Load Balance - Limiting max bandwith?

I've the following configuration:

ISP(ADSL 4MBPS)–----------(WAN1)-+------------+ +--------------+
| PFSENSE |--------| SQUID PROXY |----(LAN)---
ISP(ADSL 4MBPS)------------(WAN2)-+------------+ +--------------+

The load balance is working, but the total bandwith Never exceeds the 4MBPS, some traffic goes trough WAN1 and some trough WAN2, when the traffic at WAN1 is at maximum at WAN2 is at minimum, and at LAN the traffic never exceeds 4MBPS.

The squid proxy is installed in a different BOX, there is no other packages installed and no traffic shapper configured, version 1.2, release, the PFSense BOX is a DL360 2GB, dual Xeon 3.4Ghz.

Any idea?

Thanks
Alfredo

hoba

A single connection can't make use of multiwan. You need multiple connections so some can go out wan1 and some wan2. If you want to get more speed (both wans fully loaded) try a downloadmanager like https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/201 . Works perfectly for me using 3 WANs.

Thanks Hoba for your soon answer, the test was made making downloads from many different PCs and sources, anyway I`ll try this download manager.
I understand that PFsense will not limit speed in any way, so the problem could be something different, perhaps is my ISP, both ADSL are from the same ISP, or could be something in the squid configuration?

Thanks
Alfredo

hoba

Try to bypass the squid and see if it helps to speed up things.

Hoba,

I've disabled the external squid, and now the traffic is added and have double bandwith, unfortunatelly I need the squid-proxy, the Pfsense is not the network default gateway, besides I use it to block some domains, so PCs that need access to internet uses the proxy optionally.

Meanwhile as a workarround I've setup the proxy in Pfsense, but this way users that use the proxy only can use WAN1.

The External proxy server is not limiting traffic in any way, Could be possible that Pfsense "see" this proxy as a single connection and limit the max traffic?

Regards
Alfredo

hoba

Are you using sticky conections (system>advanced)? If yes all traffic from one client will be mapped to a single WAN only as long as it has active states. If yes you should disable it.

Hoba,

I've looked for sticky conections (system>advanced), but this option doesn't exists, under Systeme>advanced>Load Balancing, there is no option, nothing there (only title and save), son I don't know if sticky conections are enabled or not.

My PFsense is: 1.2-RELEASE built on Sun Feb 24 17:04:58 EST 2008

Thansk for all your support.

Alfredo

hoba

Oops, indeed, that looks like a bug. If you have not turned it on yet with an older release that you have upgraded from it should not be enabled. It's off by default.

sullrich

Sticky connections are not supported with PPPOE wan. The option is hidden.

Perry

I've just added a extra pfsense box with squid and it seems to work fine with a downloadmanager.

–-wan1----
----pfSense-----------pfSense with squid------
---wan2---

I've place a router between ADSL-PPOE and wan PORT, sticky connections disabled, but same problem. Now I'll try with a PFsense BOX with Squid

Thanks for your support.

Alfredo

zipeee

Are you using traffic shaping? The first setting of bandwidth capped mine until I increased the total bandwidth on all WAN ports to their maximum potential bandwidth.

I've remove the proxy server, and now get the full bandwith, but for this I have to setup the pfsense box as deafult gateway on LAN PCs, and thats not possible for my network structure, I still not have time to setup a new pfsense based proxy server.

ISP(ADSL 4MBPS)–----------(WAN1)-+------------+
| PFSENSE |------------(LAN PCs def. gateway PFsense)---
ISP(ADSL 4MBPS)------------(WAN2)-+------------+

It will be ideal that Pfsense proxy package could support multiwan, and don't have to put any other box between LAN and PFsense.