WAN madness

cheech · Aug 6, 2006, 9:46 PM

I have used cable modems and DSL modems with pass through cables to the NIC on WAN port with pfsense.

I am now having problems with a different type of connection than these.

I get not activity/route if I connected via pass through cable. Neither light on ethernet card goes on
Everything is fine if I connect both the WAN NIC in pfsense box via pass through cable to a port on a hub/switch and with the new WAN connection via pass through to another port on a hub/switch
I get massive packet loss (>50%) with a cross-over cable from WAN NIC in pfsense box to the new WAN connection.
I know it's not the crossover cable, tried two and they also work if I connect the new WAN connection via these to MDX/uplink port on switch/hub and WAN NIC in pfsesne to standard port on the switch/hub

Even though it is supposed to a 100 connection on the new WAN interface I have tried changing to 10mbit to no avail.

I have not tried another PC based router but I have a feeling the problem will remain and this isn't really a pfsense issue but I appreciate any comments/advice anyway! I hope not to have to add a switch/hub to the pfsense setups… just adds another part possible to fail.

hoba · Aug 6, 2006, 10:02 PM

That sounds like an autonagotiationfailure. Also length of the cable might be a problem. There are some nics that have problems if the cables are too short. Maybe a combination of both. Try longer cables and check what both sides of the link report for speed and duplex.

cheech · Aug 7, 2006, 6:18 PM

Thanks Hoba.

When I plug the new WAN connection (it goes to a rooftop wireless antena) into the hub/switch with a crossover nothing lights up… with a pass through I get 100Mbit full duplex. So I assume this means to go directly to the NIC in pfsense box it needs a crossover cable. The one I tried was indeed pretty short and gave the massive packet loss. I will try a longer cable. What is the BSD command to check link status?

hoba · Aug 7, 2006, 6:53 PM

It displays at status>interfaces in the webgui too ;)

cheech · Aug 8, 2006, 3:04 PM

OK so I see that going from a 7ft crossover cable to a 20ft is a big improvement. Either way the link shows up as 100Mbit Full Duplex but the shorter cable exhibits massive packet loss. The 20ft is definately better but I don't know if it is 100% OK… for mutliple VOIP connections I can't afford any issues. I have tried 2 NICS (3COM + Intel) and both act the same however a 7ft directly to my laptop is fine, what's the deal with this? I guess I should just put in a 50ft and see how it works? Seems really odd. Thanks for more comments as to why this might be so.

hoba · Aug 8, 2006, 8:35 PM

Some nics have runtimeissues on short cables due to bad design. As you already have exchanged the nics at the pfsense and the short cable from the pfsense to your notebook is ok the issue is mist likely at the other end (modem).

cheech · Aug 9, 2006, 6:22 AM

It's short crossover to modem (I don't even know if it is actually a modem, it is a radio transceceiver and uses POE) that works but I didn't try short crossover to pfsense! Will do tomorrow. The manuf says they have had some probs with BSD but no details.

cheech · Aug 11, 2006, 3:24 AM

Well that seems to have done it… using 50ft crossovers at both sites but now I have another massive problem, have to start another thread for that. Thanks again Hoba!