randomly lose connection to pfsense router
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After changing some dhcp server options, it seems to fix the problem today. I'll have to do to more tests to be completely sure though.
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What option(s)?
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I don't know which one of these are relevant so I'm just gonna list them all
- extended range from 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.199 to 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.254
- set default lease time to 86340 and maximum lease time to 86400
- enabled DNS resolver
- set idle timeout to 1320 minutes on CP
- set hard timeout to 1325 minutes, shorter than lease time.
Again my networking knowledge is limited so I'm not sure which one of those options (or a combination of those) matters, or if any of them matter at all.
One interesting observation though, yesterday after my mac lost connection, I tried to connect another device to the router but that device also does not have connection. It seems to me that if we are right about our speculation then the dhcp server just stopped working for whatever reason.
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Why are you running a captive portal on a wired network? Curious..
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I was assigned to customize a CP for our business, but my boss doesn't want to install a wifi card on the router. I think eventually the device will wirelessly connect to a switch and that switch will be wired to the router.
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Ah ok - that makes sense ;)
right about our speculation then the dhcp server just stopped working for whatever reason
So did it stop, simple enough to see if its running on the router..
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Currently everything is working right now, I'll have to try to reproduce the error since it's kind of inconsistent, I'll update this post again if anything happens. Thanks again for everyone's inputs, they really helped.
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@ssattannae said in randomly lose connection to pfsense router:
I was assigned to customize a CP for our business, but my boss doesn't want to install a wifi card on the router. I think eventually the device will wirelessly connect to a switch and that switch will be wired to the router.
That's not how it works...
You add wireless access points around your building or campus, wire those access points into the switch(es), and then the switch(es) is/are wired into pfsense/router.
Jeff
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Sorry for the super late update, I was starting to think the problem is fixed since it's been a week but it popped up again this morning. It SEEMS like the dhcp server just decided to stop working. My laptop is sending ARP request who-has 192.168.1.1 but on my pfsense box the lan interface never received the arp request. I'm using tcpdump -i ue0 to check these packets. From what I know since my laptop's arp request is never answered it does not know where 196.168.1.1 is and thus no connection. Is this still related to DHCP or a problem with pfsense ignoring arp for some reason?
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If your not getting back answer to arp, then there is connectivity issue. No that would have nothing to do with dhcp.
Not going to ignore arp.. Unless it doesn't have that IP anymore.
When you say laptop - its wireless? If you are sending arp, and the pfsense doesn't see this arp.. Then no it can never answer.
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the laptop is connected to the pfsense box via a usb to ethernet adapter. I've tried different cables but no dice. Though I'm curious as to why restarting pfsense would make it work again.
Edit: I forgot to mention one detail is that dhcp is on LAN interface.
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@ssattannae said in randomly lose connection to pfsense router:
box via a usb to ethernet adapter.
Yeah there is your problem, bet you case of beer ;)
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Yup, I remembered now I was showing a technician how to install a production version of our pfsense onto a generic build. He resetted to factory default first and changed the interfaces so WAN was on a usb port. At the time I didn't think too much about it but it turns out to be a big head for me. @johnpoz I would so buy you a case of beer if I can.
Thanks everyone for the inputs, I believe this is now solved.
