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    Routing between two pfsense firewalls connected by fiber

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Routing and Multi WAN
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    • G
      georgeman
      last edited by

      What type of VPN are you using? If it is IPsec, routing is not handled by the static routes. To make this work, you need to add the appropriate Phase2's on both boxes, with the source and destination subnets according to what you want to route.

      If it ain't broke, you haven't tampered enough with it

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      • J
        Jeroen
        last edited by

        Let me rephrase the vpn :)

        it's a fixed tunnel between the two sites over fiber.
        Both ends have a lightning edge for fiber to utp.

        there is no internet traffic, just a tunnel between the two sites.
        At both sides connected to eth5.
        at site A the eth5 has 192.168.50.2 as ip and at site B eth5 has 192.168.50.1 as ip.
        I can ping both from each site.
        So the tunnel is working.

        So it's not a vpn tunnel setup on either pfsense boxes.

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        • D
          divsys
          last edited by

          Have you allowed traffic from VPN to LAN1/LAN2, ie (on Site A) 192.168.50.x to 192.168.1.x/192.168.2.x and similarly on Site B?

          Do the logs show anything when you try and ping between sites?

          -jfp

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          • J
            Jeroen
            last edited by

            On both sites i allow:

            vpn net to lan1 net
            lan1 net to vpn net
            lan1 to 192.168.10.0 network (and the 1.0/2.0/11.0)
            192.168.10.0 network (and the 1.0/2.0/11.0) to lan1 (lan2 etc)

            i have rules allowing vpn to lanx and lanx to lany etc on any protocol.

            logs show nothing.
            I have the lan1 to 192.168.x.0/24 network set to logging.
            just when i ping, nothing (not blocked or passed) shows in the log.
            i do use the ping util in pfsense to ping the other site.

            so what i basicly allow is:

            Site A: eth1 (lan1) to eth5 (tunnel) to Site B: eth5 (tunnel) to eth1 (lan1 remote network).
            i also allow eth1 (lan1) to eth1 (lan1 remote network) in a rule.

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            • H
              heper
              last edited by

              i believe your static routes are flawed…. i would think your gateway, is the host pfsense on the other end.

              try this:
              site-a

              eth5 = vpn (interface ip 192.168.50.2)

              gateway 192.168.50.2 as route to Site B
              static route to 192.168.10.0/24 using gateway 192.168.50.2
              statis route to 192.168.11.0/24 using gateway 192.168.50.2

              change "192.168.50.2' –> '192.168.50.1'

              site-b:

              eth5 = vpn (interface ip 192.168.50.1)

              gateway 192.168.50.1 as route to Site A
              static route to 192.168.0.0/24 using gateway 192.168.50.1
              statis route to 192.168.1.0/24 using gateway 192.168.50.1

              change "192.168.50.1' –> '192.168.50.2'

              hope it helps

              mvg
              jeroen

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              • J
                Jeroen
                last edited by

                i tried to change the ip's for the gateways, still no luck.

                i did notice just yet (by testing the change to the gateway ips) that if i use the diagnostic ping from pfsense and i choose destination 192.168.10.1 and set the source to lan1 net.
                I get the following reply:

                PING 192.168.10.1 (192.168.10.1) from 192.168.1.254: 56 data bytes

                it looks like it's using the 192.168.1.254 as gateway for the 192.168.10.0 network instead of the 192.168.50.2 (or is this correct and am i seeing thing wrong :))
                When i select the vpn tunnel net as source i can't ping the 192.168.10.1 addres either, but is show the correct gateway: PING 192.168.10.1 (192.168.10.1) from 192.168.50.2: 56 data bytes

                it seems i can also ping the 192.168.50.1 from the 192.168.50.2 (and the other way around)
                I can't ping the 50.x adresses from any other interface on the other site.

                Is the routing not using the right gateway here?

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                • H
                  heper
                  last edited by

                  did you flush states after changing the static routes ?

                  are you combining gateway with static routes for some reason ?
                  what i was trying to ask, is if you are using policy-routing in your firewall-rules, that contradict the "natural flow' of your static routes?  ;)

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                  • J
                    Jeroen
                    last edited by

                    i did reset states.

                    There is one default gateway (wan side)
                    Then there is a gateway for the route.

                    on site A, lan1 there is a rule:

                    protocal = any
                    source = lan1 net
                    destination = 192.168.10.0/24 network

                    At the bottom the gateway for this rule is the extra gateway (192.168.50.2 for site A)

                    So at Site A there is a second gateway called ToSiteB and the gateway adres is 192.168.50.2
                    There is a route network 192.168.10.0/24 using gateway ToSiteB (192.168.50.2) on interface eth5 (the tunnel nic)

                    At Site B there is a second gateway called ToSiteA and the gateway adres is 192.168.50.1
                    There is a route network 192.168.1.0/24 using gateway ToSiteA (192.168.50.1) on interface eth5 (the tunnel nic).

                    obviously there is something wrong or missing (or the tunnel isn't working like it should although i can ping eth5 ip's from either site).
                    to me right now all config and rules seem fine though :)

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                    • H
                      heper
                      last edited by

                      as i tried to explain in the previous post:

                      (site-A: 192.168.50.2)–---------------------------------------------------------------------(site-B:192.168.50.1)
                                  |                                                                                                                                        |
                        LAN 192.168.1.x                                                                                                              LAN 192.168.10.x
                        LAN 192.168.2.x                                                                                                              LAN 192.168.11.x

                      on site-A:
                      modify/create the gateway for the fiber interface from 192.168.50.2  TO  192.168.50.1

                      on site-B
                      modify/create the gateway for the fiber interface from 192.168.50.1  TO  192.168.50.5

                      also remove any policy-routing the firewall rules (the gateway-selection at the advanced section)

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                      • G
                        georgeman
                        last edited by

                        Be careful with the firewall rules, the allow rules should be on the interfaces that serve as a link.

                        For troubleshooting purposes I suggest to place an allow all rule on those interfaces

                        If it ain't broke, you haven't tampered enough with it

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                        • J
                          Jeroen
                          last edited by

                          @Heper

                          I've changed that and now i can ping the interface (eg 192.168.10.1) on the other pfsense.
                          I can't however ping any client in that lan (eg 192.168.10.10).

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                          • H
                            heper
                            last edited by

                            so to summerize:

                            client_LAN-A:
                            -ping to 192.168.50.1 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.10.1 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.11.1 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.10.10 = Not OK
                            -ping to 192.168.11.10 = Not OK

                            client_LAN-B:
                            -ping to 192.168.50.2 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.1.1 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.2.1 = OK
                            -ping to 192.168.1.10 = Not OK
                            -ping to 192.168.2.10 = Not OK

                            Is this the current situation?

                            -Is there firewalling-software running on the clients?
                            -Do the clients have pfSense set as their default gateway in their network settings?
                            -Try running a "packet capture" on one of your LAN interfaces (specify a lan_client as host-address). Try to figure out what is happening to the pings.

                            I'm guessing the pings arrive at the destination, but the reply gets lost somewhere.

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                            • G
                              georgeman
                              last edited by

                              @heper:

                              -Is there firewalling-software running on the clients?

                              I bet this is the issue. By default, the Windows firewall allows ICMP only from within its own subnet

                              If it ain't broke, you haven't tampered enough with it

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