pfSense and meraki z3

johnpoz · Mar 28, 2020, 6:42 PM

Well why don't you sniff on pfsense when you connect the thing to see what its trying to do.. Are you using IPS, or pfblocker that could be blocking stuff your not aware of?

Pfsense out of the box doesn't block anything.. So unless its something odd like its looking for a static port on your outbound nat or something... Which is odd for what say a soho wifi router would be doing..

Your not behind a double nat are you - pfsense gets a public IP on its wan?

wyzard · Mar 28, 2020, 6:57 PM

Yes, it does get a public IP on its WAN.

Could the block private networks (RFC 1918 Networks) WAN firewall rule be preventing this from working?

The funny thing is that her work can "see" the box. But when it tries to get out to authenticate it can't. Not using IPS or pfblocker.

I pretty much left pfSense "stock", just added a rule to let plex outside my network.

stephenw10 · Mar 28, 2020, 10:49 PM

'block private networks' on WAN will make no difference here.

Try looking at all the open states from the Z3 IP address. It might be trying some other port(s) as well.

Steve

wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 3:40 PM

This is extremely frustrating. Nothing that I've tried is letting me connect out using the Meraki.

I see nothing in open states about the Z3 IP address (although I will admit I am an extreme novice when it comes to pfSense).

Let's wipe the slate clean and if everyone that has helped so far (and again, thank you all so much for the assistance) can start from step one and what I would need to do (where to put rules, what they need to be, etc. etc.) I'll give this one more college try before throwing in the towel.

Again, thanks to everyone for their help

johnpoz · Mar 29, 2020, 3:44 PM

You shouldn't have to put any rules anywhere.. This should work out of the box!

So this box gets its "wan" IP from pfsense dhcp, connected to your pfsense lan... Then you put a box behind that..

Sniff on your pfsense lan for this IP of the Z3 IP, its gets... What do you see it doing.. Or just look in the state table of pfsense.. If your not seeing traffic and states - then its not doing anything!!! So no shit it wouldn't work...

wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 4:16 PM

Ok, so then why is it working when it's not behind the pfsense box? That is what is confusing.

As I said, I'm a novice when it comes to pfsense, so how do I "sniff" on my pfsense lan?

Thanks.

johnpoz · Mar 29, 2020, 4:56 PM

Via the diagnostic menu packet capture..

If your not seeing any states then pfsense didn't see any traffic that were allowed.. Which would make no sense unless whatever it was doing was blocked.. Which would make no sense because your default rules on lan are any any.. Unless you picked to block bogon or something and its trying to go to a bogon IP.. Which should be in the firewall log as blocked, etc. Unless you turned off logging of that..

Out of the box this should work - your going to have to get some info if you want to try and figure out why its not.. For all we know it never got an IP on its wan?? If your not seeing any states that would make sense, etc. etc.

Information is key to figuring out why its not working...

Here is a quick question... What network is your pfsense lan 192.168.X and what is the network this box uses for its lan? It has to be something other than 192.168.x - or yeah your going to have nothing but issues... It needs to be 192.168.Y for example - something different than what pfsense is using for its lan. Then can not overlap or your going to have a bad day - see your trying to do 10.124 for your outbound - are you using 10/8 for your lan? and its also using some 10.x network on its lan?

wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 5:20 PM

Hi John. Really appreciate your help.

My pfsense LAN is set to 192.168.x.x The box is set to something different then that. I do have bogon blocked on WAN but not on LAN.

Are you also saying that an outbound firewall NAT rule(s) should NOT be needed?

I keep working on it based on your input, so hopefully at some point.

stephenw10 · Mar 29, 2020, 6:00 PM

The reason it works behind some other firewall is that most SOHO style so not randomise the source port for NAT'd connections. pfSense does that to increase security and to prevent multiple outbound states all using the same port which could conflict. For some reason the remote Meraki device is unable to cope with more than one source port.
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/nat/static-port.html

If you don't know what ports it needs then you can just set and outbound NAT rule with static source ports for all connections from the Z3 IP. At least as a test.

Steve

johnpoz · Mar 29, 2020, 7:25 PM

@stephenw10 said in pfSense and meraki z3:

NAT rule with static source ports for all connections from the Z3 IP. At least as a test.

Great test for sure!

But doesn't matter if the random ports on nat were were the problem or not - he still should see states or traffic.. Where you could see what it was doing from a sniff..

That they would setup some sort of vpn solution that required static port natting seems pretty unthoughtful on where this might or could get deployed.

But yeah just setting all outbound natting to static would be a simple test if you can not see which ports its actually using via states or a sniff..

My pfsense LAN is set to 192.168.x.x The box is set to something different then that

Than what was that 10.124 nonsense for an outbound nat? That would of never done anything. Where did you get the 10.124 address from?

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wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 7:59 PM

It seemed to me that the 10.124.x.x was the static IP of the Meraki.

So here's what I know:

The IT department at my wife's work can "see" the Meraki when it is behind the pfsense. For some reason the Meraki can't get "back" to them.
The PC that is connected to the Meraki is not getting an IP address.
The PC indicates "attempting to authenticate"
It then says "authentication failed".

From what I can see in the logs on pfsense (states and packet capture) nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I agree with everyone that this should not be that hard. I my mind should be a simple plug and play. Really not sure what is going on?

About to call it a TKO

JKnott · Mar 29, 2020, 8:04 PM

@wyzard said in pfSense and meraki z3:

I agree with everyone that this should not be that hard. I my mind should be a simple plug and play.

As I mentioned, this appears to be a device intended to replace a consumer router/firewall, not be used behind it. That it works without pfSense shows this. Another thing you could try is put a consumer grade router/firewall ahead of it. If that works, then some investigation may reveal what the problem is.

johnpoz · Mar 29, 2020, 8:13 PM

@wyzard said in pfSense and meraki z3:

It seemed to me that the 10.124.x.x was the static IP of the Meraki.

Where did you get that from? It wouldn't be able to do anything if that was its IP of its wan, and if that is is lan IP, your outbound nat wouldn't do shit..

The IT department at my wife's work can "see" the Meraki when it is behind the pfsense. For some reason the Meraki can't get "back" to them.

If they can see it, then it CAN get back to them..

The PC that is connected to the Meraki is not getting an IP address.

Then how would it be saying its attempting to authenticate...

Answer some basic questions.. from pfsense does it hand out an IP address to this device? If so what is it?

When you connect a PC to the lan side of it.. lets see the IPconfig /all from this device...

wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 8:36 PM

@JKnott said in pfSense and meraki z3:

@wyzard said in pfSense and meraki z3:

I agree with everyone that this should not be that hard. I my mind should be a simple plug and play.

As I mentioned, this appears to be a device intended to replace a consumer router/firewall, not be used behind it. That it works without pfSense shows this. Another thing you could try is put a consumer grade router/firewall ahead of it. If that works, then some investigation may reveal what the problem is.

I agree about it replacing a router/firewall. I don't want to send all my traffic through that though. Not that I have anything to hide, but according to the installation instructions that were sent home with my wife, this should plug into the existing router and work. And, as I said, her IT department is pretty much useless.

stephenw10 · Mar 29, 2020, 8:47 PM

Yeah, where exactly did the 10.124.31.200 IP address come from?

That cannot be the Z3 WAN side since it is connecting out partly. It must, therefore, be it's LAN.

In which case, as johnpoz said, you need to find what IP address in your LAN subnet the Z3 is pulling and add that as the source address in the outbound NAT rule(s).

I'm pretty that static outbound NAT rule is all you need to make this work. It just has to be the right rule.

Steve

johnpoz · Mar 29, 2020, 9:13 PM

@stephenw10 said in pfSense and meraki z3:

It just has to be the right rule.

Or as you already stated just set all to static.. That would be a great test..

wyzard · Mar 29, 2020, 9:57 PM

Thank you everyone for your help! Finally figured what the IP it was getting from my network. Entered a rule with the information and it's working!

Thanks again to everyone for the help and guidance.

stephenw10 · Mar 29, 2020, 11:48 PM

Nice.

BlankSpace · Jul 14, 2020, 12:58 PM

@wyzard

Would you mind sharing the rule you made? I seem to be having the same issue but with a Meraki MX68.

Thanks

stephenw10 · Jul 14, 2020, 6:37 PM

It was a static source port outbound NAT rule specific to the source IP the Meraki was using.

It seems as though the Meraki VPN chokes if the source port changes.

Steve