Initial setup issues
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@teamits Yeah, sorry. What I meant is I connected the pfsense box to the only cat5 port on the modem. I used the same cables, I just inserted the pfsense box and moved the router back one position. I'm leaving the VPN in for two reasons. I paid for the software and hardware and I haven't figured out how to set up expressvpn within pfsense. I figured I'd chip away one step at a time. I actually put my network back the way it was and plugged the pfsense box into a switch and brought up the setup screen so I can look at it. I'm connected to it through the linksys so it acquired a local IP. When I set it up earlier today I went from the cable modem to the WAN port of the pfsense box with a brand new cable. I'm using that cable right now so I know it works. Thanks BTW
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@wizardofwhere Oh, I missed part of your reply. Duplex? do you mean the WAN?
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@wizardofwhere yes,did you change it or leave default?
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@kwirth01 Right now it is autoselect and I have it plugged in to a netgear switch. As I understand it, the pfsense box is reaching through the switch to the linksys router and acquiring an IP on the LAN. Interestingly, now it is 0.0.0.0 and it alternates from acquiring an IP on the LAN and reaching past the linksys to acquire an IP to the world (the same on the linksys has). Odd Anyhow. it is 0.0.0.0 as I write this.
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@wizardofwhere are you running dhcp on both routers? Make sure they are different segments. I would start by removing the linksys and focus on getting just pfsense working. All of your traffic you want to go through the pfsense I am guessing so get your basic network up first. After it is stable, then add the linksys later to add vpn.
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@kwirth01 When I first set this up I set the pfsense box DHCP so it would only allocate 1 IP (the one the linksys needed). I did this as I noticed that initially, all of my devices were reaching past the linksys router to the pfsense box and acquiring an IP from it which kind of defeated the purpose of having a VPN. I wonder, if I turn off DHCP on the pfsensse box will it just act as a firewall and send all the traffic to the linksys router?
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@wizardofwhere said in Initial setup issues:
the pfsense box is reaching through the switch to the linksys router and acquiring an IP on the LAN. Interestingly, now it is 0.0.0.0 and it alternates from acquiring an IP on the LAN and reaching past the linksys to acquire an IP to the world
Not sure I understand. If the pfSense WAN is plugged into the cable modem it can't communicate with the Linksys.
OTOH I have seen cable modems be rather picky about what router is plugged in, and need the cable modem booted after switching out routers.
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@wizardofwhere I would disable dhcp on one of them and hard code the addresses of both routers. You are going to need rules in place to forward the traffic. Both devices have firewalls and are also routers. Your best bet is to get pfsense working and then incorporate the vpn.
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@teamits I have to have my network up for the next several hours so I have it back to its original configuration with the linksysVPN at the head end. TIl I can get back to the issue, it now goes from the modem to the linksysVPN. from there to a netgear 6 port switch, an access point is plugged into the switch as well as another cable that travels to another negtear switch. At that switch, several devices, another access point and the pfsense box are plugged in. Everything is working fine. Except the pfsense box. The WAN is alternating between 0.0.0.0, then to a LAN IP then to the WAN IP then back to 0.0.0.0.
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@wizardofwhere I think you have the pfsense plugged into the wrong place. I would have modem, to pfsense wan, pfsense lan to switch, vpn is going to take some work because that also needs wan access. You probably need the linksys plugged into same switch and rules on the pfsense to forward traffic for the vpn.