Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    46 Posts 7 Posters 6.7k Views 7 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • S Offline
      SteveITS Rebel Alliance @gtimmis07
      last edited by

      @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.

      Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
      When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
      Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

      JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • JKnottJ Offline
        JKnott @SteveITS
        last edited by

        @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.

        PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
        i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
        UniFi AC-Lite access point

        I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • S Offline
          SteveITS Rebel Alliance @JKnott
          last edited by

          @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. :)

          Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
          When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
          Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • T Offline
            Tzvia
            last edited by

            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.

            Tzvia

            Current build:
            Hunsn/CWWK Pentium Gold 8505, 6x i226v 'micro firewall'
            16 gigs ram
            500gig WD Blue nvme
            Using modded BIOS (enabled CSTATES)
            PFSense 2.72-RELEASE
            Enabled Intel SpeedShift
            Snort
            PFBlockerNG
            LAN and 5 VLANS

            G 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • G Offline
              gtimmis07 @Tzvia
              last edited by

              @tzvia @Tzvia @SteveITS

              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 0HM9JY

              No 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!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • G Offline
                gtimmis07 @Tzvia
                last edited by

                @tzvia @JKnott @SteveITS

                I can ping my pc but not google.

                JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • JKnottJ Offline
                  JKnott @gtimmis07
                  last edited by

                  @gtimmis07

                  Did you get any error message when you tried to ping google? Can you ping your router?

                  PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                  i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                  UniFi AC-Lite access point

                  I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                  G 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • G Offline
                    gtimmis07 @JKnott
                    last edited by

                    @jknott

                    Yes I can ping the pfsense tower.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • G Offline
                      gtimmis07 @JKnott
                      last edited by

                      @jknott

                      Error message for pinging google on my PC is:
                      Ping request could not find host google . com. Please check the name and try again.

                      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S Offline
                        SteveITS Rebel Alliance @gtimmis07
                        last edited by

                        @gtimmis07 ping 8.8.4.4 and if that works it’s likely a DNS issue.

                        Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                        Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

                        G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • G Offline
                          gtimmis07 @SteveITS
                          last edited by

                          @steveits

                          Yes that worked. So it's a DNS issue then?

                          JKnottJ GertjanG S 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • GertjanG Online
                            Gertjan @gtimmis07
                            last edited by Gertjan

                            @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 /all
                            

                            What do you see ?
                            Does this checks out with the DHCP server settings ?

                            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
                            • JKnottJ Offline
                              JKnott @gtimmis07
                              last edited by

                              @gtimmis07 said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:

                              So it's a DNS issue then?

                              Appears so.

                              PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                              i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                              UniFi AC-Lite access point

                              I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • GertjanG Online
                                Gertjan @gtimmis07
                                last edited by

                                @gtimmis07 said in Complete noob here sorry if this is an easy question.:

                                Yes that worked. So it's a DNS issue then?

                                Do the DNS check.

                                If windows PC :

                                nslookup whoami.com
                                

                                and the answer will be the answer.

                                iMAC, Linux, whatever else : do the dig thing.

                                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
                                • S Offline
                                  SteveITS Rebel Alliance @gtimmis07
                                  last edited by

                                  @gtimmis07 Is the DNS Server (unbound) running?

                                  Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                                  When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                                  Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

                                  G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • G Offline
                                    gtimmis07 @SteveITS
                                    last edited by

                                    @steveits @JKnott @Gertjan @Tzvia

                                    As I did before I will atempt to answer all the questions here:

                                    Did I change anything like Static IP or mask or anything?
                                    Not that I can think of other than the IP address to 192.168.1.101 to try to get it to match ( I'm sure this is a rookie mistake).

                                    192.168.1.1/24?
                                    No I'm seeing 192.168.1.101/24

                                    When I typed in Whoami on CMD:

                                    Server: pfSense.home.arpa
                                    Address: 192.168.1.101

                                    DNS request timed out.
                                    timeout was 2 seconds.
                                    DNS request timed out.
                                    timeout was 2 seconds.
                                    DNS request timed out.
                                    timeout was 2 seconds.
                                    DNS request timed out.
                                    timeout was 2 seconds.
                                    *** Request to pfSense.home.arpa timed-out

                                    When I typed in
                                    IPconfig /all

                                    Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

                                    Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home.arpa
                                    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection
                                    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 70-85-C2-5B-0F-B4
                                    DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
                                    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
                                    Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::252b:f3ad:6b0d:e587%14(Preferred)
                                    IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.109(Preferred)
                                    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
                                    Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, April 27, 2021 7:16:58 PM
                                    Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:16:57 PM
                                    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::21b:21ff:fecf:c8f1%14
                                    192.168.1.101
                                    DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
                                    DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 342918594
                                    DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-26-50-3E-0F-70-85-C2-5B-0F-B4
                                    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
                                    NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
                                    Connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List :
                                    home.arpa

                                    Thank you!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • T Offline
                                      Tzvia
                                      last edited by Tzvia

                                      I keep re-reading your first post, wife gets internet. It states you get IP, you can (sometimes) get into PFSense GUI. So not a speed/duplex. Thought wife's pc was DHCP, yours static, wrong DNS maybe? Wrong gateway? No, you reset your network settings (DHCP). Wife's PC works- maybe set manually with internet DNS so it works, but PFSense not set correctly for DNS or DNS/UNBOUND not working? Goes to neighbor's house, doesn't work (neighbor DHCP, DNS pointing to PFSense and DNS on it still not working?) Would be interesting to see how the wife's computer is set; (static or dhcp with manually set internet DNS servers...?).
                                      Then this thought dawns on me. You are using a four port Intel nic. one is WAN, one is LAN, and the others would be OTHER NETWORKS if configured as such OR more likely non functional (not configured). Four ports does not a switch make. You need to use the same port that worked with your wife's computer; the other ports would only be functional if configured and would be different networks with their own DHCP.
                                      How is the wife's computer configured...

                                      Tzvia

                                      Current build:
                                      Hunsn/CWWK Pentium Gold 8505, 6x i226v 'micro firewall'
                                      16 gigs ram
                                      500gig WD Blue nvme
                                      Using modded BIOS (enabled CSTATES)
                                      PFSense 2.72-RELEASE
                                      Enabled Intel SpeedShift
                                      Snort
                                      PFBlockerNG
                                      LAN and 5 VLANS

                                      G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • G Offline
                                        gtimmis07 @Tzvia
                                        last edited by

                                        @tzvia
                                        I will get your her config later.

                                        I am using the same port that my wife's computer was plugged into, at this moment I only have one port for wan and one port for lan ( igb0 is wan and igb1 is lan) all others are not setup

                                        JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • JKnottJ Offline
                                          JKnott @gtimmis07
                                          last edited by

                                          @gtimmis07

                                          It appears you're in need of a cheap switch.

                                          PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                                          i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                                          UniFi AC-Lite access point

                                          I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                                          G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • G Offline
                                            gtimmis07 @JKnott
                                            last edited by

                                            @jknott @Gertjan @SteveITS @Tzvia

                                            I will purchase a switch soon and see if that fixes my problem, I will get her laptop out and see what her config is also.

                                            Thank you guys!

                                            JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.