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    WAN not pulling from new Charter Modem Arris tm822a

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • W Offline
      willjob
      last edited by

      First time I have need to ask a question. I have greatly relied on these message boards for help but can't find this issue…

      I have had pfsense set up for about a month and working great. Yesterday Charter came out to fix something on the TV side and while here did a test on the modem strength. The tech said it was weak signal and changed out the modem with a new model. I did a quick test from my laptop and it pulled the ip address from Charter without any problems. Well, the tech leaves and I hook it back to my pfsense box and the wan will not pull the address from charter. I have tried switching the lan and wan interfaces just in case it was a bad interface and it still works on the lan side. I have rebooted and changed out cables. What is odd is that my wireless firewall and 2 individual laptops pull the ip from charter immediately without problems. Please let me know what thoughts / ideas you have to get this fixed.

      Here is my setup

      Charter modem:    Arris tm822a
      pfsense box:    2550L2D-MxPC Intel NM10.... found here..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007

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      • M Offline
        mer
        last edited by

        As a test, did you try assigning the MAC from say the wireless firewall to the WAN of the pfSense device?  Just in case there's something filtering on MAC.  From what you've said, it's probably not doing that, but simple enough test.

        Do you get link on WAN when pfSense is plugged into the arris?  Is it what it should be (100 Mb, full duplex)?  If not make sure that both sides are set to Autonegotiate or forced with the same parameters (Autoneg is preferred).

        Are you sure that you have your WAN and LAN correct?  It sounds like it, but a simple check.
        WAN is still set to DHCP?

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        • ? This user is from outside of this forum
          Guest
          last edited by

          Hello together,

          I am a little bit unsure how to tell it in the right terms, but a pure modem, with WLAN and phone capabilities
          might be more called a router and if this is so, please check if you can set this router to the bridged mode
          that it is acting as a pure modem. Mostly, and on the most know devices that are also coming as a "modem"
          but in real it is a router doing SPI & NAT by it self they lost their phone and WLAN function if they are running
          in the so called bridged mode to be acting like a pure modem! Can you verify that this is only a modem and that
          it will not be doing NAT by his own?

          Perhaps is Charter offering several services at the WAN port also over VLANs and this must be
          plit at the WAN port of the pfSense, could this perhaps be too!?

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          • W Offline
            willjob
            last edited by

            @mer:

            As a test, did you try assigning the MAC from say the wireless firewall to the WAN of the pfSense device?  Just in case there's something filtering on MAC.  From what you've said, it's probably not doing that, but simple enough test.

            Well…. this did the trick. Worked immediately. Not sure why the new charter device did not like the MAC address to begin with. It worked with the previous charter box. Thank you for your help. I was pulling my hair out trying to fix.

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            • M Offline
              mer
              last edited by

              Glad to hear it.  Sometimes the ISPs are funny with assigning addresses;  first MAC seen gets the address and trying to get them to do something different is like getting a colonoscopy every day for a month.  They may have had something in their config that tied a mac to that emta.

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              • W Offline
                willjob
                last edited by

                @mer:

                Glad to hear it.  Sometimes the ISPs are funny with assigning addresses;  first MAC seen gets the address and trying to get them to do something different is like getting a colonoscopy every day for a month.  They may have had something in their config that tied a mac to that emta.

                Well… I spoke too soon...  I rebooted the pfsense box and now wan will not connect again to charter modem. I plug the modem with same cat cable into laptop and 2 other wifi routers and they connect within seconds to the modem.

                What else can I try? This is new pfsense box... See above.

                When I reboot the pfsense box the lights at the wan connection blink for about 5 seconds and same on charter modem. Also the lan lights blink. Then half way through the startup both wan and lan lights go out for a couple seconds and then the lan lights start to blink again but the wan lights stay dark.

                I called charter but they swore up and down that everything is working on their end.

                Please help! I am pulling my hair out!

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                • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                  Guest
                  last edited by

                  What else can I try? This is new pfsense box… See above.

                  What kind of connection method you were setting up at the pfSense box?
                  DHCP, static public IP address or something else? Is the Arris a pure modem or a router?
                  After rebooting the pfSense was the given MAC address from you also inside or gone?
                  Perhaps you might be needing the new MAC Adress from the new Arris modem?

                  Please help! I am pulling my hair out!

                  Don´t do so this only looks good for Bruce Willis!

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                  • W Offline
                    willjob
                    last edited by

                    @BlueKobold:

                    What else can I try? This is new pfsense box… See above.

                    What kind of connection method you were setting up at the pfSense box?
                    DHCP, static public IP address or something else? Is the Arris a pure modem or a router?
                    After rebooting the pfSense was the given MAC address from you also inside or gone?
                    Perhaps you might be needing the new MAC Adress from the new Arris modem?

                    Please help! I am pulling my hair out!

                    Don´t do so this only looks good for Bruce Willis!

                    Thank you all for the help. I had Charter switch out the cable modem from the Arris to a cisco modem. Fired up the cisco and it worked instantly …. even without having to change the mac address. It seems like on another forum I had read where some of the newer cable modems don't work with pfsense.  Thought I would share for someone else who might have the same issue. Here is another person who had the same issue as me on the pfsense forums.....

                    https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=287475

                    Again... thanks for all the help!!! :D

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