Domainnames to pfsense and not the web page.

doktornotor · Mar 17, 2014, 11:34 AM

Enable NAT reflection.

jasonlitka · Mar 24, 2014, 3:55 PM

@doktornotor:

Enable NAT reflection.

Or better, use split DNS.

neggard · Nov 17, 2015, 1:30 PM

Why is Split DNS better?

When I use split DNS and I use adress.com on LAN side I see pfsense loginpage and not my webserver.

johnpoz · Nov 17, 2015, 1:35 PM

@neggard:

When I use split DNS and I use adress.com on LAN side I see pfsense loginpage and not my webserver.

Then your not doing it right.

As to why its better - well lets see for starters your not HAIRPINNING a connection.. For what possible reason should your packets go through your firewall to talk to a IP that is on the same lan as you.. Its wrong at a multiple levels, nat reflection is an abomination that should just die..

muswellhillbilly · Nov 17, 2015, 4:15 PM

@neggard:

When I use split DNS and I use adress.com on LAN side I see pfsense loginpage and not my webserver.

You're setting your internal A record for www.mydomain.com to point to your PFS box, not the webserver. The internal address of the webserver - not the firewall - is what you want the record for www.mydomain.com to use.

chris4916 · Nov 17, 2015, 8:32 PM

I'm a fan of true split DNS design, for all the reasons you describe but pfSense doesn't really help to achieve it.

It works smoothly if your public IP is handled by another DNS, not pfSene. Then you can manage internal IP only with pfSense.
Doing so, internal clients will reach internal servers using internal IP and external clients will use external DNS that will resolve internal server with external (public) IP.

johnpoz · Nov 17, 2015, 9:52 PM

"I'm a fan of true split DNS design, for all the reasons you describe but pfSense doesn't really help to achieve it."
"It works smoothly if your public IP is handled by another DNS, not pfSene"

Why would pfsense be handing your public DNS?? That is bad idea out of the gateway - pfsense does not run an authoritative name server… Did you install BIND on pfsense? If so it has full support for views and can handle split just fine.

To be honest there are going to be very few reasons to host your own dns ever to the public.. Let the people that do it for their bread and butter do it, or let your hosting service do it, or your registrar do it, or one of the many dns services out there do it.. There is no way you could ever achieve the stability and feature set that the services can provide.

dnsmadeeasy for example for $29 a year you get global dns solution with anycast, etc. etc..

neggard · Nov 18, 2015, 8:04 AM

I go to Services - DNS forwarder
In Host Overrides I put my domain and IP-adress to the webserver

When I then enable DNS forwarder using this guide https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Why_can't_I_access_forwarded_ports_on_my_WAN_IP_from_my_LAN/OPTx_networks
(At the bottom)

I got this error when I press Save

The following input errors were detected:

The DNS Resolver is enabled using this port. Choose a non-conflicting port, or disable DNS Resolver.

doktornotor · Nov 18, 2015, 9:08 AM

You do NOT need DNS forwarder for this. If you are using the resolver, simply configure it there. It's exact same configuration.

As for public DNS on pfSense, this is absolutely horrible, horrible idea. Beyond the fact that DNS is for free with pretty much any decent domain registrar… https://dns.he.net/ <- there you can have 50 domains handled for free. Zillion times better than your ISP line can handle.

neggard · Nov 18, 2015, 9:44 AM

I think split DNS was DNS forward.

Where do I manage Split DNS then?

doktornotor · Nov 18, 2015, 9:50 AM

You go to DNS Resolver and configure the host/domain overrides there. Exactly the same way like with DNS Forwarder. Produce some effort on your own to at least look at the GUI, please.

johnpoz · Nov 18, 2015, 12:03 PM

Seems you don't actually understand what a forwarder or resolver is and their differences, nor what the term split dns actually means.. Nothing wrong with that - just ask next time.

So clearly you not hosting your name services to the public either off of pfsense then either??

chris4916 · Nov 19, 2015, 7:39 AM

@johnpoz:

Why would pfsense be handing your public DNS?? That is bad idea out of the gateway - pfsense does not run an authoritative name server… Did you install BIND on pfsense? If so it has full support for views and can handle split just fine.

I do agree, reason why I'm explaining this ;)
I often see here and there, still discussing about pfSense : "yeah, easy, just use split DNS…"
For sure split-DNS is sometimes the right answer to some specific question related ton internal vs. external access.
However, I'm pretty sure this basic statement doesn't make clear for all that if split-DNS is the technical answer, this is not achieved relying on pfSense only ;)