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    Continuous data traffic to WAN

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • A
      Alex Atkin UK @dam034
      last edited by Alex Atkin UK

      @dam034 If you are concerned about how much traffic there REALLY is, check the Status -> Traffic Graph page and filter by Remote. It will show you EXACTLY which IP addresses the traffic is going to/from.

      As mentioned above, your ISPs gateway should pop up regularly at the very least as its used to check the connection is working.

      You may also see other traffic from bots on the Internet checking if you have any exploitable servers on your connection. This is perfectly normal and pfSense will block that traffic at the firewall.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • dam034D
        dam034
        last edited by

        The fact is that this test machine is behind a NAT router, and I didn't forward any port, so the traffic is all outgoing, from the pfsense machine to the internet.

        The interval isn't 5 seconds, but it is continous.

        Is it possible to disable this?

        Thanks

        A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • johnpozJ
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
          last edited by johnpoz

          @dam034 said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

          The fact is that this test machine is behind a NAT router, and I didn't forward any port

          Says who... Where is the sniff? Who says your nat router wasn't sending out traffic? Who says other devices on the same L2 as your pfsense wan not sending out broadcasts, multicast, arps, dchp, ssdp, wsd, stp, lldp, cdp, etc. etc..

          If you actually want to KNOW what the traffic is - then sniff on pfsense wan.. Post up the capture and we can discuss what we see.

          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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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            The gateway monitoring ping is .5s inteval not 5s. You disable it by editing the gateway in System > Routing > Gateways and checking 'Disable gateway monitoring.

            But you will still traffic on that interface. Any broadcast traffic on that subnet will hit it for example.

            Steve

            dam034D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DerelictD
              Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
              last edited by

              We can not give you any advice based on a video of a blinking LED. Run a packet capture and see what's really out there. (Probably broadcasts, ARP, gateway monitoring, etc.)

              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)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • KOMK
                KOM
                last edited by

                @derelict said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                We can not give you any advice based on a video of a blinking LED.

                ๐Ÿ˜† ๐Ÿ˜† ๐Ÿ˜†

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  Alex Atkin UK @dam034
                  last edited by Alex Atkin UK

                  @dam034 said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                  The fact is that this test machine is behind a NAT router, and I didn't forward any port, so the traffic is all outgoing, from the pfsense machine to the internet.

                  The interval isn't 5 seconds, but it is continous.

                  Is it possible to disable this?

                  Thanks

                  Then you just answered your own question, as others have said it will be broadcast traffic from the LAN.

                  All network ports on my LAN blink like crazy because of things like my DLNA servers, routers uPNP, arp, discovery protocols from my TV, surround receiver, ShieldTV, etc.

                  There is lots of background traffic on any LAN because everything has to be "smart" and auto-discover each other.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • dam034D
                    dam034 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    Thanks for your replies, but I fix the issue thanks to the solution of @stephenw10

                    This is the gateway page:
                    0_1550765855542_pfgateway.png
                    I temporarily disabled the monitoring and the traffic has been reduced to zero.
                    I didn't know the monitoring was going to 192.168.1.1, but I thought the traffic was outgoing to the internet. Now I re-enabled the monitoring, because I know where the traffic is directed.

                    I solved the issue, but now I discovered another different issue, should I have to open another topic or I can continue here?

                    Thanks

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • KOMK
                      KOM
                      last edited by

                      Start a new topic if it isn't directly related to this problem.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • dam034D
                        dam034
                        last edited by

                        Today I found another problem, this is the hardware configuration:
                        0_1552749106194_pfc.png
                        The tv box has a problem: sends continously data traffic (only when it is on).
                        With old router I saw all the led in switch blinking, and in the router only the port connected to the switch was blinking.
                        Now, with pfsense, I can see in the switch only tv box and pfsense led blinking, and in the modem also the led to the internet connection is blinking.
                        I think the tv box sends continuous broadcast (and/or multicast) frames.
                        Since I can't block this in the tv box, I want to block broadcast (and/or multicast) frames exiting the LAN in the pfsense machine.
                        I know I have to add a rule in the firewall, but I don't know what I have to set.

                        What can I do?

                        Thanks

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                          last edited by johnpoz

                          Your TV box is going to be noisy little SOB for sure..

                          Yup prob lots of multicast traffic, etc. One of the big reasons to segment your network into vlans, ie L2 broadcast domains is to keep such traffic away from other networks.

                          Put your TV Box on its own segment if you don't want your other devices to see this broadcast/multicast traffic.

                          If your switch or AP doesn't block this traffic such traffic can for sure kill a wifi network.. So for sure you would want to make sure that multicast traffic doesn't go out your wifi unless "needed" multicast traffic over wireless is almost always sent at the lowest datarate.. So even if not "lots" of traffic its going to slow down the wifi overall since its a shared medium.

                          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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                          • dam034D
                            dam034
                            last edited by

                            I don't know if the traffic is multicast or broadcast, and if possible I'd like to see in the pfSense webGUI which type of traffic is. Have I to see the states?

                            I use the tv box to see on the TV some contents stored in the server, so all the devices have to stay in the same LAN, so no vlan.

                            About wifi, the AC point blocks all multicast and broadcast frames in both interfaces (ethernet and wifi).

                            So I want to prevent that these frames exit the LAN, to avoid congestion in WAN connection, because in LAN I have 1000mbps, in WAN only 30mbps.

                            Which rule have I to add to the firewall?

                            Thanks

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • A
                              akuma1x
                              last edited by akuma1x

                              @dam034 If your switch is smart (managed) and your "Wifi AC point" supports VLANs and multiple SSIDs, you can easily separate all this traffic. You have to read up on how VLANs work, obviously...

                              Jeff

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                              • johnpozJ
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                last edited by

                                Multicast and broadcast don't pass a router in the first place... So you don't have to worry about it flooding your wan..

                                As to your server and tvbox having to be in the same L2... Nonsense - you might not be able to use whatever broadcast/multicast discovery method your using now... But I stream stuff from my "server" to my TV every day all day and they are in different networks.

                                If you want to see what kind of traffic your tvbox is spewing - just do a sniff (packet capture) on pfsense lan interface under the diag menu.

                                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

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • A
                                  Alex Atkin UK
                                  last edited by Alex Atkin UK

                                  I still don't understand why you consider any of this a "problem".

                                  You will ALWAYS see traffic on the WAN, either from people probing your IP from the Internet, the PPPoE session to your ISP, or your IP address being refreshed over DHCP.

                                  As for the LAN, my LEDs flash day and night, the amount of bandwidth its actually doing is microscopic. It will have zero impact on your Internet speed and be immeasurably small on your LAN speed.

                                  Unless you have identified an actual issue with it causing problems on your LAN, blocking that traffic will only make using your devices more complicated as its there to make detecting devices on your LAN completely automatic.

                                  Even my main smart managed switch and pfSense itself broadcasts its own traffic as I have uPNP enabled (for specific IP addresses only). Its how these devices are designed to work.

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

                                    It's 2AM. Everyone's asleep but me. I am not chasing blinking LEDs.

                                    0_1552813809848_Untitled.mov.gif

                                    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)

                                    GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                    • GertjanG
                                      Gertjan @Derelict
                                      last edited by

                                      @Derelict said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                                      It's 2AM. Everyone's asleep but me. I am not chasing blinking LEDs.

                                      0_1552813809848_Untitled.mov.gif

                                      It's morning here;,so I've been looking for an hour or so at your video : no red lights, all looks good to me ^^

                                      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                      Edit : and where are the logs ??

                                      JeGrJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • JeGrJ
                                        JeGr LAYER 8 Moderator @Gertjan
                                        last edited by

                                        @Gertjan said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                                        @Derelict said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                                        It's 2AM. Everyone's asleep but me. I am not chasing blinking LEDs.

                                        It's morning here;,so I've been looking for an hour or so at your video : no red lights, all looks good to me ^^

                                        Damn wanted to write the exact same thing :D

                                        Don't forget to upvote ๐Ÿ‘ those who kindly offered their time and brainpower to help you!

                                        If you're interested, I'm available to discuss details of German-speaking paid support (for companies) if needed.

                                        A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • A
                                          Alex Atkin UK @JeGr
                                          last edited by

                                          @JeGr I'm sat here trying to guess what each box is for. ;)

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

                                            I'm sat here trying to guess what each box is for. ;)

                                            Top down, left-to-right:

                                            SG-4860 (Edge), Cable modem, MoCA bridge, VDSL modem
                                            SG-5100 (tnsr), SG-4860 (Trex)
                                            Brocade ICX6450-48 Layer 3 switch

                                            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)

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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