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    Gateway assignment

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    16 Posts 6 Posters 3.7k Views
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    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
      last edited by

      You mean

      1. Set interface(s) IP address

      that should be used by people that actually understand what they are doing ;)

      You should be using the web gui! ;)

      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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      • K
        kejianshi
        last edited by

        Its not that hard - you will get the hang of it.

        Just remember - LANs get static IPs in different subnets.

        like 192.168.1.1 
              192.168.2.1

        use a /24 to begin with for those and activate DHCP on LAN (most likely)

        Netmasks of 255.255.255.0  (very basic)

        WANs should be set to get an IP via DHCP.  No static IPs.  (That doesn't mean activate DHCP on WAN)

        If you really screw up bad, just reinstall - easy.

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        • P
          Paul47
          last edited by

          Um guys, I may not be a network guru but I've managed to pick up a few things since 1969 (when I started working on computers).  :)

          I was just wondering why it asks for a gateway on the lan, and how that would ever be different than the address of the lan interface. Perhaps there is some uncommon network configuration I am unaware of? Or maybe the same code is used for WAN and LAN side and the question is just superfluous on the LAN side?

          Mostly is doesn't matter, now that I know to leave it empty, but I'm still curious.

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          • K
            kejianshi
            last edited by

            Its just giving you choices incase you want to create non-standard configurations.  Some people create LANs that are simultaneously WANs and other such weird as can be and I would never ever do configurations.  Believe me - I've tried to talk people out of doing some pretty strange stuff but some people apparently have needs and actual uses for weird configs.

            I don't - At least I haven't yet.  Pfsense will let you create all kinds of convoluted networks if you want to, need to, or just like to play.

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              ^ exactly..  Think of it this way - what makes it lan or wan interface?  To pfsense its just interface - if it had a gateway then could be seen as wan.  No gateway - then lan.

              Every os I have ever seen has a place or asks you for a gateway on interfaces.  Either you have one or you don't have one.. But the question still has to be asked.

              Pfsense doesn't ask you in the "wizard" to keep people that don't know what a gateway is in the first place from scratching their heads or asking questions about gateways on the forum.

              So you have been working with computers since I was 4 years old and you don't understand the concept of a "gateway"?  Really?

              Does the gateway box in windows magically disappear if windows magically figures out this is a lan network and doesn't need or have use for a gateway?  Why does windows call it a default gateway - if I have more than 1 interface, clearly 1 of them would just be a gateway and 1 would be a default..  But the box says "default" on it ;)

              gateway.png
              gateway.png_thumb

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                The console menu method for assigning IP info must have the gateway option available. Often people using that method are doing so because the webgui is unavailable, for whatever reason, and entering a gateway may be necessary. About the best that could be done is to add wording to the menu warning against entering a gateway on a LAN interface.

                Steve

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  ^ while you can try that - you still have to deal with

                  idiots.png
                  idiots.png_thumb

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Ha! Evolution in action.  :P

                    Steve

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                    • P
                      Paul47
                      last edited by

                      For a machine that is not a gateway, it makes perfect sense to ask the user what the address of the gateway is. For the machine that IS the gateway, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Then it just becomes a convention. The convention apparently used here is "leave it blank on the lan" which really means "leave it blank when you are the gateway". But it could just as easily have been, "set it to your own address", and it makes some sense since that is the address of the gateway on that net. Either one could be interpreted as "this is the gateway".

                      But hey, John, don't let me get in the way of you having your fun.

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                      • K
                        kejianshi
                        last edited by

                        So - Joking insults aside, what was the first computer you played with in the 60's?  Inquiring (old) minds want to know…

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          It's more than a convention. What you are entering in that box is gateways for pfSense to use that are on that interface. For a WAN interface that will be the upstream gateway, usually your ISP but could be a modem if you're double NATing. For a LAN interface it will usually be left empty because there are no gateways on the LAN network that the pfSense box can use. But that's not always the case. If you have another router on the LAN side and it has another subnet behind it that pfSense will use that router as a gateway to the other subnet. Without it packets addressed to the other subnet will have no route. In that case you must enter the downstream router as a gateway on LAN.

                          Steve

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