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    Windows Server DNS Server can't forward to pfSense

    DHCP and DNS
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    • H
      Hekmil @netblues
      last edited by

      @netblues Yeah everything is allowed at the moment so it's fine

      1f1ddd0a-6270-405a-b6d6-ce5a8e73dc06-image.png

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      • N
        netblues @Hekmil
        last edited by

        @Hekmil Is dns resolver service running on pf? is it listening on lan interface?

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        • H
          Hekmil @netblues
          last edited by Hekmil

          @netblues yes it's running, I can resolve any domain from the pfSense.

          The configuration is the default one, listening on all interfaces.

          It's like the Windows machine can't forward the DNS request to the pfSense.

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          • N
            netblues @Hekmil
            last edited by

            @Hekmil No. You run nslookup
            What is the lan ip of pf sense?
            Try running nslookup from pf cli
            pf sense it self can resolve without a local resolver if configured to use wan connection dns for example.

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            • H
              Hekmil @netblues
              last edited by

              @netblues Yes I was talking about running a nslookup from the pfSense CLI, sorry if it wasn't clear. From the CLI it manage to resolve.

              My LAN ip of my pfSense is 172.16.1.2

              Yes the pfSense does use the WAN connection when resolving

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              • N
                netblues @Hekmil
                last edited by

                @Hekmil not much left to do.
                can you ping pfsense lan from windows server?

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                • H
                  Hekmil @netblues
                  last edited by Hekmil

                  @netblues Yeah that's why i'm asking here, because I'm out of option

                  Yes all my machines can ping together. But only pfSense can ping outside the NAT (for example 8.8.8.8).

                  799e6859-8721-4192-8c02-61dd9471d053-image.png
                  Here is a tracert command to 8.8.8.8 which timeout after reaching pfSense LAN interface. The firewall log : 494a5509-7e94-488f-96de-064c6aee3a2b-image.png

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                  • N
                    netblues @Hekmil
                    last edited by

                    And you cant nslookup from everywhere else with pfsense lan ip but you can from pfsense cli using lan ip.
                    Anything on floating rules?

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                    • H
                      Hekmil @netblues
                      last edited by Hekmil

                      @netblues Wait I was only trying to do nslookup cnn.com on the cli not using lan IP. If I do that it doesn't work of course sorry. It's like the resolving DNS service was not enabled for all interfaces except it is.

                      Floating rules are empty.

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                      • N
                        netblues @Hekmil
                        last edited by

                        @Hekmil please post services resolver settings.
                        Have you tried restarting resolver service?

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                        • H
                          Hekmil @netblues
                          last edited by Hekmil

                          @netblues Here are my setting of my resolver :
                          548011a5-9ff7-441a-a1a6-d7d114e92209-image.png
                          b5f626b7-0800-4cac-a0ee-ecc16ad1d66c-image.png

                          8790a151-06e7-4743-be59-cc5f2e009758-image.png
                          192.168.101.2 = NAT Gateway

                          Yes the service and even the machine has been restarted trying fixing the issue

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                          • N
                            netblues @Hekmil
                            last edited by

                            @Hekmil you dont really need any dns servers if pf can reach the internet..
                            However this is irrelevant.
                            Dns resolver should be listening on lan anyway.
                            Do restart the srrvice and look at status system logs resolver logs for anything strange.

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                            • H
                              Hekmil @netblues
                              last edited by

                              @netblues True that

                              Nothing really usefull from the logs :
                              7c03c5f9-c237-44cb-97c4-e613b2a307cd-image.png

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                              • N
                                netblues @Hekmil
                                last edited by

                                @Hekmil output of sockstat -l please

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                                • H
                                  Hekmil @netblues
                                  last edited by

                                  @netblues

                                  USER     COMMAND    PID   FD PROTO  LOCAL ADDRESS         FOREIGN ADDRESS
root     sockstat   96752 13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
unbound  unbound    52451 3  udp6   *:53                  *:*
unbound  unbound    52451 4  tcp6   *:53                  *:*
unbound  unbound    52451 5  udp4   *:53                  *:*
unbound  unbound    52451 6  tcp4   *:53                  *:*
unbound  unbound    52451 7  tcp4   127.0.0.1:953         *:*
unbound  unbound    52451 12 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
unbound  unbound    52451 13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
unbound  unbound    52451 14 udp4   *:52518               *:*
root     syslogd    45622 6  dgram  /var/dhcpd/var/run/log
root     syslogd    45622 7  udp6   *:514                 *:*
root     syslogd    45622 8  udp4   *:514                 *:*
root     syslogd    45622 9  dgram  /var/run/log
root     syslogd    45622 10 dgram  /var/run/logpriv
root     syslogd    45622 12 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
root     syslogd    45622 13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
root     php-fpm    17426 3  dgram  (not connected)
root     php-fpm    17426 4  udp4   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    17426 5  udp6   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    17426 13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
root     ntpd       37361 20 udp6   fe80::20c:29ff:fe82:c819%em0:123 *:*
root     ntpd       37361 21 udp4   192.168.101.40:123    *:*
root     ntpd       37361 22 udp6   fe80::20c:29ff:fe82:c823%em1:123 *:*
root     ntpd       37361 23 udp4   172.16.1.2:123        *:*
root     ntpd       37361 24 udp6   fe80::20c:29ff:fe82:c82d%em2:123 *:*
root     ntpd       37361 25 udp4   172.16.101.2:123      *:*
root     ntpd       37361 26 udp6   fe80::20c:29ff:fe82:c837%em3:123 *:*
root     ntpd       37361 27 udp4   172.16.4.2:123        *:*
root     ntpd       37361 28 udp6   fe80::20c:29ff:fe82:c841%em4:123 *:*
root     ntpd       37361 29 udp4   172.16.200.2:123      *:*
root     ntpd       37361 30 udp6   ::1:123               *:*
root     ntpd       37361 31 udp4   127.0.0.1:123         *:*
root     login      80435 3  dgram  (not connected)
root     charon     22942 5  dgram  (not connected)
root     charon     22942 8  stream /var/run/charon.wlst
root     charon     22942 11 udp6   *:500                 *:*
root     charon     22942 12 udp6   *:4500                *:*
root     charon     22942 13 udp4   *:500                 *:*
root     charon     22942 14 udp4   *:4500                *:*
root     charon     22942 20 stream /var/run/charon.ctl
root     charon     22942 21 stream /var/run/charon.vici
root     starter    22764 5  dgram  (not connected)
root     nginx      57467 5  tcp4   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57467 6  tcp6   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57467 7  tcp4   *:80                  *:*
root     nginx      57467 8  tcp6   *:80                  *:*
root     nginx      57350 5  tcp4   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57350 6  tcp6   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57350 7  tcp4   *:80                  *:*
root     nginx      57350 8  tcp6   *:80                  *:*
root     nginx      57077 5  tcp4   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57077 6  tcp6   *:443                 *:*
root     nginx      57077 7  tcp4   *:80                  *:*
root     nginx      57077 8  tcp6   *:80                  *:*
root     dpinger    27696 5  dgram  (not connected)
root     dpinger    27696 6  stream /var/run/dpinger_GW_WAN~192.168.101.40~192.168.101.2.sock
root     devd       415   4  stream /var/run/devd.pipe
root     devd       415   5  seqpac /var/run/devd.seqpacket.pipe
root     check_relo 358   3  stream /var/run/check_reload_status
root     php-fpm    322   3  dgram  (not connected)
root     php-fpm    322   4  udp4   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    322   5  udp6   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    322   13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
root     php-fpm    321   3  dgram  (not connected)
root     php-fpm    321   4  udp4   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    321   5  udp6   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    321   13 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
root     php-fpm    321   14 dgram  (not connected)
root     php-fpm    319   3  dgram  (not connected)
root     php-fpm    319   4  udp4   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    319   5  udp6   *:*                   *:*
root     php-fpm    319   15 stream /var/run/php-fpm.socket
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                                  • N
                                    netblues @Hekmil
                                    last edited by

                                    @Hekmil as you see, service unbound is listening on all interfaces.
                                    So nslookup shouldn't be complaining.
                                    This is really strange.

                                    Can you telnet 172.16.1.2 (pfsense lan) on port 53 from pf cli?

                                    H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • H
                                      Hekmil @netblues
                                      last edited by

                                      @netblues Yes indeed

                                      Yes it works : 7b97c031-b5f1-4ac5-b196-a64fd1487c00-image.png

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                                      • N
                                        netblues @Hekmil
                                        last edited by

                                        @Hekmil so unbound works.
                                        dig @172.16.1.2 cnn.com

                                        always from cli.

                                        H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • bmeeksB
                                          bmeeks
                                          last edited by

                                          You need to let the unbound DNS server within pfSense do the name resolution for you. Forget your NAT gateway DNS. And remove those two IP addresses from the General Settings tab in pfSense. Out of the box, unbound is ready to operate in resolver mode, which means it will query the root servers and proceed down the domain tree to find the IP for the FQDN. If you want to put any address on the General Settings page in that DNS box, put 127.0.0.1. And uncheck that "DNS Server Override" box. You don't want that in your setup.

                                          Once you do that, go under DIAGNOSTICS > DNS LOOKUP and see if a domain such as "cnn.com" or "google.com" resolves properly. It should.

                                          Once you get that working, then go back and point your AD DNS Server to forward to pfSense instead of that NAT gateway. DNS lookups should then work properly.

                                          Last tip -- sounds like you may not be fully versed in DNS terminology. Make sure you understand the distinction between a DNS resolver and a DNS forwarder. They are not the same. In your case, I think letting unbound on pfSense operate in its normal resolver mode is what you need. However, if you truly want to use DNS forwarding, then you will need to configure that setup in unbound on pfSense.

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                                          • bmeeksB
                                            bmeeks
                                            last edited by bmeeks

                                            And you may have an issue with routing while trying to use that NAT gateway DNS server. Does it have a proper route back to your Windows client? In other words, can it find it?

                                            The fact you mentioned pings not working from the Windows client side would indicate either a firewall rule or rules that is blocking it, or there is a routing problem upstream such that the pinged host doesn't know where to send the reply.

                                            First thing to check would be to sniff the WAN interface of pfSense while pinging an external host from the Windows client. Do you see the packet leave the pfSense WAN? If not, check firewall rules and default routes on the Windows client. If you see the packet leave the WAN but no reply comes back, then check upstream routing and/or firewall settings. You can use the built-in sniffer tool available under the DIAGNOSTICS menu on pfSense.

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