Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.
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No, I can't recommend anything, other than Intel NICs are good for pfsense. NICs are cheap, so give one a try. I suggested the USB Ethernet as I didn't realize your computer wasn't a notebook. Regardless it should work. Hopefully you have USB 3 available, if you go that route.
BTW, have you checked the LEDs to see if the Ethernet connection is being made?
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Yes I was looking at Intel NICs. I decided to buy a PCIe Ethernet card to see if that works.
When I plug the ethernet cord into the back I get one steady light and one blinking light, I get an IP address also.
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If you're getting an IP address, then something is working. What makes you think it's not working? Is the address appropriate for the network? Can you ping it's own address? The router? A little testing may reveal something.
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@gtimmis07 Unless I missed it or am misreading- you used an old computer (don't know what) and it works with one computer but not another. It sounds like you connected the LAN port on the PFSense box directly to a laptop and it worked. No switch? What type of NICs are in that PFSense box? If they aren't Intel based I would just get a PCI Intel dual nic for the PFSense box because it sounds like it's something going on between the NIC in the PFSense vs the one in the two identical motherboards.
Could be something like speed/duplex auto-negotiate not working between the two... If you have a switch in there already, I would think that would be less likely, but you didn't mention one. -
What makes me think it's not working is that I'm not getting internet on that computer and sometimes I can't even get pfsense browser setup page to come up. I will do a little testing tonight ( I'm currently at work) to see what I find out with doing a ping test and such.
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I have no switch connected to the pfsense tower, just NIC-ethernet-computer. I will write out my full specs when I get home and send them out to you guys. I watched a video on YouTube and bought the same NIC as the one the guy was using and saw how "easy" this would be and how great it would be to use some of the features and speed that pf could supply for me. Nothing is ever easy for me though. I should have known better lmao.
Btw I've been rude by not saying thank you for your time this whole time. Really thank you guys so much for helping a noob out.
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So, you have to take things one step at a time. Can you ping your router by IP address? Can you ping google.com by name? Without more info, it's hard to say where your problem is, as my crystal ball is busted.
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@gtimmis07 said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:
no switch
If you're connecting a PC to the pfSense PC with a cable, the devices need to be able to communicate that way. In years past there was a "crossover" Ethernet cable that would change the pins over and that would work most of the time. It's been increasingly more common over time that NICs will "figure it out" and a special cable isn't needed, but that is up to the NIC I would think.
Short version: try a 5 port switch, they are pretty cheap.
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@steveits said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:
In years past there was a "crossover" Ethernet cable
Not needed with gigabit NICs and later 100 Mb.
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@jknott said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:
Not needed with gigabit NICs and later 100 Mb.
Ah. Many years then. :)
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It can work with one computer, but not two other identical to each other (same nic) computers. If that was me, I would watch the NIC link lights on each end- are they blinking, solid, OFF, cycling on and then off, only one lit on one end, but both lit on the other... I keep thinking speed and duplex as the hardware changed on one end and it stopped working.
But frankly, this PFS box should be plugged into a switch and tested that way.
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Okay, I'm going to try to answer all the questions in one post lol
Hardware info:
CPU-Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Motherboard- 21-b6-e1-e2 ( sadly this is all the info I have on this board.
RAM- 8gb not sure the speed though.
NIC- Intel Dell E1G44ET2 PRO/1000ET 1GB PCIe 4 Port Ethernet Network Card 0HM9JYNo Switch is on the network.
The identical motherboards were NOT connected at the same time if that matters, I wanted to see if it was something to do with my internet provider or modem so I choose to go over to his house since he has almost the exact same PC as I do.
On the PFsense PC I can ping google, on my computer I can not.
I will try the IP ping on my pc next and give you an update on that.
Thank you!
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Did you get any error message when you tried to ping google? Can you ping your router?
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Yes I can ping the pfsense tower.
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Error message for pinging google on my PC is:
Ping request could not find host google . com. Please check the name and try again. -
@gtimmis07 ping 8.8.4.4 and if that works it’s likely a DNS issue.
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Yes that worked. So it's a DNS issue then?
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@gtimmis07 said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:
I plug my ethernet cord into my wife's laptop and it gets internet instantly. However, when I plug it into my computer I get "Network: No internet"
If one PC works, and the other doesn't, then the person that owns the PC that doesn't should read this text :
Did you change the network properties - like setting a static IP / mask / DNS / Gateway ?
Didn't someone said somewhere in the past : " you shouldn't ! " (becomes it will fire back on you in the future).Normally, when you hook up a PC to a network (read : a network that has a device that says it's the gateway, and that PC never 'spoke' to this gateway before, you get a question :
Is this a Private Network - or Public network ?
Chose wisely.
In either case, Internet access would work.
The absence of this question is a "bad sign".Common question : what is your pfSense LAN setup ? (it should be 192.168.1.1/24 as this is set up by default).
The DHCP server on LAN is activated ?On your PC, type :
ipconfig /allWhat do you see ?
Does this checks out with the DHCP server settings ? -
@gtimmis07 said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:
So it's a DNS issue then?
Appears so.
