[SOLVED] WAN only recognized through switch, getting awful speed
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Hello!
I feel like cases will explain, so:
1: WAN –> Win7PC = perfect connection, nearly 100Mb, no packet loss, checked with ISP's support too.
2: WAN --> pfSensePC = nothing, like WAN cable is a piece of wood.
Experiments...
3: WAN --> switch(unmanaged,1Gig,D-link DGS-1005A) --> pfSense = interfaces working with 10-40% packet loss...
4: WAN --> switch(same) --> pfSense --> LAN --> LinPC = awful internet, loading youtube page (not a video) in literally 10 minutes.
Ok, if it worked with switch, kind of, maybe my Realtec NICs can't handle MDI-X, and switch just handles that? Another try:
5: WAN --> inline coupler --> reverse patch-cord --> pfSensePC = nothing, still a piece of wood.
Something wrong with cables (all brand new)?
6: WAN --> inline coupler --> reverse patch-cord --> Win7PC = perfect connection.
And what about switch?
7: WAN --> switch(same) --> Win7PC = same awful internet, loading youtube page (not a video) in literally 10 minutes.
Help me please, my head is spinning with this network stuff...
Can this DGS-1005A just be that trash, brand new? Tested with different cables prooved OK, and same... Can I be missing something? But what, it's unmanaged...
And why can't pfSense see my WAN without switch? No lights, no uplink.
P.S.: I also have an old router through which I'm connected now, and it's working, but performing extremely bad - it's 50kb\s down / 30Mb\s up. It was much better before (~45Mb/~60Mb), nothing changed on my side from that times and I don't know the reason. But direct connection works perfect, as mentioned before.
UPDATE:
Solution was to change port on ISP's side, it just broke. You can get your ISP to do that using just switch, even if they don't support any of your hardware.
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You checked up with https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards
pfSense, believe it, works.
Btw : take these Realtek out of the equation !
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An unmanaged switch is totally transparent, it does nothing whether you insert it in the path or not.
Should had stopped at step#2. By WAN I infer ISP. ISP –> Pfsense, are you getting an IP from the ISP? Can you at this point Diagnostic/Ping an Internet IP?
Did this pfsense box EVER worked, or newly installed?
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You checked up with https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards
pfSense, believe it, works.
Btw : take these Realtek out of the equation !
Checked that.
MBUF Usage - 1% (1270/114566)
tried to add /boot/loader.conf.local with:
net.inet.tcp.tso=0
then
net.inet.tcp.tso=0
hw.pci.enable_msix=0
hw.pci.enable_msi=0then
net.inet.tcp.tso=0
hw.pci.enable_msix=0and
net.inet.tcp.tso=0
hw.pci.enable_msi=0Rebooted and checked every case. Nothing changed.
I hope it can work with my hw. NICs are integrated, not much options here.
Can't take them out, obviously. Another $100 to try some PCI NIC… If there's really no option.
An unmanaged switch is totally transparent, it does nothing whether you insert it in the path or not.
Should had stopped at step#2. By WAN I infer ISP. ISP –> Pfsense, are you getting an IP from the ISP? Can you at this point Diagnostic/Ping an Internet IP?
Did this pfsense box EVER worked, or newly installed?
That's exactly what I was thinking about switches, but in practive I see that weird behavior I can't explain.
Stopped. I got nothing. No uplink. No carrier. No IP. No ping. No even single light indicating activity.
Same through switch and boom - everything is working. But loosing packets and that speed…
It's newly installed.
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I would check with your ISP and see if they have hard-set your port to 100/Full
Maybe the pfSense is trying auto and, seeing nothing, not bringing up the port.
And the switch, not seeing auto frame either, might be defaulting to 100M half-duplex, thus causing all the frame drops/problems.This really sounds like an Ethrnet problem, nothing to do with pfsense itself.
PfSense works just fine, so it's not the problem. The problem will be your Ethernet card, the drivers or similar.
Try and do some diagnosis to see what speed and duplex the port is coming up at, especially when connected to your laptop (is auto-neg being used or not?) -
Did you replace the CAT cable already?
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An unmanaged switch is totally transparent, it does nothing whether you insert it in the path or not.
At layer 3, yes (probably). At layer 2, maybe. At layer 1, nope.
The reason it's a good test to put an unmanaged switch between your WAN interface and modem is because it can show up issues exactly like this.
If your modem is set to 100Mb full duplex rather than auto the switch will likely connect to that fine and will also connect to the WAN interface that is set top auto negotiation fine. But without it you get a default connection which is often 10Mb half duplex, horrible speeds and huge error rate.
Ethernet hardware should all conform to the specs and be compatible but that is not 100% true. Some cards will refuse to establish a link or continually flap up and down for no good reason. I have a Realtek card here that behaves exactly like that but only when connected to one switch I have. ::)
What is the NIC in the Win7 PC?
Can you see the link speed/duplex on the switch in each of these cases?
Steve
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@muppet:
I would check with your ISP and see if they have hard-set your port to 100/Full
Maybe the pfSense is trying auto and, seeing nothing, not bringing up the port.
And the switch, not seeing auto frame either, might be defaulting to 100M half-duplex, thus causing all the frame drops/problems.This really sounds like an Ethrnet problem, nothing to do with pfsense itself.
PfSense works just fine, so it's not the problem. The problem will be your Ethernet card, the drivers or similar.
Try and do some diagnosis to see what speed and duplex the port is coming up at, especially when connected to your laptop (is auto-neg being used or not?)Thank you!
It really was something wrong with ISP's port. It was set to auto, but still didn't work correctly, so my connection was regularly jumping through different modes-speeds and getting big error rate. They just changed the port, and now everyhing is perfect.They would never do anything if I said them it's pfSense or any incompatible router, but they couldn't reject the issue with just switch.
At layer 3, yes (probably). At layer 2, maybe. At layer 1, nope.
The reason it's a good test to put an unmanaged switch between your WAN interface and modem is because it can show up issues exactly like this.
If your modem is set to 100Mb full duplex rather than auto the switch will likely connect to that fine and will also connect to the WAN interface that is set top auto negotiation fine. But without it you get a default connection which is often 10Mb half duplex, horrible speeds and huge error rate.
Ethernet hardware should all conform to the specs and be compatible but that is not 100% true. Some cards will refuse to establish a link or continually flap up and down for no good reason. I have a Realtek card here that behaves exactly like that but only when connected to one switch I have. ::)
What is the NIC in the Win7 PC?
Can you see the link speed/duplex on the switch in each of these cases?
Steve
Thanks for the info. Yes, they seem to implement things a bit differently. My Realtek NIC refused to see that broken connection at all, while Broadcom's one somehow worked fine on that… Also that Realtek only accepts it's hw mac, while Broadcom don't care.
