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    Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
      last edited by johnpoz

      Well you can not have duplicate IPs and expect anything to work for either of those machines sharing the IPs ;) Or any other device on the network that needs to talk to say pfsense on 2.1 since it prob ends up sending the traffic to your AP 2.1

      If your AP was 192.168.2.1, and pfsense is also pfsense 2.1, change one of them to 2.2

      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

      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GertjanG
        Gertjan @JKnott
        last edited by

        @JKnott said in Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help:

        Why do people always say turn off the DHCP server? Multiple servers are allowed

        Sure.
        Instead of shutting one down, you should manage the two or more so they give the same (DNS, gateway, etc) info. Also, pool sizes should be identical. Or, wait, know : make a mix up and see what happens ....

        Btw : admins are lazy : admin one thing, or admin 2 things ? Who wins ?

        Also : it's more easy to write "shut it off" as "set them all up correctly". The first contains less words.

        And : .... I have 5 AP's running with pretty identical settings for my captive portal. I have to run all over these devices to check if my pool is about to be depleted ?
        Just imagine : only one slot is left. Some DHCP server wins, but the IP he chooses is already used. He chooses another one ... used also. etc etc etc. The whole pool has to be actively analysed. I guess this will need some network traffic - or a single server just checks his list and knows that this is the last IP.

        Last but not least :
        Advertise : "run multiple DHCP servers on a LAN segment and the DHCP and DNS forum will get a whole boatload of "new issues" ^^

        Final : I 'trust' the DHCP server pfSense is using. Without any judgements coming from me, I do probably trust less the DHCP server on "some AP".

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

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

          @johnpoz said in Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help:

          change one of them to 2.2

          Chagge the IP of the AP, and set the gateway and DNS on that AP to "192.168.2.1".
          You'll be fine.

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

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

            Why are you telling them to do that @Gertjan - they could change pfsense to 2.2 if they wanted to.. There is nothing saying that pfsense should be .1

            Why would you tell them to do that ;) hehehehe

            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
            • bthovenB
              bthoven
              last edited by bthoven

              Thanks again for all your replies. It seems the problem of accessing Archer C9 admin page after disabling dhcp is a common one as seen in this thread:
              https://awesometoast.com/archer-c9/
              Still not sure how to solve it; though both wired and wireless connections to Archer C9 work fine.

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

                Not sure where you got that from - its one guy that said that... You know what happen, his client he connected to didn't get an IP address because he had NO dhcp server running ;)

                I have been doing this since there was wifi router, back in the B wifi days... Disabling dhcp server is not going to stop you from talking to the IP address you set on the thing ;)

                But yeah your going to have to have an IP on your client with the correct ip and mask to talk to the IP you set on the thing ;)

                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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                • bthovenB
                  bthoven
                  last edited by

                  Okay, thanks. I will have to detach it from pfsense box, reset it, assign fixed ip 192.168.2.2 (or .254), disable dhcp, change wifi ssid/password... and plug it back. May have to wait till my family are all sleeping to do that :)

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

                    only if your having issues talking to it because of the dupe IP.. If you can log into currently no reason to disconnect it

                    Why do you think you need to change the ssid, and reset??

                    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

                    bthovenB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • bthovenB
                      bthoven @johnpoz
                      last edited by bthoven

                      @johnpoz said in Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help:

                      only if your having issues talking to it because of the dupe IP.. If you can log into currently no reason to disconnect it

                      Now I can't talk to it. It doesn't even show in the dhcp lease list.

                      Why do you think you need to change the ssid, and reset??

                      No, I don't want to change the ssid; as now I can't talk to the wifi router, I may have to reset it to factory default before doing the setup again with same ssid, but with different fixed LAN IP, and dhcp disabled.

                      Sorry for any confusion I may have made.

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

                        why would it show up in the dhcp lease? Ever? The lan IP of all wifi routers is set as static.. kind of hard to run a dhcp server when your also a dhcp client..

                        No you wouldn't have to reset it.. You might need to disconnect it from your network and connect to its switch or wifi to see its mac.. Or you could always just manipulate your clients arp table - delete the mac of the pfsense for .1 currently and let it re arp and see if you get the mac of the AP.. Or you could always set a temp static arp with the AP mac for whatever IP you wanted to use to get to it..

                        But sure if temp removal from the network and resetting is what you want to do - then sure that will work as well :) just not really required any down time to change is IP.

                        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
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          If it was using the same IP as pfSense I would expect to see that reported in the system logs when responds to ARP requests at the same time pfSense does.

                          Steve

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • bthovenB
                            bthoven
                            last edited by bthoven

                            Thank you for all your support.
                            I disconnected my wifi router and reset it. Disabled dhcp, then reconnect. Everything works fine. I set its LAN ip as 192.168.2.254, with dns server 192.168.2.1, my pfSense router IP; also reserved the 254 IP in pfSense dhcp; and the status in pfSense Status->DHCP leasing page is online. What strange is when I connected my laptop at home, I can access my wifi access point web config; but it can't be accessed via openvpn on public internet. On openvpn, I can access other local devices by local ips without problem, except the access point (tplink Archer C9 wifi router with disabled dhcp).
                            Any additional setting I need to make? Thanks

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                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by johnpoz

                              Do you have a gateway (192.168.2.1 pfsense) set on the wifi router? If not no you wouldn't be able to access it gui remotely, ie your vpn tunnel network.. You would have to create a port forward so you could source nat the traffic so the wifi router thinks your coming from the pfsense 2.1 address.

                              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

                              bthovenB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • bthovenB
                                bthoven @johnpoz
                                last edited by bthoven

                                @johnpoz thank. Yes, the gateway was set to pfSense ip (192.168.2.1).
                                Also set port forwarding on pfSense, still can't access from public internet (neither with/without openvpn connection).

                                GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • GertjanG
                                  Gertjan @bthoven
                                  last edited by

                                  @bthoven said in Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help:

                                  Also set port forwarding on pfSense, ....

                                  No need to.
                                  I can access my AP's (192.168.2 - 192.168.2.3 - 192.168.2.4 ....... 192.168.2.7) just fine from a device (PC) on my LAN (192.168.1.17 - pfSense is 192.168.1.1/.24).
                                  Never tried to connected to them - their WebGUI - using OpenVPN, from the outside, but I guess it works just fine.

                                  What are your firewall rules on the OpenVPN interface ?
                                  Rules on the OPT1 interface ? (these shouldn't matter normally).

                                  edit :
                                  Connected my Phone using OPenVPN to pfSense (from the outside) and visited an AP 1292.168.2.2 : works just fine.

                                  IMG_4387.PNG

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

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

                                    Les see these settings on your AP for this gateway. Your running 3rd party firmware on it? I do not recall ever seeing native firmware that allows for setting a gateway on the lan interface.

                                    What port forwarding did you set? It is done different for a source nat..And would ONLY be required if your AP didn't support a gateway. And its not really a port forward, it would be an outbound nat on your inside interface.

                                    Please post screenshot of your AP lan interface settings. And delete any port forwarding you might of setup to access your AP..

                                    Also lets see your lan rules - your not sending stuff out some gateway on the rules are you? They are the default any any rule? Yoru not going to want to open up your AP gui from the public internet!!!

                                    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

                                    bthovenB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      No default route would be my guess too. Or maybe some local firewall restriction.

                                      You could probably workaround both with an outbound NAT rule on the pfSense LAN but it would be better to fix the AP.

                                      Steve

                                      bthovenB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • bthovenB
                                        bthoven @Gertjan
                                        last edited by

                                        @Gertjan Thanks for testing yours. I search the net and found a lot of TPLink users facing this issue. Strange.

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                                        • bthovenB
                                          bthoven @johnpoz
                                          last edited by bthoven

                                          @johnpoz
                                          I'm running TPLink stock firmware. You are right, there is no gateway setting on LAN setting page. I set it on DHCP page which I was not supposed to set; but I did because, if not, it will default to TPLink Lan IP (254) instead of PfSense IP (1) and all the wifi connected devices will not be able to have internet connection. I know it sounds silly, but true.

                                          My pfSense LAN rules are all automatically populated. No tweak.

                                          One question, should I disable all firewall protection on my TPLink? Not sure it is relevant.

                                          16068131-0bd8-4ed4-b2b2-b3d12fb43f3d-image.png

                                          829ba848-a661-42f7-89ff-c5163451360e-image.png

                                          dd4c0232-88f0-4161-be1e-70804209acfe-image.png

                                          160906b4-4e02-4114-ba6f-a31b8b563330-image.png

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                                          • bthovenB
                                            bthoven @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 said in Just go live pfsense. A few hickups needed help:

                                            No default route would be my guess too. Or maybe some local firewall restriction.

                                            You could probably workaround both with an outbound NAT rule on the pfSense LAN but it would be better to fix the AP.

                                            Steve

                                            Thanks. How to do that?

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