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    Do I need a router? ISP Provides WAN and "LAN" ips? (LAN ips are my Public IPs)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved HA/CARP/VIPs
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    • S
      sierradump
      last edited by

      @Metu69salemi:

      PARP can't be used by pfsense itself

      and can you please explain why you need an another router between pfsense and isp?

      i've got single wan + static ip's & 3 lans and each lan is using their own static public ip

      and you may use firewall rule to block that access to your datacenter. just remember, rules work on ingress and top to down order

      Metu69Salemi,

      I suspect your Static IPs are on the same network as your WAN link… My WAN link is a /30 , and my Static IPs are a in a /27.

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      • S
        sierradump
        last edited by

        Thanks Gderf,

        This is what I suspected all along.

        Who makes me a nice router-specific software (instead of using pfSense?).  I have a dual XEON SOCKET 2.6Ghz 1u server with 2 Gbit and 1 FE NIC.  I could build my own Router I suppose?  Is Vyatta a good choice? OR, do I simply use pfSense again?

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        • P
          phorce1
          last edited by

          Not sure if this will work as intended and it might need extra work on your end as opposed to just putting a router in the middle.

          em0 – WAN -- .82.218
                    Gateway .82.217 (default)

          em1 -- .32.226
                    No gateway

          em2 -- .32.227
                    No gateway

          em3 -- .32.227
                    No gateway

          Go to Firewall-->NAT-->Outbound and set it to MANUAL.

          Delete the rules that show up (auto-generated rules that make the /27 get NATed to the WAN address)

          At this point your /27 is "live" on em1 to em7

          Set the CARPs (or PARPs) back up the way you had them working before but use the em1 - em7 .32.2xx addresses.

          This is the point where I lose it completely. My setup is simple public IP straight passthrough so I have no clue how to work with CARP. But from this point (NAT off) you should be able to connect the private address ranges to individual interfaces and create MANUAL NAT rules from private IP range ---> single public IP. the public IP will be passed through the WAN gateway intact.

          Somebody beat me with a wet noodle if I'm too far off base. I can't flesh it out any further due to the fact that I just started using pfSense a few days ago myself.

          I only have two interfaces in my pfsense box or I'd try hanging a private range off of one of my public IP's here as proof of concept.

          Gerald

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          • G
            gderf
            last edited by

            You could pick from the rather extensive list here:

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_router_or_firewall_distributions

            I would probably do the most minimal install of any BSD or Linux I was up on since I already have the software lying around. The only things you need are the networking stack and some way to manage it remotely such as sshd. There is always a lot of baggage that comes in with a default install, and it's probably best to do that and try to slim it down later rather than be too stingy going in and wind up with a non-working install.

            If you don't need remote management, you can just use a keyboard and monitor. After a while, you would probably disconnect these until needed again which could be very rarely. Just make sure the BIOS will handle booting all the way in with a missing keyboard.

            The only thing that needs configuring is enabling routing between interfaces, and configuring the two NICs. You might want to port scan the box once it comes up to be sure that no unnecessary services are running. And perhaps verify the actual thruput to be sure it is not a bottleneck.

            I guess none of my other suggestions worked?

            Not being a current pfsense user probably doesn't help much - I'm on m0n0wall these days.

            I seem to remember that the GB-Flash I was using long ago would allow Alias IPs on the WAN that were on another network, so you could have a /30 WAN and Alias the /27 onto it. But I never had a need for that type of setup and the software has long since been filed away and no loner in use.

            Let us know how this works out for you. That huge up-charge for that ISP supplied router is a big incentive to get this done yourself.

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            • G
              gderf
              last edited by

              @phorce1:

              Not sure if this will work as intended and it might need extra work on your end as opposed to just putting a router in the middle.

              em0 – WAN -- .82.218
                         Gateway .82.217 (default)

              em1 -- .32.226
                        No gateway

              The above works.

              When you add this

              em2 – .32.227
                        No gateway

              it stops working.

              You can't have two interfaces in the same machine define the same network.

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              • P
                phorce1
                last edited by

                @gderf:

                @phorce1:

                Not sure if this will work as intended and it might need extra work on your end as opposed to just putting a router in the middle.

                em0 – WAN -- .82.218
                           Gateway .82.217 (default)

                em1 -- .32.226
                          No gateway

                The above works.

                When you add this

                em2 – .32.227
                          No gateway

                it stops working.

                You can't have two interfaces in the same machine define the same network.

                How about:

                em0 – WAN -- .82.218
                          Gateway .82.217 (default)

                em1 -- .32.225 (/27)
                          no gateway

                em2 -- .32.226
                          Gateway .32.225

                em3 --  .32.227
                          Gateway .32.225

                etc.

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                • G
                  gderf
                  last edited by

                  Specifying or not specifying a gateway isn't what breaks things.

                  Having two or more network adapters defining the same network in the same machine does break things.

                  He could split his One /27 into

                  Two /28s or
                  Four /29s or
                  Eight /30s

                  or a valid combination of fewer of each of the above, and put them on individual interfaces. These would become different networks so it would be legal and it would work. But that doesn't solve his problem.

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                  • P
                    phorce1
                    last edited by

                    For his purposes breaking it into 8 /30 nets would probably work. He doesn't appear to have that many private networks he wants to NAT out. But he's already shopping for a router to make the /27 available to the pfSense box directly.

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                    • G
                      gderf
                      last edited by

                      No, breaking his /27 into any set of smaller networks does not solve his problem because he cannot NAT to them out the WAN from private networks.

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                      • S
                        sierradump
                        last edited by

                        @gderf:

                        @phorce1:

                        Not sure if this will work as intended and it might need extra work on your end as opposed to just putting a router in the middle.

                        em0 – WAN -- .82.218
                                   Gateway .82.217 (default)

                        em1 -- .32.226
                                  No gateway

                        The above works.

                        When you add this

                        em2 – .32.227
                                  No gateway

                        it stops working.

                        You can't have two interfaces in the same machine define the same network.

                        The above doesn't work for me though, as I don't want public IPs on my LAN interfaces :)  I want private IPs 192.168.1.1 /24  etc… I want them NATd to public IPs...

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                        • G
                          gderf
                          last edited by

                          I was only pointing out that it can't possibly work at all. The fact that it doesn't solve your problem doesn't matter much if it can't work at all.

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                          • S
                            sierradump
                            last edited by

                            Will be building router later to try this out…

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                            • S
                              sierradump
                              last edited by

                              @gderf:

                              I was only pointing out that it can't possibly work at all. The fact that it doesn't solve your problem doesn't matter much if it can't work at all.

                              Right, no I absolutely appreciate your help!  I liked how you know your networking.  I know it wouldn't work but I didn't know the "reasoning" I knew it had to do with the /30 and /27 over the WAN link but didn't know why, now I do :)

                              Thanks!

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                              • D
                                dhatz
                                last edited by

                                sierradump, you can always try pfsense commercial support.

                                Anyway, if I understand your requirements correctly, I think pfsense can do what you want, i.e. NAT each internal network (LAN, WLAN etc) to a different public IP from your /27 range (which are different from the /30 that is used for your point-to-point link with your ISP)

                                Try using ProxyARP VIPs and Manual Outbound NAT (AON).

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                                • S
                                  sierradump
                                  last edited by

                                  @dhatz:

                                  sierradump, you can always try pfsense commercial support.

                                  Anyway, if I understand your requirements correctly, I think pfsense can do what you want, i.e. NAT each internal network (LAN, WLAN etc) to a different public IP from your /27 range (which are different from the /30 that is used for your point-to-point link with your ISP)

                                  Try using ProxyARP VIPs and Manual Outbound NAT (AON).

                                  Sad face.  Tried this early on, it sort of worked but had broken functionality.

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                                  • D
                                    dhatz
                                    last edited by

                                    @sierradump:

                                    Tried this early on, it sort of worked but had broken functionality.

                                    Broken functionality how?

                                    I've tried it in the past and it seemed to work, although I haven't tested it thoroughly or used it in production.

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                                    • A
                                      anagh
                                      last edited by

                                      use isp wan series on wan side and isp lan series i.e first public ip on lan side
                                      open firewall nat click Manual Outbound NAT rule generation and SAVE
                                      delete all  auto generated  nat rule

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                                      • G
                                        gderf
                                        last edited by

                                        @anagh:

                                        use isp wan series on wan side and isp lan series i.e first public ip on lan side
                                        open firewall nat click Manual Outbound NAT rule generation and SAVE
                                        delete all  auto generated  nat rule

                                        This doesn't provide the private IP network interfaces he requires.

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