Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Assigning multiple WAN IP's to multiple interfaces

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    17 Posts 4 Posters 5.1k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D
      dcol Banned
      last edited by

      I do not want to run 4 servers off one NIC. The reason I am switching from my old firewall appliance is because of bandwidth issues and that device had 8 assignable ports which I only used 4.

      I simply want to assign my 4 WAN IP's to the 4 NICs. I have a block of 8 IPs from the ISP on one WAN line.(Only use 4)
      I am using Manual Outbound NAT with 4 Virtual IP's. All 4 servers can browse the internet but if you try to view a webpage on any of the servers, you get the pfsense webconfigurator. This is using the IP and not the domain name from a remote browser. If I use DNS, I get that DNS Rebind error.

      So I am almost there, just need to tweak something and I tried every setting I can think of.

      By the way, using NAT 1:1 does not work at all incoming or outgoing. Can't use port forwarding because I will be using the same port on multiple servers.

      Temporarily I set the firewall on each interfaces to pass all traffic to eliminate any firewall blockage.

      Really appreciate the help

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • T
        tim.mcmanus
        last edited by

        I've posted screen shots of my Port Forward, NAT, 1:1, Outbound NAT, and Rules.  As well as my LAN2 Interface.

        Each of your Interfaces needs firewall rules created to communicate to other interfaces.  See my LAN2 Rules.  Port Forwarding, NAT, 1:1, and Outbound NAT are all more for external communications.  You should try first to get your server onto one of your SERVERx interfaces and then get that to go to the Internet.  So reset your router and get one server on one interface set up to at least communicate with the Internet.  That is low-hanging fruit.  If you can't do that, the rest doesn't matter.

        The only interface that by default can communicate to the Internet is the first LAN interface.  All of the other interfaces lack rules to communicate anywhere else.  I suggest taking the LAN rules and copying them to SERVER1 and see if that gets your server to communicate to the Internet.

        You can use the same port with multiple servers using virtual IPs.  See my screen shots to see how it's done.

        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.58.20 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.58.20 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.58.20 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.58.20 AM.png_thumb)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.16 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.16 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.16 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.16 AM.png_thumb)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.32 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.32 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.32 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.32 AM.png_thumb)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.49 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.49 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.49 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 7.59.49 AM.png_thumb)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.13 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.13 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.13 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.13 AM.png_thumb)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.27 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.27 AM.png)
        ![Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.27 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 8.02.27 AM.png_thumb)

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • D
          dcol Banned
          last edited by

          Thanks for you response I believe it will be a great help when I try it tonight.

          It looks like your configuration has 2 ISP WAN connections. One for the local network and one for your servers. WAN, WAN2
          If you only have one ISP, then tell me what is plugged into the outer WAN interface
          I assume you setup 3 Virtual IP's 96.57.99.139,140, and 141

          using your IPs, here is my setup
          10.0.1.1 - LAN - 96.57.99.138 - my 4th IP
          10.0.2.1 - SERVER1 - 96.57.99.139 - Your LAN2
          10.0.3.1 - SERVER2 - 96.57.99.140
          10.0.4.1 - SERVER3 - 96.57.99.141
          WAN - ISP connection with multi IP's

          My NAT: Outbound would have only WAN to each subnet source and NAT address as WAN address
          My SERVERx Firewall: Rules would be the same for each interface

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • jahonixJ
            jahonix
            last edited by

            @dcol:

            I do not want to run 4 servers off one NIC … because of bandwidth issues...

            But they are all connected through one bottleneck WAN interface, right?
            Do you use lots of local traffic to your servers? (Exchange Server with some Outlook clients does count.  ;-)

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • T
              tim.mcmanus
              last edited by

              96.57.99.138-141 are all on the same WAN2 interface.  They route to machines on my LAN and LAN2 (mostly LAN2).

              WAN is a completely different WAN interface.  Yes, WAN and WAN2 are two independent and different WAN connections.

              So if you follow the screen shots, a connection coming into WAN2 for address 96.57.99.140 would route (in your case) to SERVER2 (10.0.3.1).  You'll see this in the NAT screen where it comes into a public IP and then routes to a private IP.

              You'll see a subsequent firewall rule to the NAT (they can be created at the same time, and I recommend this) for the WAN2 interface (which is the 96.57.99.138-141 interface) and routes that traffic to the destination server in LAN2.

              LAN2 has firewall rules allowing any-to-any, so traffic can go in and out of that interface.  All of your SERVERx interfaces should be any-any to allow traffic into and out of the devices on that subnet.

              However, as I stated in my initial post, start with the SERVERx rules and create the initial any-any rule FIRST.  Then see if the server can reach the Internet.  It should.  Once you've solved that issue, create the virtual IPs and then NATs, and it should just start working.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D
                dcol Banned
                last edited by

                Thanks it is now working as expected, except the download speeds are 50% lower than when I was on the firewall appliance.
                My system is a Dell with i5-4690 8GB memory, Intel i340-T4 quad NIC, and SSD drive. Should be faster internet speeds.

                Is there any way to bring up the performance? Maybe there is some limiting setting somewhere.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • T
                  tim.mcmanus
                  last edited by

                  If you're not running any additional packages (and even if you were), you shouldn't see any impact to performance. Your specs seems. Rey good for the task at hand and then some.

                  How are you measuring download speeds and from where to where?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • D
                    dcol Banned
                    last edited by

                    My normal bandwidth is 20Mbps Upload and 150Mbps Download. Since using pfsense I still get 20Mbps Up but only 40Mbps down. I figured it is some throttling on the downloads.

                    UPDATE
                    The servers bandwidth, clocking at 100Mbps down, is much higher than the LAN. I'd be one happy camper if the LAN did that well

                    I was hopping after I add a bunch of packages, which I have not done so far, I can maintain decent speeds.
                    I am going to post my settings shortly and lets see if anyone can spot any mistakes I may have made.

                    Thanks to you all, you have been a great help and frankly makes pfsense a better product.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • D
                      dcol Banned
                      last edited by

                      Here are screenshots of my setting. Public IP's are partially masked for security.
                      Every setting not shown would be the default setting.

                      Firewall_NAT_1_1.jpg
                      Firewall_NAT_1_1.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_NAT_Outbound.jpg
                      Firewall_NAT_Outbound.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_Rules.jpg
                      Firewall_Rules.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_NAT_PortForward.jpg
                      Firewall_NAT_PortForward.jpg_thumb
                      Interface_LAN.jpg
                      Interface_LAN.jpg_thumb
                      Interface_SERVER1.jpg
                      Interface_SERVER1.jpg_thumb
                      Interface_WAN.jpg
                      Interface_WAN.jpg_thumb
                      Status_Dashboard.jpg
                      Status_Dashboard.jpg_thumb
                      System_Advanced_NAT.jpg
                      System_Advanced_NAT.jpg_thumb
                      Virtual_IPs.jpg
                      Virtual_IPs.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_Rules_LAN.jpg
                      Firewall_Rules_LAN.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_Rules_SERVER1.jpg
                      Firewall_Rules_SERVER1.jpg_thumb
                      Firewall_Aliases_Ports.jpg
                      Firewall_Aliases_Ports.jpg_thumb

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • T
                        tim.mcmanus
                        last edited by

                        Your MBUF usage is very high for a computer with your specs. Not sure why and not entirely sure it's at all related to your issue of speed. Everything else looks okay.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          dcol Banned
                          last edited by

                          MBUF was high because of the Intel Quad NIC. I added kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000" to the loader.conf.local file and now the MBUF is down to 2%

                          Thanks for that catch.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • First post
                            Last post
                          Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.