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    Pfsense internet goes down all the time

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • GertjanG
      Gertjan @unf0rg0tt3n
      last edited by Gertjan

      @unf0rg0tt3n said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

      I have tried hooking up directly to the modem, that works because the soft reboot won't last that long...

      So, the modem reboots, no matter how and with what, you use it.
      From what you're saying, not a "VM" or pfSense issue.

      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
      • U
        unf0rg0tt3n @stephenw10
        last edited by unf0rg0tt3n

        @stephenw10 Thanks Steve and @Gertjan . I actually can't login to the modem anymore since it's in bridge mode.

        The problem might be with the cat 6e (which is over 20meter) no idea if that is the problem; but the log: https://pastebin.com/GmH0TCSP
        Do you see strange stuff? I only see that it goes down.

        edit:
        Gateway log: https://pastebin.com/zcpKa6be

        GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GertjanG
          Gertjan @unf0rg0tt3n
          last edited by

          @unf0rg0tt3n said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

          https://pastebin.com/zcpKa6be

          By any chance, the WAN wasn't 'saturated' at that moment ? 'ping' is a low priority protocol.
          if not, your uplink is just 'very bad'.

          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
          Edit : and where are the logs ??

          U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • U
            unf0rg0tt3n @Gertjan
            last edited by

            @gertjan So it could be a nicked or damaged cat 6a cable? My pfsense box is in the attic and the modem is downstairs.

            GertjanG JKnottJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GertjanG
              Gertjan @unf0rg0tt3n
              last edited by

              @unf0rg0tt3n
              Time to go to the attic and take pfSense next to the modem.
              Using another cable of course.

              No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
              Edit : and where are the logs ??

              U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • U
                unf0rg0tt3n @Gertjan
                last edited by

                @gertjan Hm, I have a spare pc laying around. I need to duplicatie my config to that pc. I hope it isn't the cable, so much work to replace that one.

                GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • GertjanG
                  Gertjan @unf0rg0tt3n
                  last edited by

                  @unf0rg0tt3n
                  I hope it's the cable ;)
                  The modem, or any cables beyond that, is not up to you, so chances are you have to 'live with it'.

                  No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                  Edit : and where are the logs ??

                  U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Cool_CoronaC
                    Cool_Corona
                    last edited by

                    Is the ISP modem in bridgemode??

                    If not, start there.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • U
                      unf0rg0tt3n @Gertjan
                      last edited by unf0rg0tt3n

                      @gertjan That would be the easiest solution. Because "ziggo" dug open 40 meters of street and replaced the whole cable already; that was damaged though.
                      Thanks! I'll post my findings

                      @Cool_Corona it is

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • JKnottJ
                        JKnott @unf0rg0tt3n
                        last edited by

                        @unf0rg0tt3n said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

                        So it could be a nicked or damaged cat 6a cable?

                        Trying a new cable is the easiest thing to do. However, if the cable is bad, you will have no connection, connection at 100 Mb or lots of errors & poor throughput. You can get cheap testers to verify the cable is wired properly.

                        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...

                        U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • U
                          unf0rg0tt3n @JKnott
                          last edited by

                          @jknott Thanks for your reply!
                          The cable is good (according to the tester I used), about the errors:

                          enp7s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
                                  ether 00:25:90:dc:0f:3a  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
                                  RX packets 621161334  bytes 713693829981 (664.6 GiB)
                                  RX errors 1  dropped 6  overruns 0  frame 1
                                  TX packets 411474807  bytes 208509699544 (194.1 GiB)
                                  TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
                                  device interrupt 16  memory 0xdfd00000-dfd20000
                          

                          There arent many, 1RX error with 6 dropped.
                          This is on physical hypervisor interface.
                          Pfsense report 0 errors

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Yeah, that seems fine. You could also check the Status > Interfaces page in pfSense in case it's some intermittent fault that test didn't show.
                            Perhaps the cable is wrapped around your AC compressor and it's suppression has failed for example. 😉

                            The gateway logs like this are bad:

                            Jun 21 07:13:45	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 14389us stddev 2120us loss 22%
                            Jun 21 07:21:25	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 14821us stddev 2999us loss 5%
                            Jun 21 07:26:40	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 15642us stddev 6878us loss 21%
                            Jun 21 07:34:18	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 14966us stddev 3562us loss 5%
                            Jun 21 07:37:33	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 13933us stddev 1854us loss 21%
                            Jun 21 07:45:12	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 15617us stddev 4664us loss 6%
                            

                            But note that is packet loss only. Typically you would see a large increase in latency too if it was a saturation issue.

                            Your modem may still have an IP you can connect to in bridge mode, just not in the WAN subnet. You might need to add a VIP on WAN to connect to it.

                            You are monitoring 1.1.1.1 which is generally a good idea but it might be interesting to switch that back to the gateway IP to see if that also fails.
                            If you have only one WAN you should disable the gateway monitoring action on that gateway ( not the monitoring itself) there is no point restarting everything when there is no secondary WAN to failover to.

                            Steve

                            stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Mmm, I also note those packet loss events are almost exactly the same length, ~7m40s.

                              That seems too consistent to be something like a bad cable.

                              Steve

                              U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • U
                                unf0rg0tt3n @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

                                Mmm, I also note those packet loss events are almost exactly the same length, ~7m40s.

                                That seems too consistent to be something like a bad cable.

                                Steve

                                Yeah, I guess soft reboot times.

                                @stephenw10 said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

                                Yeah, that seems fine. You could also check the Status > Interfaces page in pfSense in case it's some intermittent fault that test didn't show.
                                Perhaps the cable is wrapped around your AC compressor and it's suppression has failed for example. 😉

                                The gateway logs like this are bad:

                                Jun 21 07:13:45	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 14389us stddev 2120us loss 22%
                                Jun 21 07:21:25	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 14821us stddev 2999us loss 5%
                                Jun 21 07:26:40	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 15642us stddev 6878us loss 21%
                                Jun 21 07:34:18	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 14966us stddev 3562us loss 5%
                                Jun 21 07:37:33	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Alarm latency 13933us stddev 1854us loss 21%
                                Jun 21 07:45:12	dpinger	84199	WAN_DHCP 1.1.1.1: Clear latency 15617us stddev 4664us loss 6%
                                

                                But note that is packet loss only. Typically you would see a large increase in latency too if it was a saturation issue.

                                Your modem may still have an IP you can connect to in bridge mode, just not in the WAN subnet. You might need to add a VIP on WAN to connect to it.

                                You are monitoring 1.1.1.1 which is generally a good idea but it might be interesting to switch that back to the gateway IP to see if that also fails.
                                If you have only one WAN you should disable the gateway monitoring action on that gateway ( not the monitoring itself) there is no point restarting everything when there is no secondary WAN to failover to.

                                Steve

                                AC compressor? We don't have AC haha. But the cable is bundled with 2 other ones linked to AP's.

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  I have no AC either but you get the idea. 😉
                                  Whatever is causing a problem may not be present all the time. The test you ran looks good but the pfSense interface stats are monitoring it all the time so if it's something intermittent it should show there.

                                  @unf0rg0tt3n said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

                                  Yeah, I guess soft reboot times.

                                  That seems like a very long time for anything to reboot. The modem?
                                  I would want to be sure the modem is or isn't rebooting.

                                  Steve

                                  U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • U
                                    unf0rg0tt3n @stephenw10
                                    last edited by unf0rg0tt3n

                                    @stephenw10 I don't know if that might take that long. It feels forever https://imgur.com/a/jMjwwez

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      It may be it really takes that long if it loses upstream sync. It's a cable modem?

                                      It could be it's not rebooting at all and only loses upstream sync. pfSense it connected to it directly, not via a switch?
                                      The logs you posted do not show it losing link on the WAN just the gateway going down. It it really rebooted I would expect to see the link go down.

                                      Have you checked to see if the modem has an admin interface IP you might be able to access?

                                      Steve

                                      U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • U
                                        unf0rg0tt3n @stephenw10
                                        last edited by unf0rg0tt3n

                                        @stephenw10 There isn't an interface IP. it's a Arris TG2492LG (cable modem)
                                        The link might not go down because it's a VM? In that case there is always link?
                                        I might be wrong.

                                        According to the webpage it takes 5 minutes to fully reboot the modem. PFsense might take another 2, to see that it's actually up.

                                        Also, no switch; directly attached to the modem via UTP

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Some quick googling shows there's a good chance that modem still has a management interface at 192.168.100.1 when it's in bridge mode. So if you're not using that subnet already I suggest adding an IPAlias VIP on the WAN interface at, for example, 192.168.100.10/24 and then trying to ping it from pfSense.

                                          If that works add a manual outbound NAT rule on the WAN to allow LAN clients to access that IP via the VIP.
                                          See: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/modem-access.html

                                          Steve

                                          U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • U
                                            unf0rg0tt3n @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 said in Pfsense internet goes down all the time:

                                            Some quick googling shows there's a good chance that modem still has a management interface at 192.168.100.1 when it's in bridge mode. So if you're not using that subnet already I suggest adding an IPAlias VIP on the WAN interface at, for example, 192.168.100.10/24 and then trying to ping it from pfSense.

                                            If that works add a manual outbound NAT rule on the WAN to allow LAN clients to access that IP via the VIP.
                                            See: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/modem-access.html

                                            Steve

                                            Didn't quite get how to get that done. Can't add interface. But I'm on the phone with my ISP, they saw it go down twice in 7 min and 40 second. They tried to blame my internal network, but that can't be because their modem goes offline. Even made a new pfsense box and moved that directly next to the modem and yeah that worked for 10 minutes. Before it went down. So all new box, all new cables.

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