A few basic questions about features from a NOOB -

[Guest]

Hello again and many thanks for your patience! :-)

Here the first 3 rules of my LAN set. The first is the default, the second blocks some domain names (as in alias "blocklist") for the kids IPs (alias "junx", IPs are correct, trust me :-D ).

The third rule blocks all WAN access according to a schedule called "majo", see below, which kicks in at 21:00. At 21:00 the eMail report for the states (pfctl -ss | grep 10.xxx.yyy.zzz) of one of the IPs blocked is EMPTY, completely empty, Null, NADA, NIENTE…

EDIT: But I found now that this is not the truth, there ARE states alive at that time, checked by hand (Diagnostics -> States). What is wrong with the eMail report job? :o

The browser at the kids computers is still alive at that time, of course. Two minutes later the Cron job does (?) its job

pfctl -F state

EDIT: However, the states are still alive, not in the eMail report (completely empty), but when I check manually. When I go to Status -> eMail Reports and press "Send now", there ARE states, but not according to the eMail sent out automatically.... STRANGE indeed!

Now I'm no longer willing to watch this and do

Diagnostics -> States -> filter for kids IP and press KILL

States are gone now... dunno if they come up again if they manipulate with their browsers, normally they should NOT. ;)

So actually the problem appears to be related to my Cron job and the eMail Reports on states send out. Apparently. Or any other explanations? ???


[johnpoz]

Well another thing is when are the states being created from your schedule there is 1 minute while its off.  so at 23:59:01 its off til 23:59:59, then turns back on at 00:00

Just pointing out a possible flaw..  You would need to validate that the states are gone..  Why your email says they are none, but when you check is odd yes.

[Guest]

Same game today:

21:00 firewall block rule
21:00 eMail report for "pfctl -ss | grep 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ" COMPLETELY EMPTY
21:01 Cron job "01  21  *  *  *  root  pfctl -F state"

so far so good, but

21:14 I check states for the blocked IP via Diagnostics -> States and find: 32 states alive AS WELL AS by press "SEND NOW" for the eMail Report job for 21:00, same result dozends of states alive…

I erased the Cron job as well as the eMail report jobs yesterday and made them new. Makes no difference, as you see. Don't know what to do next...

[Guest]

Question:

Found this in my logs:

php: rc.start_packages: The command '/usr/local/etc/rc.d/cron.sh stop' returned exit code '1', the output was ''

Might this result in impaired Cron functionality?

[stephenw10]

That's not necessarily a problem. Cron is stopped and restarted along with all packages, usually in response to an IP change on one of your interfaces though could be a config change etc. As long as it starts again correctly it shouldn't be causing an issue though you could end up with multiple instances if it wasn't stopped correctly for example.

Steve

[Guest]

Status -> Services shows Cron as up and running

Diagnostics -> Sockets shows only one instance for Cron

Re-installed Cron package, but I still don't see proper functioning, as apparently the states are not killed (pfctl -F state) and the output from eMail reports (performed via Cron jobs) doesn't provide accurate information on the states present.

No idea why…

[Guest]

..got an idea why. Question:

In wich directory are the commands executed in the Diagnosics -> Execute Command window of the GUI?

Is it /usr/bin/ ?

That could make my Cron job for killing states work, if I find the right directory to execute the Cron job in…

[BBcan177]

To display the location of your current working directory, enter the command

pwd

The output should look similar to:

/home/user

[Guest]

Hey, many thanx!

Apparently it's

/usr/local/www

… I'll try that this evening... :-D

[stephenw10]

Make sure you use the absolute path to all the commands in your cron job. That way it doesn't matter where it's executed from.
Edit: Or, importantly, that the process executing the cron job may not have the same default paths as a shell prompt.

Steve

[Guest]

Definitely! But at first you have to know the correct absolute path!  ;)

[BBcan177]

Stephen is correct always use absolute paths in the scripts.

To find the location of a file, you can run the following command.

find / -name pfctl

[Guest]

OK, then it should be /sbin/pfctl … Try this today

What I really don't understand is the problem with the eMail Reports. When I press "Send Now" at the setup page for the respective job everything is fine and the eMail contains the information on the states for the requested IP. But when the Cron runs the respective php script the eMail contains no states at all... tried the /sbin/ path for the eMail Report command, too, let's see if it works... :-D

[BBcan177]

Can you post the commandline?

[Guest]

@chemlud:

….
21:00 eMail report for "pfctl -ss | grep 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ" COMPLETELY EMPTY
...

;)

Edit: Crazy, I tried the command (without /sbin/) on another box for a different IP (without a block rule at the firewall tab) and there the Cron-sent eMail Report is correct, including the states info for the requested IP. Dunno what's wrong here…

[BBcan177]

I set that command to run and it emailed thru without issue. I did include " " around the IP address thou.

/sbin/pfctl -ss | grep "10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ"

[Guest]

See my edit above, worked for me without the "" for the IP, but not on the box I need the command to work.  Unfortunately the eMail Report page of the GUI allows no minutes to be entered, so only every full hour the job can be tested…

To be continued... :-)

Edith:

Cron job with

/sbin/pfctl -k 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ

1 minute after the block rule WORKED! PAAARTY!  8)

And the eMail Report for
pfctl -ss | grep 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ

gave no output, while

/sbin/pfctl -ss | grep 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ

correctly reported the states!

Problems solved, Block rule works

[stephenw10]

Persistence pays off!  ;)

Steve

[Guest]

Yeaaaah, but sometimes you simply need the right path, to look for the solution…  ;D ;)

[n3by]

hello,

Let me thank you for using your "pfctl -k ip & cron" solution to be able to use schedule on pfsense 2.1.5 ( because upgrade to 2.2 failed for me… some packages I use in 2.1.5 did not worked any more on 2.2 ) and now I need help if possible:

question is: how to clear only connections that go ( or come ) to specific destination port, I tried to find on internet some help but no luck.

The problem is that children are playing minecraft all day long if possible and I want to clear only the connection with port 25565 used to go to minecraft servers and not all connection established at the expiration time, in case something important is going on background and of course as you know at scheduling expiration rule is not kill established connection on that port.

Anybody who can help ?

thank you