Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Continuous data traffic to WAN

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    43 Posts 10 Posters 6.0k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • 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

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 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

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

                          Hey @Derelict , can you please plug your OPT1 back in? I'm having trouble getting to your Plex server box...

                          Thanks!

                          😋

                          *** just kidding ***

                          Jeff

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

                            Thanks for your replies.

                            Seeing the states I understood the problem, if we want to consider this.

                            With old router, the LAN had this addresses: 192.168.100.0/24, so the broadcast address was 192.168.100.255
                            Now with pfsense, I changed the LAN addresses to 10.78.32.0/26, so the broadcast address is 10.78.32.63
                            I went to see the states and I noticed this particular:
                            pftab.png
                            The tv box has ip 10.78.32.34
                            I'm thinking the tv box continues to believe that the broadcast address ends with 255, as in old router, and not 64.
                            This explains that with old router, all LEDs were blinking (broadcast), and now with pfsense it isn't so because 10.78.32.255 is out of LAN, and then routed to the modem, which in turn routes to the Internet.

                            So I need to block the outgoing traffic to 10.78.32.255? Or I need more?

                            Thanks

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

                              No, you should set a consistent IP network, including netmask, on your network.

                              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
                              • johnpozJ
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                last edited by

                                What? You don't run your router with a /26 mask, and clients on this network with a /24 mask?? Is that what you did?

                                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 0
                                • dam034D
                                  dam034
                                  last edited by

                                  I configured the new network with /26 mask, but the tv box continues to send broadcast frames to 10.78.32.255, and I don't know why. It is a bit old (android 4.4.2).

                                  I thought to add a new firewall rule, and indeed it works.
                                  This is the LAN firewall:
                                  pflan.png
                                  In less than one minute, the firewall blocked 160KiB of noisy traffic.

                                  Now the LEDs behaviour hasn't changed in the switch, but the noisy frames are no longer routed to the modem and to the Internet.

                                  This is what I can do, and for now it works.

                                  Thanks for the help!

                                  A JKnottJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • DerelictD
                                    Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                    last edited by

                                    If you are running /26 on pfSense everything on that segment should be in the same /26.

                                    That is how you configure an IP network.

                                    There is no second option.

                                    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
                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      You need to fix the mask on the device, or have it update its dhcp lease so it gets the new mask

                                      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 0
                                      • A
                                        Alex Atkin UK @dam034
                                        last edited by

                                        @dam034 said in Continuous data traffic to WAN:

                                        Now the LEDs behaviour hasn't changed in the switch, but the noisy frames are no longer routed to the modem and to the Internet.

                                        I thought we had already come to the conclusion that the "noisy" frames already WEREN'T routed to the Internet, as its broadcast traffic!

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

                                          Its not going to route anywhere when the router thinks the IP is in its own network... But sure it could shove down its default gateway when its not an IP on is own interface... Ie is issue with a mismatched mask.

                                          But your correct if a true broadcast it shouldn't be routed.

                                          But odd things can happen when you run a network with clients having mismatched masks.

                                          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

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

                                            if pfSense has an interface subnet of 10.78.32.0/26 there is absolutely no way for it to know that 10.78.32.255 is a broadcast. The solution is to fix your network.

                                            If you have broken devices that assume /24, then use /24.

                                            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
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.