enter it in the OpenVPN client config or disable that client.

        S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S Offline
          shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
          last edited by shdjshdjshd

          @stephenw10

          Hi yes its through a intel techniques ( a privacy website ) firewall config file and user guide. I have reinstalled that tonight and can now access 192.168.1.1 wirelessly from my laptop, it doesnt appear to be as seemless as before though.

          I have some new ethernet cables on order as in theory everything should work now. I need to plug the firewall into my isp router.

          I have re setup my access point and i am connected to that .

          Once i use my new cable to my ISP router into the firewalls wan port it "should" work, will report back once those cables arrive.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • S Offline
            shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10

            Hi Stephen just wanted to say thanks so much for all your help in this.

            I think the thing i got wrong was the server name in pfsense was changed by the vpn provider unawares to me.

            New cable arrived today seems to have helped connect to the wan. I disabled all dhcp in my isp router also.

            I guess they changed the catch all address i was using to connect to the fastest server and i am now choosing a specific ip address from inside my pf sense console.

            Really great software this and i am thankful for not just connecting the vpn app every time again.

            Thanks again man

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              No worries, glad you were able to get back up and running. ๐Ÿ‘

              S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S Offline
                shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
                last edited by shdjshdjshd

                @stephenw10

                Hi Stephen

                I have tried to update the pfsense software and its got stuck in a loop.

                Tried updating from 2.7.2 to 2.8.1

                Everything went fine but then it got stuck in a never ending loop.

                Ive plugged a monitor into the firewall and it says it has

                no/boot/kernel/kernel

                so im guessing something hasn't been downloaded properly.

                Do i wipe the firewall software and start again or is there an easier fix.

                Thanks in advance

                kicking myself as it was working fine

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

                  Hmm, you might be able to load the old kernel to recover. At the loader menu hit option 6 to select kernel.old.

                  But if it's somehow lost the boot directory entirely then you will need to reinstall and restore the config. You can recover the config during the install if you don't have a backup (which you should ๐Ÿ˜‰ ).

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                  • GertjanG Offline
                    Gertjan @shdjshdjshd
                    last edited by

                    @shdjshdjshd said in cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble:

                    kicking myself as it was working fine

                    Don't.
                    Keep in mind that "upgrading with a click in the GUI" isn't always the best way to upgrade (upgrading from the console is imho always better btw).
                    There are moments you actually can't / shouldn't upgrade from the GUI.
                    Reasons, easy to understand, are : hidden, reserved partition sizes changed (software always needs more space ^^), or the preferred file system changed (a couple of yours ago, it was ext3, now its ZFS that became the new thing, and to change the file system you need to nuke the partitions first).
                    You need some new knowledge : how to create a bootable USB stick. That's it.

                    Here you go : the reading "how to do it" Prepare a USB Memstick will take you more time as actually doing the install.

                    Before you start, get a copy of your pfSense config file.
                    Then : re install pfSense from 'scratch' with the stick.
                    Do minimal WAN/LAN setup, so ou can access the GUI.
                    Upload your config file.
                    Reboot and done.

                    And for free you get a nice hand's on experience : the day things break (hardwxare can break) you will know how to start from scratch and get your Internet access back "within 10 minutes" (after replacing that dead drive ^^).

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

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • S Offline
                      shdjshdjshd @Gertjan
                      last edited by

                      @Gertjan
                      @stephenw10

                      Could you direct me to the download page for the previous 2.7.2 version please as i just want to get this working .

                      Thank you for the help so far.

                      I have tried to use the free iso file but it says it is corrupted for some reason when im trying to load it into balena etcher for 2.8.1 off the netgate website. It is the one where you have to buy it for free.

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

                        @shdjshdjshd said in cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble:

                        Could you direct me to the download page for the previous 2.7.2 version

                        Here you go: https://atxfiles.netgate.com/mirror/downloads/

                        S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • S Offline
                          shdjshdjshd @patient0
                          last edited by

                          @patient0

                          Thanks Balena Etcher dosent seem to be working at all for me.

                          Should i use Rufus to clean off the flash drive first that i have . I think i used this flash drive before for 2.7.2 although now it dosent work with the lastest iso file

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                          • stephenw10S Offline
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            You should use the memstick img if you're writing to a USB memstick not the ISO.

                            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • S Offline
                              shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
                              last edited by shdjshdjshd

                              @stephenw10

                              Hi Stephen

                              Apologies yes I meant the mem stick version

                              Yes I tried that it gave some error once it was downloaded the memstick one. It had gz on the end of the filename, is this correct? I thought it should have IMG at the end but I cannot find a file that works for me.

                              It's there any programme that completely wipes a memory stick so I can download this programme?

                              I remember all this being a lot easier first time I did it. Maybe I need a new memory stick.

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                              • stephenw10S Offline
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Etcher can extract the img from the gzip on the fly when it write it so that's not an issue.

                                What was the error?

                                S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S Offline
                                  shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
                                  last edited by shdjshdjshd

                                  @stephenw10

                                  Okay managed to flash the drive

                                  Pfsense loaded

                                  Am I launching a shell for rescue or reinstalling do you think?

                                  It's giving me three options

                                  I don't have the previous config file ( think it's on an old hard drive) but I can quickly download and access one that I was using and edit it to my requirements

                                  It says something about zfs for system, should I stay with ufs?

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                                  • stephenw10S Offline
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    In the first menu you should have an option to recover the config. Do not agree to wipe the drive until you have recovered it.

                                    https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-walkthrough.html#configuration-restore

                                    Unless you are installing to eMMC or a very small SSD you should use ZFS.

                                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S Offline
                                      shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
                                      last edited by shdjshdjshd

                                      @stephenw10

                                      I don't think it can see the config file should I just choose install pfsense?

                                      Edit: Right hopefully I'm getting somewhere, I have wiped the vault and will now try to connect to it

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

                                        If the filesystem was sufficiently damaged it may not have been possible to recover the config.

                                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • S Offline
                                          shdjshdjshd @shdjshdjshd
                                          last edited by

                                          I've made a new password and it doesn't recognise it.

                                          So I'm going to reinstall it again

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                                          • S Offline
                                            shdjshdjshd @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10

                                            Thanks again Stephen

                                            All solved now I have the config file, if it's not broke don't fix it is a good saying for me to follow.

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