LAN NIC not installing?
-
Thanks, okay, so the Wi-Fi router connections were right according to the forum threads.
Still no connection and no Web-GUI.I am now having the optical drive go weird and keeps booting the CD.
I even changed the BIOS to boot from HDD and not optical drive, but still boots and reinstalls from DVD.Now the install goes through the quick setup and then freezes with error:
Writing configuration…Perhaps I should have the modem LAN connected to the pfSense WAN, but I thought it should still install?
I'm thinking of downloading the pfSense OS again in case I downloaded a buggy OS? The USB install won't work either, which makes for an inconvenience burning onto DVD again.
-
Yes you should still be able to install with nothing connected to WAN. It will take longer to boot with no WAN connection, sometime a lot longer.
Are you installing to a HD? Failure to write the configuation is not good. Is the HD known to be good?
Why did you still have the DVD in the drive? Just remove it after install.Steve
-
Okay, so I bought a new motherboard, CPU, NIC and optical drive.
Install ok and WAN and LAN IPs are found and I can ping pfSense's LAN from another computer.
However, I still can't eject the DVD, so each reboot reinstalls the system?
I suspect this is a problem with pfSense and this is the 2nd motherboard and optical drive with the same issue.
Any ideas how to fix this?
Yes, I have manually removed the DVD and reset the BIOS to boot from the storage drive, however the boot just looks for the optical drive to boot from?My network was unable to ping outside the WAN, so this probably means I need to configure pfSense's WebGUI now. Looking for a good link for a configuration.
-
Ok, the DVD thing is weird. Usually the drive ejects when the system restarts after the install.
Are you actually installing or just booting the live DVD? If you're just running live it won't write to the HD adn won't eject the disk.Steve
-
I was installing with the pfSense default options which was booting off the LiveDVD.
I have not pressed the option 'I' to install to the storage disk, however the install gets stuck at 36% each time?I've just downloaded the pfSense OS again in iso.gz format.
I will try decompressing, burning and installing off a new DVD. -
Okay, new DVD download pfSense-LiveCD-2.1-RELEASE-i386-20130911-1815.iso installs to storage disk and same freezing error:
Executing Commands
/usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv -I -o /usr /mnt/usr
[- 36%] -
Well, pfSense finally installed completely, without any changes after the install kept sitting at 36%.
Working out how to configure pfSense via GUI as only LAN access and no WAN access yet.
Suddenly, pfSense's monitor went black and unable to ping pfSense, but can ping LAN still.
Tried reboot but same issue?.
Checking if hardware is fried:
CPU fan ok.
Keyboard ?
LAN NIC ok.
Mouse ?
Optical drive ok.
PSU fan ok.
SSD ?
VGA monitor ?
WAN NIC ? -
Getting stuck at 36% is unfortunately quite common in specific hardware. Some people have reported it will eventually install if you just wait otherwise there are work-arounds. See mine and JimPs comments in this thread:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,71941.0.htmlThe monitor suddenly going black sounds like some sort of hardware failure. There is no facility to disable the screen in pfSense. In fact some people have deliberately tried to do that but never really succeeded.
Does it still show anything at boot?Steve
-
Thanks for the link.
Finally installed pfSense to storage disk.Re no monitor, it's totally dead on boot nothing.
I think the 2 x 2GB DDR3 RAM might be blown as I've tested all the other hardware up to this point.No spare DDR3 RAM to test so might have to buy some tomorrow.
Is there a minimum re RAM. Seems coincidental that all this hardware I'm going through is breaking upon the pfSense install?
-
Well, was going to pull apart piece by piece the computer to find the problem…tried one lucky boot and it worked.
Seems a rest of 5 hours helped the boot work.So, now back in pfSense GUI and can ping LAN, but not WAN.
I setup pfSense Setup Wizard, but not sure and something not right with settings?
-
Ok well now you're getting somewhere. :)
You'll probably have to consider the hardware suspect until you find the fault. If you could still ping the LAN interface after the video went black I would first suspect the video hardware, either the monitor or the graphics card.Ok so you can't ping the WAN interface. Do you mean the WAN IP itself or the router on the WAN side?
Is the pfSense WAN interface receiving an IP from the WAN router via dhcp?Steve
-
Yes, maybe the video card, but can't confirm yet.
I've run some traceroute tests and LAN doesn't seem to go past the Wi-Fi router.
Should go to the Switch > Wi-Fi router (192.168.1.180) > pfSense LAN (192.168.1.155) > pfSense WAN (DHCP currently 192.168.0.2) > cable modem LAN (192.168.0.50) > cable modem WAN (WAN IP) > Internet.$ traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.1.180 (192.168.1.180) 0.241 ms 0.344 ms 0.418 ms
2 * * *
3 * * *
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 192.168.0.4 (192.168.0.4) 1114.118 ms !H 1114.127 ms !H 1114.123 ms !H$ traceroute www.google.com
www.google.com: Name or service not known
Cannot handle "host" cmdline arg `www.google.com' on position 1 (argc 1)$ traceroute google.com
google.com: Name or service not known
Cannot handle "host" cmdline arg `google.com' on position 1 (argc 1) -
Can you ping from a client that is not on WIFI?
The WIFI should be wired to one port on the switch and the Switch connected to pfSense LAN.
Is your WIFI in Router mode or just an Access Point?
-
Yep, those things.
We have been over so much now that I'm confused as to where we are. :-
Perhaps you could detail exactly what you have connected and what IP details you're using, dhcp etc.What is 192.168.0.4?
The fact that the first hop is 192.168.1.180, your wifi router, is bad. Your clients should be sending traffic directly to pfSense not via the wifi router.
Steve
-
Well I can ping everything on the LAN that is wired. The WiFi is down.
I reconnected the Wi-Fi router (192.168.1.180) to the Switch and the Switch to the pfSense LAN (192.168.1.155).
The WiFi router is in AP mode.
I noticed the WiFi router's WAN Connection Type is Automatic Configuration - DHCP. Maybe this WiFi WAN should be set to a static IP of 192.168.1.155 (pfSense's LAN IP)?
I rebooted the WiFi router and the WiFi WAN IP is 192.168.0.4.WiFi router details:
Network Setup DHCP disabled. (Maybe this is the LAN settings). -
The WiFi router is in AP mode.
I noticed the WiFi router's WAN Connection Type is Automatic Configuration - DHCP. Maybe this WiFi WAN should be set to a static IP of 192.168.1.155 (pfSense's LAN IP)?
I rebooted the WiFi router and the WiFi WAN IP is 192.168.0.4.WiFi router details:
Network Setup DHCP disabled. (Maybe this is the LAN settings).Glad that the Router is in AP mode and you have it wired to the switch.
In the WIFI setup, You can ignore the WAN setup as you put it into AP Mode.
–------------
The Cable Modem connects to the pfSense WAN interface (If its DHCP it will give the address to pfSense you dont need to worry about it)
The LAN interface you must set this to a different address than the WAN. So for example use 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0 (/24 Subnet)
So now you must ensure that all devices on your network share the same 192.168.1.X addressing. (/24 Subnet)
Connect a cable from pfSense LAN and connect it to one of the ports on the Switch
–------------
Now connect a network cable from the switch to one of the LAN ports of the WIFI (Set to AP Mode). DO NOT CONNECT anything to the WAN port of the WIFI unit.
Set the WIFI LAN address to 192.168.1.2, 255.255.255.0.
–------------
Setup DHCP on pfsense and Disable DHCP on the WIFI.
-
I took another look at your previous email and I think you have you cable modem setup to receive a DHCP address from your ISP.
You should log into the cable modem and set it to Bridged mode. This way it will not take the Internet Address and the pfSense WAN interface will take the DHCP Internet address properly.
This will save you from other headaches down the road.
-
How did the wifi router acquire an IP address of 192.168.0.4? That's the subnet being handed out by the cable router. The two should not be able talk directly.
Steve
-
Yes, the cable modem has DHCP server enabled.
The cable modem receives a WAN IP from the ISP.
The cable modem must be used as it's cable and there is no bridge mode.I prefer the Wi-Fi router's LAN IP with 192.168.1.180 rather than your suggested 192.168.1.2.
The Wi-Fi router LAN also asks for a gateway, so I entered 192.168.1.155.My Wi-Fi router acquired the WAN IP address of 192.168.0.4 because I have to connect the cable modem's LAN into the Wi-Fi router's WAN to get Internet.
I then remove the Ethernet cable from the Wi-Fi router's WAN and connect to pfSense's LAN and the Wi-Fi router has a WAN IP of 0.0.0.0.Yes, all networked devices are on the /24 subnet. (Only the modem and pfSense WAN are on a different subnet).
pfSense can ping www.google.com, but the network can only ping the LAN and no Internet still.
Here are the settings:
Cable COAX > Cable Modem WAN > Cable Modem LAN > pfSense WAN > pfSense LAN > Switch > router LAN1 > router LAN2 > network.Modem DHCP server: enabled.
Modem WAN default gateway from ISP: xxx.xxx.xxx.x.
Modem WAN DMZ Address: 192.168.0.4. (not sure on where this address is for?)
Modem WAN DHCP from ISP: xxx.xxx.xx.xx.
Modem WAN DNS from ISP: 61.9.211.33.
Modem WAN DNS from ISP: 61.9.211.1.
Modem WAN subnet mask: 255.255.240.0.
Modem LAN: 192.168.0.50.
Modem LAN subnet mask: 255.255.255.0.
pfSense DHCP server: disabled.
pfSense WAN DHCP from modem LAN: 192.168.0.2/24.
pfSense LAN: 192.168.1.155.
Switch: to LAN networked devices.
Router Wi-Fi DHCP server: disable as mode is AP.
Router Wi-Fi WAN: not needed as mode is AP.
Router Wi-Fi LAN: 192.168.1.180.
Router Wi-Fi LAN subnet mask: 255.255.255.0.
Router Wi-Fi LAN gateway: 192.168.1.155.
Networked LAN devices DHCP server: disabled.
Networked LAN devices: static 255.255.255.0 subnet IPs. -
Ok. You can use 192.168.1.180 for the wifi router that makes no difference.
It's interesting that the wifi router acquires the DMZ address from the cable router. The 'DMZ' is often used as a kind of quasi bridge mode when no real bridge mode is available.
In your current setup you have three layers of NAT. The cable router, the the pfSense box and the wifi router are all NATing. Whilst this will probably work fine for most things you might find some things struggle, VoIP applications, Skype etc. You should try to to have just one layer of NAT but we can work on that after you actually get connected.
So your wifi router is set to use DHCP on it's WAN interface to get an IP and it does that just fine when connected directly to the cable router. When you connect it to the pfSense LAN it defaults to 0.0.0.0 presumably because DHCP is disabled on the pfSense LAN. Why is it disabled? It should be enabled unless you are using all static addresses for your client machines. Why are you connecting the wifi router WAN to the pfSense LAN? When it is in access point mode you would usually connect one of the rouer LAN ports to the pfSense LAN.
As I've said before I think the wifi router is just complicating things here. You should at least initially try to connect to the pfSense LAN using just a client connected to the switch and that connected to the pfSense LAN.The pfSense WAN interface is receiving an IP from the cable router correctly so that side of the connection may be working fine. You can test that from the pfSense console by selecting Shell (option 8 ) and trying some pings.
Steve