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    Pfsense Dhcp Log

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • ? Offline
      A Former User @johnpoz
      last edited by

      @johnpoz Particularly with Apple devices asleep isn't asleep. They, without turning on the screen, wake up see if they need to do something. They often turn their radios on and off when doing this to save battery. You can see this as lots of very short connections.

      This can be mitigated, sometimes, by turning on "Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery" on your wireless access point. The access point will then pretend the device is still connected during these naps. In my environment, Unifi, this kinda works a little bit depending on how broken the current firmware is. Better wireless gear handles that situation way better.

      Apple devices, at least some, will make DHCP requests every time they wake up, silently, from these naps. Nothing can be done about that. Like @johnpoz said, if the client asks, the server will respond...

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • johnpozJ Offline
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Guest
        last edited by johnpoz

        ^ Exactly what I have been saying this whole time ;)

        "Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery"

        Yup you can see a bunch of my wifi devices do this - have many a smart lightbulb/plug/etc..

        yup.png

        Those little leaves mean Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery is being used..

        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
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        • ? Offline
          A Former User
          last edited by A Former User

          One more thing that can be helpful. If your seeing these disconnect-connect events and the client is changing channels you can try to do one of two things.

          Turn the power down on the 2.4GHz radio so they don't flip back and forth. Try this even if you are doing "Band Steering".

          If you have more than one AP, disable the 2.4GHz radio on one or more APs. You will want to "survey" your place to determine how to best cover the space with the radios and set them up best. Becomes more involved and more important if you want to be able to roam seamlessly from AP to AP...

          There is a bit science and a bigger bit of trial and error unless you have expensive gear to survey the RF environment.

          I'm anxiously awaiting WiFi6E. New spectrum and higher speeds over shorter distances. Even thin walls will attenuate that 6GHz signal. Will help the problem of not letting go of a lousy signal and switching to a closer AP. Price to be paid is the need for more APs to cover a given space.

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          • johnpozJ Offline
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by johnpoz

            I looked at his first post again.. And yup its an iphone doing this - just like my wifes does..

            hisdevice.png

            So if you don't like it - you could set it never go to sleep ever.. Not sure if that is an option to be honest? ;) But that would sure suck for its battery life.

            Other thing is you could set its IP to static for this specific ssid

            click the little i when your connected to the specific wifi network

            Screenshot 2020-12-26 at 11.21.41 AM.png

            That should stop it from doing any dhcp on this network..

            Other option you could do is set your log to show more than 25 entries ;) You can set it up to 2000..

            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
            • ? Offline
              A Former User @johnpoz
              last edited by A Former User

              @johnpoz That would get rid of the log entries. I guess you could also ignore that log unless you are working through a specific issue.

              99% sure that you have no control over the power settings on an iPhone.

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • johnpozJ Offline
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Guest
                last edited by johnpoz

                @jwj

                Well his whole concern is the log.. I agree with you that wouldn't have effect from the device moving between AP or connecting disconnecting from the wifi.. But it would remove dhcp being done - and fix up his logging issue ;)

                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
                • ? Offline
                  A Former User @johnpoz
                  last edited by

                  @johnpoz Agree 100%.

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                  • johnpozJ Offline
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                    last edited by

                    I could see this being problematic if you had lots of iphones doing this ;)

                    I can easy tell from the logs when the phones are "sleeping" ;) heheheh

                    With such a low number of entries being shown (his 25 setting) that would fill up quick and that would be all you would see.. I hope he doesn't think seeing the number entries shown keeps the log size small?

                    That really has nothing to do with the actual size.. But you can adjust that here
                    https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/monitoring/logs/size.html

                    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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                    • ahmetakkayaA Offline
                      ahmetakkaya
                      last edited by

                      I need to keep my logs for 2 years

                      pfsense client messages log record size increasing

                      need a more rational solution

                      the client is not a mobile device, there is acces point Ap and continuous pfsense dhcp communication

                      bingo600B ? johnpozJ 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • bingo600B Offline
                        bingo600 @ahmetakkaya
                        last edited by

                        @ahmetakkaya said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                        I need to keep my logs for 2 years

                        pfsense client messages log record size increasing

                        need a more rational solution

                        Log to an external server
                        Build a litle linux server with a large disk (or raid) , and stop worrying. With logrotate the logs would even be compressed.
                        1TB or 4TB disks are cheap

                        If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

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                        • ? Offline
                          A Former User @ahmetakkaya
                          last edited by

                          @ahmetakkaya said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                          need a more rational solution

                          Get rid of the misbehaving client? There is nothing pfsense can do about a client that repeatedly makes dhcp requests. Nothing.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • ahmetakkayaA Offline
                            ahmetakkaya
                            last edited by

                            Thanks for your consideration, but there was no result you wanted :)

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

                              @ahmetakkaya said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                              but there was no result you wanted

                              Who is you ?

                              @jwj, @johnpoz, @bingo600 have no issues.
                              Me neither.

                              Show your setup. Copy paste images in your forum message (copy - Ctrl-C the image and use use Ctrl-V while writing your forum message)

                              Example :

                              My wifi network with 4 AP's is 192.168.2.0/24.
                              pfSense is 192.168.2.1
                              AP1 = 192.168.2.2 - and I set this AP using static IP settings :

                              43f776ef-45bb-431c-afe7-24d31c22c1c3-image.png

                              AP2 using 192.168.2.3 - identical
                              AP3 using .... etc.
                              AP4 ... etc.

                              The rest of the network, 192.168.2.5 -> 192.168.2.254, is the DHCP pool.
                              There are iPads, PC's, Phone and iPhone : I just checked and did not find any device on the wifi network that was asking a new DHCP lease info every 1 minute : I would ban it right away !!

                              @ahmetakkaya said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                              Hello dhcp log communicates with the client every 1 minute.

                              The log does not communicate.

                              The DHCP client process, running on the cliuent, like a pHone, PC, Pad, or whatever, contacts the DHCP server, running on pfSense for IP 'lease' info.
                              The pfSense DHCP server will propose the client a IP (and other info) - and logs what it is doing, as a result.

                              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 Offline
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ahmetakkaya
                                last edited by johnpoz

                                @ahmetakkaya said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                                the client is not a mobile devic

                                Yes it is... Clearly from what you posted its an Iphone..

                                If its not the iphone... Then how about you clearly point out what specific device is asking for dhcp every minute other than posting up a screenshot with iphone all over it..

                                As to keeping logs for 2 years - that is nothing pfsense would ever have been able to do because the logs are circular. Export your logs to a syslog server if you need to keep them.

                                As to AP?? Point it out in t log you posted.. Make it a static IP!!! if its asking for too much dhcp..

                                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

                                ahmetakkayaA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • ahmetakkayaA Offline
                                  ahmetakkaya @johnpoz
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnpoz said in Pfsense Dhcp Log:

                                  As to AP?? Point it out in t log you posted.. Make it a static IP!!! if its asking for too much dhcp..

                                  I have manually defined an IP address for the AP device.
                                  the result has not changed
                                  AP device is a tp-link AP500 model
                                  I disabled the AP device
                                  The new device is a Unifi and the problem is solved.

                                  Why is Tplink causing problems?

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

                                    OMG - there is clearly is some sort of translation issue going on here.

                                    Not sure how many times it has to be said if you had set a static IP on the device - it wouldn't be asking for dhcp ever!!

                                    What you posted clearly showed a iphone asking for dhcp multiple times.. ie about every minute..

                                    Wifi devices are going to do this. If you have some AP where wifi clients connected and disconnect to it - its going to generate dhcp traffic. If you goal is logging this for 2 years because of governmental controls.. Then you need to have your dhcp log to say syslog server..

                                    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

                                    ahmetakkayaA T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • ahmetakkayaA Offline
                                      ahmetakkaya @johnpoz
                                      last edited by ahmetakkaya

                                      my settings are as they appear
                                      rental duration 5 minutes
                                      result 3 minutes comebacks ?

                                      1.JPG

                                      2.JPG

                                      3.JPG

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                                      • MikeV7896M Offline
                                        MikeV7896
                                        last edited by MikeV7896

                                        If the lease is only good for 5 minutes (300 seconds), the renewal attempt comes at 50% of the lease, or 2.5 minutes (150 seconds). So seeing a renewal that soon would be expected with a lease so short.

                                        The S in IOT stands for Security

                                        johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • johnpozJ Offline
                                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @MikeV7896
                                          last edited by

                                          ^ exactly... Why would you ever set a dhcp lease so low? That is nuts..

                                          Do people buy access in 5 minute increments?

                                          As mentioned clients will renew around the 50% mark, and if they don't get a renew - they will try again, and again faster and faster until they do.. Or the lease expires - then they will send out discover..

                                          With such a short lease - yeah your going to get bombed.. Especially if you have lots of clients.. And if you have any sort of issues with renew more and more attempts will happen faster and faster..

                                          What exactly are you wanting to accomplish with such a short lease? Other than lots of dhcp traffic? ;)

                                          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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                                          • ahmetakkayaA Offline
                                            ahmetakkaya
                                            last edited by

                                            How should the ideal rental period be

                                            johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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