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    Two gateways, two subnets, one internet, subnet connectivity issue

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • M
      marvosa
      last edited by

      I don't mind creating a firewall rule for the individual items in LAN1 that I want to have access to LAN2, that would be ok. The question here is would that use internet to create that connection or would it still function without internet connection? I'd like the networks to be able to talk if the internet is down or turned off.

      The two sites are connected via wireless bridges, so the internet is not involved in any communication between the two sites.

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      • L
        Live4soccer7
        last edited by

        It adds DHCP.

        Example. LAN1 –---------wifi Bridge --------------LAN2--devices on lan 2

        If the wifi bridge goes down or there is an issue on the LAN1 hardware/software AND there is no DHCP on LAN2 then the entire LAN2 network will not function at all. I'd like to keep LAN2 function (except internet) regardless of what happens in LAN1.

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        • L
          Live4soccer7
          last edited by

          A couple things. If I were to go with the route of connecting the two networks via LAN to LAN, could I simply reassign the WAN NIC to a LAN and not have a WAN port on the pfSense Machine and do what you have described?

          For now, I'd like to properly setup a port forward in pfSense to allow an IP from LAN1 to access LAN2. The IP I'd like to give access is 192.168.1.115. pfSense port forward options under firewall-nat-port forward

          Interface: WAN
          Protocol: TCP
          Source: What type of source? Wan IP, LanIP, Network etc…?
          Source Port Range: ANY
          Destination: LAN net: 192.168.5.0 /24 I think this is right, but let me know
          Destination Port Range: Type/Number???
          Redirect Target IP: ?
          Redirect Target Port: ?

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          • M
            marvosa
            last edited by

            If I were to go with the route of connecting the two networks via LAN to LAN, could I simply reassign the WAN NIC to a LAN and not have a WAN port on the pfSense Machine and do what you have described?

            Good question, I suppose if you remove the gateway from the "WAN" interface and just rename it… it would then become a LAN interface... sure.

            For now, I'd like to properly setup a port forward in pfSense to allow an IP from LAN1 to access LAN2. The IP I'd like to give access is 192.168.1.115. pfSense port forward options under firewall-nat-port forward

            Interface: WAN
            Protocol: TCP
            Source: What type of source? Wan IP, LanIP, Network etc…?
            Source Port Range: ANY
            Destination: LAN net: 192.168.5.0 /24 I think this is right, but let me know
            Destination Port Range: Type/Number???
            Redirect Target IP: ?
            Redirect Target Port: ?

            Port forwards are for redirecting external traffic to a specific internal resource on specific ports, so that's not going to work.  For example, if you wanted to only allow 192.168.1.115 access to a web server on 192.168.5.100, you would enter this:

            Interface: WAN
            Protocol: TCP
            Source: "Single host or alias" "192.168.1.115/32"
            Source Port Range: ANY
            Destination: "WAN address"
            Destination Port Range: 80
            Redirect Target IP: 192.168.5.100
            Redirect Target Port: 80

            If you want to allow anyone to the web server, you would change your source back to "any"

            Then, @ LAN 1, to access the web server @ LAN 2, you would enter the WAN address of LAN 2 in your browser…i.e. http://192.168.1.112 and the traffic will be redirected to 192.168.5.100 on port 80.

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            • L
              Live4soccer7
              last edited by

              So the port forward doesn't really seem like the best way to go about it then.

              I'm not really familiar with the site-site tunnel at all or IPSEC.

              Seems like trying to change the WAN on the pfsense box to a LAN connection and attempt the following:

              You have a design issue that needs to be addressed.  If you're connecting two sites via a direct connection, you want to connect the sites via LAN interfaces (not WAN).  So, if you were going to keep both edge devices where they are, I would:
              Add a 3rd NIC to PFsense on LAN 2 and assign it a static IP in the 192.168.1.1/24 range (e.g. 192.168.1.254)
              @ LAN 2, patch your wireless bridge to the 3rd NIC
              @ LAN 2, add an any/any rule to the 3rd NIC interface
              @ LAN 1, add an any/any rule to the LAN interface (you can refine it later if needed)
              @ LAN 1, add a static route to 192.168.5.0/24 with a gateway of 192.168.1.254
              @ LAN 2, PFsense already knows how to get to 192.168.1.0/24 because of the locally connected interface, so no static route needed here
              And you're done.

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              • L
                Live4soccer7
                last edited by

                Good question, I suppose if you remove the gateway from the "WAN" interface and just rename it… it would then become a LAN interface... sure.

                I'm not seeing where I can remove the gateway on the WAN interface.

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                • M
                  marvosa
                  last edited by

                  So the port forward doesn't really seem like the best way to go about it then.

                  Correct.  Because you have to create a port forward for every different connection you want to make

                  I'm not really familiar with the site-site tunnel at all or IPSEC.

                  I would actually use OpenVPN here, the setup is easier, but either way, there's no reason to add the encryption overhead if it isn't necessary.

                  Seems like trying to change the WAN on the pfsense box to a LAN connection and attempt the following:

                  From a design perspective, this is your best option, yes.  In an ideal world, you would configure a separate interface on DDWRT and create an isolated transit network, but that's another conversation and I'm not familiar with creating and assigning interfaces on DDWRT.

                  I'm not seeing where I can remove the gateway on the WAN interface.

                  In the "General Configuration" section, Change the IPv4 Configuration Type to "static" and then in the "Static IPv4 Configuration" section, leave the IPv4 Upstream gateway option as "None"

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                  • L
                    Live4soccer7
                    last edited by

                    Thanks, reading over your post now. Someone posted up a picture of a hand written setup. I was looking over that when I refreshed and it was taken down.

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                    • M
                      marvosa
                      last edited by

                      @Live4soccer7:

                      Thanks, reading over your post now. Someone posted up a picture of a hand written setup. I was looking over that when I refreshed and it was taken down.

                      Yes, he had the right idea about creating a transit network on separate interfaces on both sides, but some of the networking was incorrect and it wouldn't have worked.

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                      • L
                        Live4soccer7
                        last edited by

                        @ LAN 2, add an any/any rule to the 3rd NIC interface

                        For this, you are referring to the firewall rules, correct? If I named newly resigned WAN to NIC3 since that's what you were referring to adding and to lessen confusion between the LANS then would the rule be like this:

                        This rule is being created ON LAN2 (pfsense)

                        Interface: NIC3
                        TCP/IP: IPv4
                        Protocol: TCP
                        Source: any
                        Destination: any
                        Destination Port Range: Leave blank or?

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                        • L
                          Live4soccer7
                          last edited by

                          I've created the static route on LAN1.

                          Destination: 192.168.5.0
                          Subnet MASK: 255.255.255.0
                          Gateway: 192.168.1.254

                          Then when I go to change the WAN to static and assign it an IP of 192.168.1.254, I get the following error in pfsense: This IPv4 address conflicts with a Static Route.

                          edit: by the way, thank you very much for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated. Same goes to everyone else.

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                          • J
                            jamesonp
                            last edited by

                            I kind of figured you might run into that error.  I'm thinking something like this might work:

                            http://i.imgur.com/95ouWv4.jpg

                            I accidentally deleted my post with it originally.

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                            • L
                              Live4soccer7
                              last edited by

                              The local and remote site are backwards in respect to the hardware being used (pfsense vs ddwrt).

                              Are you suggesting to still hook the wireless bridge up on the remote site to a WAN port or to a LAN port?

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                              • J
                                jamesonp
                                last edited by

                                I have not used DDWRT in a long time so I'm unfamiliar with the options.  Do you have the ability to create an OPT type port on the DDWRT side?

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                                • L
                                  Live4soccer7
                                  last edited by

                                  I can unbridge one of the physical ports and I believe assign it a new IP.

                                  Can I load pfsense on this DDWRT router? or is there a better option. It is a WRT320N (V1) router.

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                                  • J
                                    jamesonp
                                    last edited by

                                    Yea that's probably what you're looking for.

                                    I still think an IPSEC tunnel between the sites where the phase two protocol set to AH is your best option.  That way you avoid the NAT issue and port forwarding issues.

                                    I'm pretty sure DDWRT supports IPSEC but I couldn't tell you how to set it up.  Optimally, it'd be best if you could put a pfSense device on the remote site.  All you'd need is a spare PC with two NIC ports.

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                                    • L
                                      Live4soccer7
                                      last edited by

                                      That'd be nice. I'm fresh out of NIC ports and extra PCs. I've utilized just about every piece of hardware I have owned over the last 15 years in the current networks on both sides.

                                      I am unfamiliar with IPSEC. I want to run OpenVPN with a VPN service on the pfsense side. Can I do the IPSEC and have the OpenVPN/VPN service simultaneously?

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                                      • J
                                        jamesonp
                                        last edited by

                                        I don't see why you couldn't.  There's no overlapping ports.

                                        You'd just have to make sure the pfSense box is strong enough to do the encryption/decryption for both IPSEC and OpenVPN at the same time.  Though if you setup the IPSEC phase two entries with just AH, the CPU impact would be far less.

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                                        • L
                                          Live4soccer7
                                          last edited by

                                          Seems like there should be a simpler solution than IPSEC for LAN communication. I'm just baffled, I figured connecting two subnets would have been much simpler.

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                                          • J
                                            jamesonp
                                            last edited by

                                            It really is simple.  You don't have to use IPSEC, I was only suggesting it because I thought that would be the easiest solution in this case.

                                            In reality, the only difficult part of this is the DDWRT setup because I'm unfamiliar with it.

                                            If you could figure out how to not use the WAN port (to avoid NAT) on the DDWRT side, you'd just set it up like how I have in the picture and then add the rules to deny/allow the types of traffic you want pass between the two networks.

                                            Edit:

                                            This might be even better: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78029

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