Bridge LAN ports to act like a switch

balubeto

In step 4 device bridge0 gets all the LAN attributes (including the IP address) when bridge0 is assigned to LAN.

@balubeto:

If in the step 5 I set the configuration type to "none", all LAN interfaces remain without an IP address. So, how do operate a network device connected to one of these interfaces?

But your physical interfaces are members of a bridge and the bridge has an IP address so (effectively) all the bridge members have the bridge IP address.

Ok but how do I view and change the IP address of Bridge0 so that it has 192.168.1.254 as IP?

In other words, it is possible to have this configuration:

10.0.0.1 –-> WAN Gateway
192.168.1.1 ---> LAN Gateway (in order to access the firewall with this IP address)
192.168.1.254 ---> Bridge0

If so, how do I do this?

Thanks

Bye

wallabybob

@balubeto:

Ok but how do I view and change the IP address of Bridge0 so that it has 192.168.1.254 as IP?

Assuming you followed Steve's instructions, go to web page Interfaces -> LAN, set IP address or other attributes then click on Save (to update the configuration file) and Apply (to update the running system).

But if you followed Steve's instructions, why do you need to change the IP address?

If you change the IP address of the pfSense interface on which you are accessing the system I expect you will find it necessary to restart pfSense and then adjust the IP address on the system you are using to access pfSense so that they are both the same IP subnet (get new DHCP lease if the client uses DHCP, change static IP address otherwise).

balubeto

Ok but how do I view and change the IP address of Bridge0 so that it has 192.168.1.254 as IP?

In other words, it is possible to have this configuration:

10.0.0.1 –-> WAN Gateway
192.168.1.1 ---> LAN Gateway (in order to access the firewall with this IP address)
192.168.1.254 –-> Bridge0

If so, how do I do this?

Thanks

Bye

wallabybob

@balubeto:

Ok but how do I view and change the IP address of Bridge0 so that it has 192.168.1.254 as IP?

Why?

If LAN is assigned to bridge0 and LAN is configured to have IP address 192.168.1.1 then bridge0 gets 192.168.1.1.

It is possible to assign multiple IP addresses to an interface, but do you really need that?

stephenw10

In your original post, here, you asked about configuring your machine to have 1 WAN port and the other 4 ports configured as a single LAN. That is what I have explained.
Do you now want to have 1 WAN, 1 LAN and the three other ports configured as a switch? (a different interface)

Steve

balubeto

I would simply like to create a bridge that joins the 4 network cards in order to create a 192.168.1.x network. I tried to follow the stephenw10 method, but, after completing the step 5, I can not longer access my firewall in any way with my computer that has Windows 7 SP1 64 bit. How come?

Thanks

Bye

wallabybob

@balubeto:

after completing the step 5, I can not longer access my firewall in any way with my computer that has Windows 7 SP1 64 bit. How come?

It is almost impossible to say because you haven't told us exactly what you have done and you haven't told us how you are attempting to access the firewall and what response you are getting.

1. How are you trying to access the firewall? (ping? web? … ) What response do you get?

2. Have you tried connecting the Windows system to another port that is a member of the bridge? What response do you get then?

3. You asked about setting LAN interface to 192.168.1.254 when it was apparently previously set to 192.168.1.1. There was no explanation why you wanted to do this. PERHAPS you didn't quite follow Steve's instructions and have ended up with inconsistencies in your network. In a small number of cases I have found my pFsense sometimes has seemed to need to be rebooted after "significant" changes to IP addresses. Have you rebooted pfSense? Have you verified your Windows system and the pfSense LAN interface are on the same IP subnet?

chpalmer

In order for you to accomplish what you wish you have to make changes that will possibly lock you out if you don't think clearly about what you do and how each step will affect the setup.

Keep in mind that you have to keep a reachable interface at all times.

When you decide on what LAN subnet you wish to use Id create one of the physical interfaces with another temporary subnet. Build the bridge, give it its address, add the remaining interfaces to it and verify they work, and configure the rest of the firewall from the bridge including adding the final interface that was given the original temporary address. because once you make that interface "none", it will be useless until you add it to the bridge.

My guess is that unless you left a way to configure via the wan interface that you need to start over.

stephenw10

@balubeto:

after completing the step 5, I can not longer access my firewall in any way

You are able to access it after step 4 though?

If you have locked yourself out of the box for whatever reason, and rebooting does not solve it, you can temporarily disable the firewall from the console. Described here:
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/I_locked_myself_out_of_the_WebGUI,_help!#Remotely_Circumvent_Firewall_Lockout_by_Temporarily_Changing_the_Firewall_Rules

Once you have access modify your firewall rules to prevent the lockout.

Steve

balubeto

In practice, after step 4, I have to restart the firewall from the console to perform step 5 via web.

Instead, after step 5, Windows 7 identifies the connection as a public network unidentified. Then, Internet no longer works and I can not access longer the firewall via web with the IP address 192.168.1.1.

So, anyone have any idea on how to fix this?

Thanks

Bye

stephenw10

Windows 7 complains because the MAC of the bridge interface is regenerated each time at boot, because it's not a real NIC.
To prevent this happening you can set a MAC address for the bridge interface which will be used every time. You can do this under Interface: Lan: (assuming LAN is assigned as bridge0).

See: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,54666.0.html

Steve

balubeto

@stephenw10:

Windows 7 complains because the MAC of the bridge interface is regenerated each time at boot, because it's not a real NIC.
To prevent this happening you can set a MAC address for the bridge interface which will be used every time. You can do this under Interface: Lan: (assuming LAN is assigned as bridge0).

See: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,54666.0.html

Steve

In the Interface: Lan window, I have to insert the MAC address of the network card of the computer or a network card of the firewall?

Thanks

Bye

stephenw10

No. Do not use one of the existing MAC addresses. Make up a MAC and use that. It doesn't matter what the address is just that you have defined one to use to prevent pfSense choosing a new one each time at boot.

Steve

balubeto

@stephenw10:

No. Do not use one of the existing MAC addresses. Make up a MAC and use that. It doesn't matter what the address is just that you have defined one to use to prevent pfSense choosing a new one each time at boot.

Steve

How do I create a valid MAC address?

Thanks

Bye

stephenw10

It simply has to be the correct length of hexidecimal figures. For example you could use: 00:11:22:33:44:55
That would be obviously fake which is useful to anyone trying to diagnose a problem later.
See screenshot from my Status: Interfaces: page.

Steve

![bridge status.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/bridge status.jpg)
![bridge status.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/bridge status.jpg_thumb)

extide

@balubeto:

Ok but how do I view and change the IP address of Bridge0 so that it has 192.168.1.254 as IP?

In other words, it is possible to have this configuration:

10.0.0.1 –-> WAN Gateway

192.168.1.1 ---> LAN Gateway (in order to access the firewall with this IP address)

192.168.1.254 –-> Bridge0

If so, how do I do this?

Thanks

Bye

I think you are mis-understanding this. When you create a bridge the NIC doesnt have an IP anymore, the bridge actually has the ip, and the bridge represents any or all of the nic's in the bridge.

So you will end up like this:

10.0.0.1 –-> WAN Gateway
192.168.1.1 ---> Bridge0 / LAN Gateway (in order to access the firewall with this IP address)

There is no need for an additional IP.

balubeto

I tried to insert a fictitious MAC address to the LAN interface before including it in the Bridged0 but, then, Windows 7 still identify the connection between my computer and the firewall as an unidentified network and thus I have the same problems as before . So when I have to insert this MAC?

Thanks

Bye

extide

Well, yes it will be un-identified initially, but once you mark that network at private, then it should stay that way.

balubeto

@extide:

Well, yes it will be un-identified initially, but once you mark that network at private, then it should stay that way.

No, the problem is that Windows 7 identifies the connection as a public network not identified even if I restart the firewall from console. Unfortunately, Windows 7 does not allow to change the network type, and then I can no longer access the firewall via web and the internet. So, how do I fix this?

Thanks

Bye

stephenw10

See my screenshot a few posts back for how it should be setup. My interface is named LAN5, yours will be named LAN.

You need to insert the fake MAC onto LAN after you have assigned it as bridge0. The problem is that Windows looks at the MAC address of the DHCP server. The DHCP server is running on LAN (bridge0) so the MAC changes at every boot and Windows warns you that you have connected to a new, unknown, DHCP server.

Steve