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    Internet Keeps going down

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    65 Posts 7 Posters 12.0k Views
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    • chpalmerC Offline
      chpalmer
      last edited by

      There should be a way to get into it…  Otherwise how would you change it back to gateway mode?

      Do you remember the old address it responded to?

      Triggering snowflakes one by one..
      Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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      • X Offline
        xman111
        last edited by

        pretty sure the only way you can get back into it is to factory reset it with the reset button on the back.  It used to respond to 192.168.0.1, now that ip is unreachable.

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        • chpalmerC Offline
          chpalmer
          last edited by

          http://192.168.0.1:8080  work?

          Im reading the manual now…

          Triggering snowflakes one by one..
          Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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          • X Offline
            xman111
            last edited by

            let me check when i get home, just at work now.  would be very helpful if it did.  was able to get the other computer up and running before I went to work today and I think the internet went down before I even left for work.  will have to double check when i get home.  thanks for your replies and trying to help guys, I REALLY appreciate it.

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            • chpalmerC Offline
              chpalmer
              last edited by

              Cool-  Good luck!

              Im watching a video of a guy accessing his in bridge mode and showing how he did it so I know its possible.  You dont have any LAN rules preventing the connection do you?

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0VhTXxHS8

              Triggering snowflakes one by one..
              Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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              • X Offline
                xman111
                last edited by

                I had some port forward rules before to try to get my VOIP phone working but have since installed with just the default PFsense rules, haven't changed a thing for a bare install.

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                • chpalmerC Offline
                  chpalmer
                  last edited by

                  Ok– will wait to read your progress later.

                  :)

                  Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                  • X Offline
                    xman111
                    last edited by

                    thanks so much man, about 8 hours :)

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                    • M Offline
                      mikeisfly
                      last edited by

                      I have a few questions:

                      1. Why are you using the DNS Resolver settings, does your ISP not offer DNS? Just let it pull the DNS information via DHCP
                      2. Can you reset your modem back to gateway mode? For testing purposes. It would seem to me you have a layer 1 issue since you are using link on your firewalls WAN
                      3. Once your gateway is reset can you log into it and post the information under the ISPs network info? I'm looking for Receive signal levels, SNR, Transmit Signal levels …..

                      At Comcast we have a similar Bridge mode and the only way to take it out is to reset the gateway by holding down the reset button for 15 seconds.

                      You can run PfSense from behind a NAT just make sure you uncheck the box on the WAN setup that say, "Block private networks and loopback addresses"

                      When your PfSense Firewall goes down see if you can connect directly to the gateway and get out that way either wireless or wired. This will let us know if the problem is happening upstream of the PfSense Firewall. Also make sure you don't have any switching loops on your network.

                      How if the PfSense Firewall connected to your LAN, are you using a switch, if are you using any vlans? A simple network diagram here would really be helpful. https://www.gliffy.com/

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                      • X Offline
                        xman111
                        last edited by

                        Mostly I use DNS forwarder because i subscribe to AirVPN and they have a PFsense setup guide and DNS forwarder is how he sets it up, but I haven't even got that far yet.  The resolver is just the default setting for the PFsense install, I literally didn't touch anything after install.  Pretty sure my ISP offers DNS but I just default installed and waited for it to go down.

                        I could reset it back to gateway mode for sure to test, at this point I will do anything.  For number 3, yes I could do that as well.

                        when the firewall goes down, sometimes I can ping the firewall from my computer, sometimes I cannot.  Sometimes there is a yellow exclamation mark by the network connection, sometimes not.  All the time I can SSH into the console and mostly I cannot ping from there..

                        I posted a pic of my network above but here it is again…  It is a little more complex than this but for right now, this is how it is, just keeping it basic to get this thing working..

                        https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4IAV3fk9yIYT3VUQ3pzeFFEbWM

                        Really would like to narrow it down to a hardware or software problem, my wife thinks I'm an idiot but I have much invested into Pfsense and don't want to give up.

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                        • chpalmerC Offline
                          chpalmer
                          last edited by

                          Sloooow down a bit… One step at a time.

                          Try the switch and lets see which interface is actually dropping when you lose connection.

                          Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                          Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                          • X Offline
                            xman111
                            last edited by

                            @chpalmer  for sure, i want to be methodical in doing this.

                            how did you want me to wire up the switch to test? just cable modem wan to switch,  then one port of switch to wan of pfsense and another port directly to another Pc?

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                            • M Offline
                              mikeisfly
                              last edited by

                              I will standby in read only mode. If/when you determine its your modem it looks like when you put it back in gateway mode, at the login you should get the numbers I requested.

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                              • X Offline
                                xman111
                                last edited by

                                thanks Mike, appreciate your help very much.

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                                • chpalmerC Offline
                                  chpalmer
                                  last edited by

                                  Put it in series.  Modem - Switch - Router.  If the connection goes down again then you will see which interface drops independently of the other.

                                  Mike-  you saying you can't reach your modems GUI in bridge mode either?  Really makes no sense to me as cable is not a "tunneled" connection like a PPP or VPN connection would be.  Notice that modem in the video I linked to is in bridge mode already as the user is showing the options…

                                  The firewall does not by default block connections outbound to 192.168.0.1 unless you are using 192.168.0.0/ as your LAN as well.

                                  Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                                  • X Offline
                                    xman111
                                    last edited by

                                    like this?  sorry for the crude drawing..

                                    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4IAV3fk9yIYSDEyMl84SDQ3UzA

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                                    • chpalmerC Offline
                                      chpalmer
                                      last edited by

                                      You dont need the PC on the switch.

                                      Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                      Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                                      • X Offline
                                        xman111
                                        last edited by

                                        i would just be able to tell because the lights on the switch?

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                                        • chpalmerC Offline
                                          chpalmer
                                          last edited by

                                          Yep- thats the idea.  Otherwise you could try putting 192.168.0.(2-254) in your laptop as a static IP and see if you can reach the modem while plugged into the switch.

                                          But since you reported that the interface lights also go out during these occasions this should tell you which device is doing it.

                                          Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                          Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                                          • X Offline
                                            xman111
                                            last edited by

                                            Quick update.  Got home, internet was down again after a day of nobody being home.  Old computer has been in since yesterday, trying to eliminate my new computer being the problem. I could ping Pfsense and it would respond, i SSH into the box and couldn't ping out.  No yellow exclamation on networking icon and no indication that the internet wasn't working except I couldn't surf anything.

                                            Here is a pic of desktop

                                            https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4IAV3fk9yIYb0laYmxhY3ctcW8

                                            what I did was take the crappy $20 switch out which connects all my lan and replaced it with my Cisco.  I also added another Cisco switch in series like chpalmer said.  I pulled the Intel dual NIC card and replaced it with my original one.  My wife reminded me that all these problems started when i got the new router and newer network card, so now I have the old dual Intel PCIe NIC back in my old computer.

                                            $700 router and all Cisco equipment, kind of frustrating.  I am hoping that maybe it is that dual NIC.  I also had to reinstall PFsense because when i replace the NIC and try to reboot PFsense, it just endlessly rebooted, would not load.

                                            I also tried disabling DNS forwarder and DNS resolver but it didn't work, so I put them back on.

                                            :)

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