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    Netgear 4G modem on WAN port - weird IP address and no internet

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • RicoR
      Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
      last edited by

      Here in Germany 4G/LTE is 100% Carrier-grade NAT (CGN) only. 😑

      -Rico

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • S
        skoota
        last edited by

        Thanks for your replies, but I don't think that's the issue. As mentioned in my question, when the modem (in bridge mode) is connected directly to a laptop the laptop does get a public routable internet address, not a NAT RFC1918 address - indicating that the 4G carrier does indeed provide a true public IP address to clients.

        JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • chpalmerC
          chpalmer
          last edited by chpalmer

          Verizon uses Rfc 6598 addressing on everything we have. Even my IPv6 addresses appear to be behind NAT.

          What carrier are you using?

          Have you tried spoofing your MAC address on your WAN page?

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

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • JKnottJ
            JKnott @skoota
            last edited by

            @mpp-cgs said in Netgear 4G modem on WAN port - weird IP address and no internet:

            As mentioned in my question, when the modem (in bridge mode) is connected directly to a laptop the laptop does get a public routable internet address, not a NAT RFC1918 address

            You said you get an address in the 10.70.0.0/16 range. The entire 10.0.0.0 /8 block is RFC1918. Also, the subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 indicates an address that is used to identify an interface only. It could never be used to directly communicate with another device. That sort of address is typically used in routers and traffic for that address has to be forwarded by the router.

            PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
            i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
            UniFi AC-Lite access point

            I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              skoota @JKnott
              last edited by

              @jknott said in Netgear 4G modem on WAN port - weird IP address and no internet:

              You said you get an address in the 10.70.0.0/16 range. The entire 10.0.0.0 /8 block is RFC1918. Also, the subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 indicates an address that is used to identify an interface only. It could never be used to directly communicate with another device. That sort of address is typically used in routers and traffic for that address has to be forwarded by the router.

              Yes, but when that exact same modem is directly plugged into an actual computer the network interface on the computer is given a publicly, internet routable IP address - indicating that our service provider (Vodafone Australia) is not doing carrier-grade NAT and that pfSense is somehow getting that strange 10.70.0.0/16 address from elsewhere, not from the modem. The subnet mask provided to the computer, when it's given the public internet IP address, is 255.255.255.0 and not 255.255.255.255.

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              • JKnottJ
                JKnott
                last edited by

                It's entirely possible that they're using a RFC1918 address for internal routing. There's nothing wrong with that. I have seen that myself.

                PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                UniFi AC-Lite access point

                I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  Marv21
                  last edited by Marv21

                  Did you tried to connect the modem before Power and then after Power?
                  Some Modems provide a privat IP Adress as long as they dont have the IP from provider.
                  Or try to connect it - when it give you the Privat Ip Adress try to release it and catch a new (Status -> Interfaces) after the LEDs show that it is connected now.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    skoota
                    last edited by skoota

                    Thanks for your replies everyone. There seem to be a lot of replies suggesting the provider is serving an RFC1918 address to me - perhaps I am misunderstanding something (or my original question wasn't clear) but when I connect a laptop directly into the modem (in bridge mode) via cabled ethernet and go to the Network Preferences the IP address assigned to the ethernet interface on the laptop is a public, internet routable IP address. The laptop is not being assigned any kind of RFC1918 address.

                    So, by my logic, the pfSense is no different to having the computer connected - so it too should be issued with a public, internet routable IP address and not that RFC1918 address.

                    @Marv21 Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately that doesn't solve the issue.

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Did you try spoofing the laptop MAC address on the pfSense WAN?

                      It does seem odd that the laptop would pull a real public IP when pfSense does not. Perhaps they require some special DHCP client options? I assume this is DHCP and not a PPP connection?

                      Steve

                      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • S
                        skoota @stephenw10
                        last edited by skoota

                        @stephenw10 said in Netgear 4G modem on WAN port - weird IP address and no internet:

                        Did you try spoofing the laptop MAC address on the pfSense WAN?

                        It does seem odd that the laptop would pull a real public IP when pfSense does not. Perhaps they require some special DHCP client options? I assume this is DHCP and not a PPP connection?

                        Steve

                        Thanks for your reply Steve. Yes, this is a DHCP connection. I haven't tried spoofing the laptop MAC address, will give that a go today and report back!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          dawsnet
                          last edited by

                          I know this is a old post,
                          I had this Issue a few days ago when I registered my APN setting in the Net-gear modem with "three.co.uk" and then when changing it to "3internet" this gave me an public IP.

                          I just need to sort out what it will not renew when the lease is up seems to be sticky :)

                          Hope this works for you if your with Three, basically it seems like
                          Phones >> three.co.uk
                          Modem's / routers >> 3internet

                          Cheers

                          Rich

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