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    What am I doing wrong (pfSense behind edge router)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • D
      duhduhdee @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 Sure I'll post some logs when I get home.

      My desktop is definitely Gi0/20. The others, I'm pretty sure (will confirm when home) are:

      Gi0/1 - 10.0.0.1 (Netgear edge router)
      Gi0/3 - 10.0.0.3 pfSense Wan int
      Gi0/6 - Pretty sure this was my work laptop
      Gi0/7 - 10.0.0.4 Asus wireless router in AP mode
      Gi0/9 - 10.32.0.1 pfSense LAN int
      Gi0/11 - 10.32.0.3 Cisco router
      Gi0/19 - 10.64.0.1 Cisco router
      Gi0/20 - 10.64.0.3 Desktop

      re: the desktop having another path, i don't think so, it doesn't have a wireless NIC except for a USB one I plug in sometimes, and it's not connected now. I thought maybe the Asus router in AP mode was confusing things, so I disconnected it but it didn't seem to have much effect.

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      • D
        duhduhdee @NollipfSense
        last edited by

        @NollipfSense That's a pretty good idea, she loves Apple stuff. Thanks

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Mmm, well that looks correct from what I can see.

          Gonna have to see the blocked traffic logs I think.

          Steve

          D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • D
            duhduhdee @stephenw10
            last edited by duhduhdee

            @stephenw10

            The devices were all connected to the switchports that I thought they were.

            Idk what format would be the most helpful, so here's a screenshot.

            FW_Log.PNG

            Here also is part of my states summary page by IP pair:

            States_Summary.PNG

            I seem to be connected enough to make this post from the ip address (10.64.0.3) and VLAN that I want to be on. But frustratingly, I can go to the youtube page below and see all the thumbnails load and get a bunch of the page formatting, but the video itself just loads and loads forever.

            Youtube.PNG

            As I write this, I seem to also be blocking a bunch of 239.255.255.250:1900 UDP, which is Simple Service Discovery Protocol. But I don't know why I need that to communicate with most sites on the internet.

            Thanks for your help.

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              That network is clearly asymmetrical - you can NOT put hosts on a transit network without issues, unless your going to host route or nat.. I have gone over this so many times its becoming sad!!!

              I got tied up in meetings all day at work so unable to draw up how it would be done correctly... And now going to watch some TV with the wife, just got home... But will for sure draw up how you would do this correctly with out being asymmetrical..

              Again you have to follow the traffic when devices are talking to each other from the different segments and where their default gateway is to see the asymmetrical flow.. If your just talking traffic to and from the outside internet then its not a problem.. The problem is when you have devices talking to each other over such a setup.

              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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              • D
                duhduhdee @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz I appreciate your help.

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by johnpoz

                  So here is why its asymmetrical

                  asym.jpg

                  Here is how you fix that - with a transit network.

                  transit.jpg

                  If you want to put hosts on a transit network, then you need a route on every host saying hey to get to the downstream network go to X vs your default gateway. Or you have to nat at the downstream network.

                  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

                  D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • D
                    duhduhdee @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz I really appreciate the diagram.

                    I think I understand you, but I don't think I have the hardware to accomplish it. I have two Cisco routers, and each only has 2 ports. I also have the edge router, a Netgear R7800, which has one WAN port and then 4 switch ports.

                    The edge router in your diagram has at least 3 ports. I don't think I have any device capable of routing in more than 2 directions.

                    So I guess I either need to buy another router or figure out how to NAT what I have.

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

                      do it with vlans then.

                      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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                      • JKnottJ
                        JKnott @duhduhdee
                        last edited by

                        @duhduhdee said in What am I doing wrong (pfSense behind edge router):

                        So I guess I either need to buy another router or figure out how to NAT what I have.

                        Or you could get a cheap managed switch (avoid TP-Link) and use VLANs.

                        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...

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                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                          last edited by

                          Yeah he already has a cisco switch there that clearly can do vlans... So he should be good to go as long as his edge router can do vlans...

                          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

                            Unless I'm misreading this the connection seeing issues is from 10.64.0.3 to external IPs, which should not be asymmetric.

                            Yes you would certainly have asymmetry problems connecting from, say, 10.64.0.3 to 10.2.0.4. Assuming the Cisco is not NATing, which I assume it isn't since there appears to be a static route to 10.64.0.0/11 on pfSense.

                            None of that blocked traffic you've shown looks like the result of asymmetry either. It would all be TCP flagged if so.

                            Steve

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                            • D
                              duhduhdee
                              last edited by

                              Yeah, I'm reading in the manual about the edge router's VLAN options. It talks about "Setting up a bridge for a VLAN Tag group". Which I guess bridge = trunk, in netgear's terminology?

                              If that works, that would be ideal. If all else fails I'll take the laptop pfSense is running on, connect it to the modem, make it the edge router, put the netgear router in AP mode, get rid of the other routers and subnets and just let the cisco switch separate everything by VLAN.

                              Maybe my wife won't mind if I try to arrange things around the laptop in a pleasing fashion.

                              Thanks everyone.

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                              • johnpozJ
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                last edited by

                                To external IPs it shouldn't be a problem with asymmetrical true... But the overall design is flawed... Even if he has no need to talk to other devices at this time... The design is not correct to ever allow internal hosts to talk to each other at some future point in time.

                                Hosts should never be on a transit. If you have something that forces you do to it, then you have to host routing or natting.. Neither of which are desired things to have to do.

                                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

                                  I look forward to pics of your decorative laptop arrangement. 😁

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