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    TCP/IP Printing mangled across subnets

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Firewalling
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    • S
      shawniverson
      last edited by shawniverson

      Moving the downstream router to its own vlan to create symmetry resolves the issue. I still contend that pfSense should not cause routed traffic to become mangled, even in an asymmetric case.

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by johnpoz

        Who said it's mangled? Many services/devices will not function with asymmetrical. And through a firewall you have a problem where states time out, and then traffic gets blocked.

        You can not expect anything to work correctly if the traffic is asymmetrical - especially if through a firewall and or local where I send traffic to mac address abc (your gateway) and then get traffic back from a different mac.

        Depending on the direction of the traffic its possible the firewall just blocks the answers because it never saw the syn to open the state, etc. The solution is do not do asymmetrical traffic flow.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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        • S
          shawniverson
          last edited by

          It is mangled because the payload is getting altered in transit. This is apparent with a packet capture. Asymmetric routing does not cause issues on other platforms including my cisco routers. Furthermore, if I disable packet filtering in the original scenario, everything functions as expected, so why is the packet filter still interfering when it and the bypass is enabled, and why does it suddenly stop mangling the packets when the packet filter is disabled? Why is the packet filter even a factor here?

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          • DerelictD
            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
            last edited by

            Cisco routers are not stateful firewalls. pfSense is, until you disable pf.

            http://www.cymru.com/gillsr/documents/icmp-redirects-are-bad.pdf

            Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
            A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
            DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
            Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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            • S
              shawniverson
              last edited by

              Then what is the point of this setting, and why does it not completely disable packet filtering for this interface and leave the packets unaltered that route via the same interface?

              Static Route Filtering
              Bypass firewall rules for traffic on the same interface
              This option only applies if one or more static routes have been defined. If it is enabled, traffic that enters and leaves through the same interface will not be checked by the firewall. This may be desirable in some situations where multiple subnets are connected to the same interface.

              I agree that a network shouldn't be asymmetric, but the presence of this setting and the unexpected behavior should be cause for some concern.

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • DerelictD
                Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                last edited by Derelict

                Your design is flawed so your network performance is sub-optimal.

                Different clients and network devices treat ICMP redirects differently. Your best bet is to design your network so such hackiness is unnecessary.

                Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                • S
                  shawniverson
                  last edited by

                  Boy, you are dense and must not have read my earlier post or you would have realized that I have already redesigned my network.

                  "Moving the downstream router to its own vlan to create symmetry resolves the issue."

                  And you are dodging the issue. Static Route Filtering shouldn't be an option in pfSense if it is an unsupported configuration.

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                  • DerelictD
                    Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                    last edited by Derelict

                    It is not an unsupported configuration. It can "solve" (or paper over) a great many asymmetric routing cases.

                    That it does not work for you in your specific case with your specific types of traffic does not mean the feature is broken.

                    Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                    A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                    DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                    Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                    • S
                      shawniverson
                      last edited by

                      So it is supported. Well, then be advised that you cannot TCP/IP print across a Static Route Filtered interface, which results in packet level alterations that interfere with printing as long as the packet filter is enabled.

                      You did not explain why that is happening or attempt to shed light on it, but with the push-back, I'll leave this here and rest my case.

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                      • DerelictD
                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                        last edited by Derelict

                        @derelict said in TCP/IP Printing mangled across subnets:

                        Different clients and network devices treat ICMP redirects differently.

                        Actually, I did: "Different clients and network devices treat ICMP redirects differently."

                        Packet capture analysis would be necessary to determine exactly what is breaking the flow.

                        Good luck.

                        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                        Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @shawniverson
                          last edited by

                          @shawniverson said in TCP/IP Printing mangled across subnets:

                          where multiple subnets are connected to the same interface.

                          That is just BORKED design out of the gate as well.. There is one valid reason when you would be running multiple layer 3 on the same layer 2... That is during the migration from 1 address scheme to another address scheme..

                          Something like running some link-local address space on that layer 3, at the same time as a global address.. But I wouldn't really count this as running 2 L3 on the same wire, since 1 of the address scheme's is only designed to be used on the same layer 2, etc.

                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @shawniverson
                            last edited by

                            @shawniverson said in TCP/IP Printing mangled across subnets:

                            avoid asymmetric configurations....

                            Told you that 2 months ago.. ;)

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                            • S
                              shawniverson
                              last edited by

                              A packet capture and deep analysis revealed that ICMP redirects were the root cause of the failed print jobs. The printer appeared to not understand these packets. Lesson learned. Hopefully this will serve as a reminder to others to avoid asymmetric configurations....

                              DerelictD johnpozJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • DerelictD
                                Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate @shawniverson
                                last edited by Derelict

                                @shawniverson said in TCP/IP Printing mangled across subnets:

                                The printer appeared to not understand these packets.

                                As soon as you stray
                                from the tried and true
                                You never know
                                what's going to screw you
                                burma shave

                                Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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