Latest 1.2.3 Snapshot Load Balancing Guide
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There is no difference in setting it up.
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Ok. Is failover really not working properly with this version of pfsense? I'm pretty sure I setup load balancing correctly, even with setting static routes for my DNS servers. I have three modems, when a single connection is down things get crazy with my internet browser, sometimes I can enter a site without a problem sometimes I can't.
How will I tell pfsense that when WAN is down, it should NOT use the 1st DNS server in the list I gave it?
Here are my settings for your reference:
By the way, I have three modems, three interfaces (WAN, WAN2, and WAN3). Modem1 is directly connected to WAN interface. The other two are connected in this manner: Modem2->Router->WAN2 and Modem3->Router->WAN3. This is why WAN2 and WAN3 interfaces have local IP addresses and gateways of 192.168.2.2/.1 and 192.168.3.2/.1, respectively.
The Load Balancer Status screen shows the status of the pools correctly. When one modem is down, it will indeed display "Offline" in the Load Balancer Status screen.
The really weird thing is just that, as I've said above, things get messy with my browsing the instant one or more modem goes offline.
Can you help me on this?
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Those aren't great choices of monitor IPs, should use something upstream on your ISP's network for each connection.
What does Status -> Load Balancer show when one fails?
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So I should use the DNS Servers (202.69.191.10, 202.69.165.10, and 121.58.225.10) of my ISP as monitor IPs? If I do this I can get rid of the static routes I made since pfsense automatically creates static routes when you use them as monitor IPs, correct?
When one link fails, the Status -> Load Balancer screen correctly shows that that link is "OFFLINE", no problem with that.
I also have DNS Forwarding enabled, do you think I should disable this? I think the load balancer pools don't have any problems, really. I think the DNS is what's causing the prob, I don't know.
I hope you can help me with this.
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So I should use the DNS Servers (202.69.191.10, 202.69.165.10, and 121.58.225.10) of my ISP as monitor IPs? If I do this I can get rid of the static routes I made since pfsense automatically creates static routes when you use them as monitor IPs, correct?
Those should be fine. The static routes aren't necessary when the DNS servers and monitor IPs are the same.
When one link fails, the Status -> Load Balancer screen correctly shows that that link is "OFFLINE", no problem with that.
I also have DNS Forwarding enabled, do you think I should disable this? I think the load balancer pools don't have any problems, really. I think the DNS is what's causing the prob, I don't know.
Using the DNS forwarder is fine. See what the problem is, is it DNS not functioning?
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how do u use the same setup and one of the wan was a wireless connection, meaning it gets internet through the wireless interface using WEP/WPA/WPA2. where do u make the wireless interface associate to a specific access point
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@cmb:
So I should use the DNS Servers (202.69.191.10, 202.69.165.10, and 121.58.225.10) of my ISP as monitor IPs? If I do this I can get rid of the static routes I made since pfsense automatically creates static routes when you use them as monitor IPs, correct?
Those should be fine. The static routes aren't necessary when the DNS servers and monitor IPs are the same.
When one link fails, the Status -> Load Balancer screen correctly shows that that link is "OFFLINE", no problem with that.
I also have DNS Forwarding enabled, do you think I should disable this? I think the load balancer pools don't have any problems, really. I think the DNS is what's causing the prob, I don't know.
Using the DNS forwarder is fine. See what the problem is, is it DNS not functioning?
Alright. But if I use different monitor IPs other than the DNS servers, I should do static routes? Also, these modems are all from the same ISP, so they are in one network and they all have access to the SAME three IP addresses, so I think even though I use different monitor IPs, I don't need to do static routes, right?
How will I know if DNS is not functioning? Is there a test that I should perform?
What does "Warning" mean in the Status -> Load Balancer screen?
For example, I make the DNS servers as monitor IPs, pfsense will automatically create static routes right? So say modem2 and modem3 are down, effectively pfsense can just use the first DNS server which is 202.69.191.10 right? Since it won't get responses from the other two because they have static routes to WAN2 and WAN3, correct? Won't that post a problem when modem2 and modem3 are down and at the same time DNS server1 is also down?
Also, in the Diagnostic -> Routes page, usually if I use the DNS servers as monitor IPs the static routes are defined there (202.69.191.10 to default gateway, 202.69.165.10 to 192.168.2.1, and 121.58.225.10 to 192.168.3.1), but sometimes the 202.69.165.10 to 192.168.2.1 static route just disappears, why is that? I have to reapply the load balancing rules for that to take effect again. Why is that happening?
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Bump!
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Hi kevindd992002:
I'm just wondering if you really need all of the Failover "permutations" for the "Load Balancer: Pool":
With:
2 WAN it's 2
3 WAN it's 6
4 WAN it's 24
5 WAN it's 120
6 WAN it's 720
7 WAN it's 5040I've seen people with 5 WAN and somehow they've shortened that list somewhat to reduce the CPU load.
I've got only 2 WAN at the moment, may increase to 4 WAN at most at a future date.
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Hi. Yeah, I understand those permutations. In my opinion, you don't need permutations for failover pools. If I understand the concept of failover pools correctly, you just make them not REALLY for load balancing but as a gateway where a rule that will use that failover gateway will just use a SINGLE connection over your multi-wan connection. So technically with three WANS you can just make three failover pools wherein each WAN connection is made priority for each of those failover pools. In that way, you will have three failover gateways that you can choose depending where you want a specific traffic to go through.
Load balancing DOESN'T need making failover pools. That's why the guide (mutliwan 1.2) is very outdated and gives people wrong information about the concept of failover pools.
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Yeah, the guide is a bit confusing for me as well when I first got started in load balancing and trying to follow it. A lot of trial and error required. Previously, I had also played around w/ another "relatively" free router called ZeroShell that was a bit easier to setup Load balancing/Failover, but I didn't like it crippling some features without buying a reg code and it's forums weren't as active.
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Bump!