Ethernet connection goes down every now & then
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Hi!
I have sometimes problem with ethernet connection to Zyxel AMG1001-T10A which means my Internet connection goes down. It seems that only rebooting pfsense helps.
How should I start to check what's causing this?
- Pfsense is running with Giada f102d Intel Atom pc
- Zyxel Wan/ADSL connection stays up
- I've changed ethernet cable between Zyxel - pfsense pc
Oct 24 09:09:23 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Oct 24 09:09:33 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Oct 24 09:10:23 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Oct 24 09:10:23 pfsense apinger: alarm canceled (config reload): WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Oct 24 09:10:23 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Oct 24 09:13:30 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(26840) Oct 24 09:13:30 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Oct 24 09:13:41 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Oct 24 13:29:48 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Oct 28 14:56:40 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(29797) Oct 28 14:56:50 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Oct 28 17:09:51 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Oct 28 17:09:51 pfsense apinger: alarm canceled (config reload): WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Oct 28 17:09:51 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Oct 28 17:10:42 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(802) Oct 28 17:10:42 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Oct 28 17:12:33 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(2953) Oct 28 17:12:33 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Oct 28 17:14:25 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(30687) Oct 28 17:14:35 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Nov 2 22:52:55 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(26993) Nov 2 22:52:55 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Nov 2 22:58:03 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(36968) Nov 2 22:58:13 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down *** Nov 3 22:05:42 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(26564) Nov 3 22:05:42 pfsense apinger: No usable targets found, exiting Nov 3 22:12:20 pfsense apinger: Starting Alarm Pinger, apinger(27469) Nov 3 22:12:21 pfsense apinger: SIGHUP received, reloading configuration. Nov 3 22:12:31 pfsense apinger: ALARM: WAN_DHCP(88.115.xxx.x) *** down ***
From the side of ISP - they are not seeing any connection problems…
2.1.4-RELEASE (i386)
built on Fri Jun 20 12:59:29 EDT 2014
FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16 -
Does it actually lose link, show as down under Status>Interfaces? What type of config do you have on WAN?
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Yeap it actually lose link :o
In interface configuration nothing special:
ipv4 dhcp, ipv6 none
Speed & duplex Default
Block private yes & Block bogon yesStatus up
DHCP up
MAC address xxxxxxxxxxxxx
IPv4 address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subnet mask IPv4 255.255.240.0
Gateway IPv4 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IPv6 Link Local xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ISP DNS servers 127.0.0.1
193.229.0.40
193.229.0.42
195.74.0.47
195.74.0.55
Media 100baseTX -
https://www.pfsense.org/hardware/#requirements
It seems that your box uses realtek nic hardware. I've heard in multiple places that realtek isn't great. It could be too much packet loss or instability causing pfsense to drop the connection.
You could also try to disable apinger. It's not really needed if you only have one wan connection. It won't really matter if pfsense doesn't detect the wan connection since you're not needing it to fail-over. Not entirely sure if this makes any difference though.
I have also been dealing with this same issue. I replaced my wan nic a couple of days ago and so far it has been stable. I used to have your issue happen up to several times a day, even in a row sometimes.
You can also go to Status - Interfaces and release and renew the wan ip instead of rebooting the whole box.
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If you're losing link there's something at a hardware or physical level that's a problem. Bad cable, bad modem, bad NIC being the 3 most likely. Nothing software-wise will change that. apinger is a symptom of what's happening, not a cause.
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If the link is actually going down I would expect to see evidence of that in the logs other than apinger. With Realtek NICs you might see timeouts from the driver, though their Gigabit NICs are generally far more reliable.
Steve
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"From the side of ISP - they are not seeing any connection problems…"
Loosely translated - "Please keep paying us for broken service".
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well… after checking this it seems that link is staying up but something else happening...
When link is "going down" then status: Interfaces shows that it is "up" (wan interface re0)- however nothing is moving and my pc is seeing that internet is down. Release & Renew button normally fixes this.
And changing nic is not an option because Giada F102D is fixed ethernet ports and for some reason re1 interface stays up without any problem.
I test this first to take apinger away.
hmm... edit: how remove apinger Gateway monitoring Daemon?
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Go to System: Routing: Gateways tab. Edit your wan gateway and disable gateway monitoring.
Steve