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    PfSense as Proxy for 4G-modem

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • N Offline
      navid
      last edited by

      Hi!

      I'm in a odd situation where I run a service that requires bandwith in the form of Windows updates, and am moving to a new location that turns out doesn't have a fiber connection yet. I've temporarily bought a 4G LTE modem with 100GB to keep me a float, and I'm trying to setup a network that will allow me to maximize the usage at the minimal usage of bandwith (squid on maximal settings possible).

      I currently have an ASUS RT-N56U, it's supposedly supposed to support a 4G modem, but unsure if it handles the speeds correctly. My idea was setting up the network as following:

      A Windows PC running Virtualbox with pfSense, from which a NIC from the PC is connected as LAN to the router (with/without DHCP turned off). I choose Windows PC because I'm thinking the 4G modem should have native support for windows, which could then allow me to share the NIC with pfSense?

      I've had a lot of trouble setting up my test-lab for this.

      I setup a laptop with virtualbox-pfSense with two NICS in bridged mode. The Wifi-antenna which is connected to a test-network is the "WAN"-nic, the laptops ethernet port is set as "LAN"-nic. It is outputting from the pfSense to the LAN port, which allows me to access "through" the ASUS router without problems.

      However, I cannot access any internet from any of the LAN clients. I've disabled the "bogon" bits since the WAN as it is in the test-setup is behind another LAN, I can't see any firewall rules (I've only set it as default) that would block LAN-to-WAN trafic. I can ping through the pfSense virtualbox, so it seems that the WAN connection works, and I can access the webconf through the LAN-connection, but no LAN-to-WAN traffic works.

      Since I can't get my test bed to work, I'm curious if my idea of using a 4G LTE modem on the PC as router is doomed or not? Does anyone have any idea of how to solve this?

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      • N Offline
        navid
        last edited by

        I've gotten it so far as when connecting a LAN client, some services work (such as connecting to Facebook, Whatsapp), but webaccess still gives timeouts. Changing the DNS manually in the client seems to allow internet access! So it seems to be a DNS problem so far.

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