Crossover cable for pfsense-WAN to Cisco-LAN
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Hi,
Do I need a crossover cable to conenct the pfsense WAN to my ISPs managed router (a Cisco)?
The reason I ask is that the Cisco end is set to autonegotiate, but my pfsense WAN says half-duplex (even after I manually specified full duplex in the config.xml file).
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No - a standard cable should be fine (if it wasn't you wouldn't get a link at all).
Are you sure it's a fully functional cable? Are all pins connected and correctly wired on the cable?
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As long as one side has auto mdix (required for gig-e ports) you don't need to use a crossover cable.
One thing I've found with my pfSense boxes when used with my Dell 62xx switches is that if I don't forcibly set the duplex mode on the switch to full I almost always get a mismatch. Try forcing your Cisco to full.
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One thing I've found with my pfSense boxes when used with my Dell 62xx switches is that if I don't forcibly set the duplex mode on the switch to full I almost always get a mismatch. Try forcing your Cisco to full.
If your pfSense is forced to full, and the switch is at auto, you will get a duplex mismatch by design. Read the 802.3ab standard, or check Wikipedia. :)
Full + full = ok
auto + full = the auto side will show half
half + half = ok
half + full = wrong (duh :))Really, in today's modern ethernet chipsets and switching hardware, use auto everything, unless you have a very good reason not to. I hate that some ISPs still insist on handing off ethernet at a "hard" setting, which means you then need to remember to configure your equipment to match… :(
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I had it set at the PFSense WAN for both full and autonegotiate, both times it reverts to half-duplex ( did reboot after changing). Either the ISP are lying and the Cisco end isn't auto or…dunno... ???
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@bradenmcg:
One thing I've found with my pfSense boxes when used with my Dell 62xx switches is that if I don't forcibly set the duplex mode on the switch to full I almost always get a mismatch. Try forcing your Cisco to full.
If your pfSense is forced to full, and the switch is at auto, you will get a duplex mismatch by design. Read the 802.3ab standard, or check Wikipedia. :)
Full + full = ok
auto + full = the auto side will show half
half + half = ok
half + full = wrong (duh :))Really, in today's modern ethernet chipsets and switching hardware, use auto everything, unless you have a very good reason not to. I hate that some ISPs still insist on handing off ethernet at a "hard" setting, which means you then need to remember to configure your equipment to match… :(
That's not what I said. In fact, the second case you mentioned is what I need to do to fix the issue. When both sides are set to Auto, I get the switch at Full and pfSense at Half. When I force the switch to Full and leave pfSense alone it correctly negotiates to Full.
