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    Request for dhcp from strange address?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • JKnottJ Offline
      JKnott
      last edited by

      While the packet capture in pfSense is useful, I find Wireshark to be far more capable.  For example, it supports filtering on the MAC address, which I don't see in packet capture.  It also supports complex filters and has both capture and display filters.  In addition, you can watch the captures in real time.  For those reasons and more, I recently bought a cheap 5 port gigabit managed switch, so I could monitor in situations where Wireshark wouldn't be otherwise available.

      In your case, just set packet capture to filter on that IP address and let it run for a while.

      PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
      i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports.
      UniFi AC-Lite access point

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

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      • J Offline
        JonH
        last edited by

        Yep, thanks for switch info.  I just bought a 2nd unmanaged switch so am not very inclined to buy yet another.
        But putting info into packet capture did the trick, after unblocking the IP I got it within 15 minutes.

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        • J Offline
          JonH
          last edited by

          @johnpoz:

          Whats the mac address coming from that 30 address?  We can look it up and see what kind of hardware it is, or the maker of it..

          00-01-5C-66-C0-04 CADANT INC., USA

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          • JKnottJ Offline
            JKnott
            last edited by

            And a couple of seconds of hard googling turns up this:

            https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25953464-TWC-Cadant-CMTS-wtf-Hudson-Valley-NY

            PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
            i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports.
            UniFi AC-Lite access point

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

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            • johnpozJ Offline
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              Yeah cadant is cable modem. ..  You can validate its not coming from our gateway mac and just something on the transit network that is your ISP connection to customers devices.  If that is where the dhcp stuff is coming from - its most likely an idiot end user..

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

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              • JKnottJ Offline
                JKnott
                last edited by

                ^^^^
                He shouldn't be seeing anything from other users.  Cable modem systems have separate upload and download channels and are not configured to allow direct access between users.

                PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports.
                UniFi AC-Lite access point

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

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                • johnpozJ Offline
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  But clearly his is..  So again he should bring this up to his ISP..

                  I see dhcp stuff on my wan for stuff that is clearly not me nor my modem..

                  None of these mac's in the sniff are mine or my modems.. I can view my modem macs on its config page..  And they don't match up to any of the ones listed in this sniff.  My IP is a 24.13 address - not the 69.243 in this sniff.  But atleast 69.243 is owned by comcast.

                  example.png
                  example.png_thumb

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

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                  • JKnottJ Offline
                    JKnott
                    last edited by

                    You're showing DHCP offer and ACK, which come from the server, not a client.  As I showed in my capture, there are several subnets used (in fact, mine wasn't even listed in that capture).  My ISP has multiple subnets for it's own customers and when I enabled IPv6, my IPv4 subnet changed.  As I mentioned, my ISP also has a VoIP service, which likely has it's own subnet and they also carry a 3rd party ISP, which would have it's own subnet(s).  So, don't assume that DHCP traffic from other than your subnet is a customer doing something wrong.  There are very likely multiple subnets on your cable that belong there.

                    PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                    i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports.
                    UniFi AC-Lite access point

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

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                    • JKnottJ Offline
                      JKnott
                      last edited by

                      Here is another capture, showing MAC addresses:
                      11:13:45.500356 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 216.181.149.59 tell 216.181.149.1, length 46
                      11:13:45.592614 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 104.234.121.179 tell 104.234.121.129, length 46
                      11:13:45.641095 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 108.162.159.209 tell 108.162.159.193, length 46
                      11:13:45.695279 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 216.181.149.55 tell 216.181.149.1, length 46
                      11:13:45.747911 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 72.53.68.56 tell 72.53.68.33, length 46
                      11:13:45.862704 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 174.112.15.15 tell 174.112.14.1, length 46
                      11:13:45.910888 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 99.250.254.122 tell 99.250.240.1, length 46
                      11:13:45.987876 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 104.204.120.177 tell 104.204.120.129, length 46
                      11:13:46.031307 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 99.250.255.115 tell 99.250.240.1, length 46
                      11:13:46.090016 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 23.248.49.10 tell 23.248.49.1, length 46
                      11:13:46.143425 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 209.141.165.126 tell 209.141.165.97, length 46
                      11:13:46.206859 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 72.53.67.101 tell 72.53.67.97, length 46
                      11:13:46.274995 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 107.150.250.245 tell 107.150.250.129, length 46
                      11:13:46.393292 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 72.53.68.53 tell 72.53.68.33, length 46
                      11:13:46.397089 00:17:10:91:04:1f > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, ethertype ARP (0x0806), length 60: Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 198.16.252.96 tell 198.16.252.97, length 46

                      Notice that there are several subnets, but all the requests come from the same MAC address.  Also, the link I found earlier says that company makes CMTS equipment, of the type used by the ISP.  The cable modems tend to come from other companies.  For example, mine is from Hitron, but Wireshark shows the DHCP server's MAC address is from "Casa", whoever that is.

                      PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                      i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports.
                      UniFi AC-Lite access point

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

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                      • J Offline
                        JonH
                        last edited by

                        It was never my intention to get this deep into why I was getting a request from a strange dhcp server.  It's been interesting tho and I have learned a few things.

                        Regarding my ISP provided cable modem and other customers on the same subnet, my ISP upgraded my modem about a month ago, it has more channels.  I have 8 bonded downstream channels and 4 upstream, 3 of which are bonded.  I have no access to the other features in the modem except to see the status page.

                        In the past, I did see other customers, I cannot see them now.  One item shown on status page which may explain this is "DOCSIS Privacy = Enabled".  I have not attempted to find out what that means but assume it explains why I don't see others on the subnet.  I do not recall if the privacy option was on my prior modem or not.

                        Since obtaining the MAC of the stray dhcp server, I can add this to the discussion.
                        The stray MAC is:  00:01:5c:66:c0:04
                        The MAC of my upstream gateway is:  00:01:5c:66:c0:46

                        Since the equipment of the upstream gateway is only 66d difference in MAC address I assume that the device that is giving me the stray dhcp offer belongs to my ISP.

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