Port forwarding to a wireless bridge network.

niagara3400

Hi all,

Networking is not my forte so please excuse me if I'm not using the proper lingo for everything, but I'll try to be as clear as I can. I really appreciate all the work that has been done to put Pfsense together, but I'm not looking for all the ins and outs of how it works as I won't be using it daily. I just want to get my setup running smoothly. If you could keep your suggestions as noob friendly as possible will be much welcomed.

Here's what I've got.

Main Hitron modem/router(192.168.0.X prefix) ~~~~~(wireless)~~~~~Wireless bridge~~Pfsense~~remote network(192.168.1.X prefix)

I can't seem to get port forwarding to work. The steps I've taken: The Hitron modem/router has the Pfsense IP on DMZ. The wireless bridge has IPTABLES to forward everything. In Pfsense I have rules in firewall/rules to forward as instructed from the internets. I also have it setup in NAT/port forwarding, also as instructed from the internets. I've been over and over it, but can't get the port to open. What am I missing?

Also, while I have your attention. In my situation, is it possible to have Pfsense request a specific IP from the main router instead of DHCP? The Hitron doesn't support assigning set IPs to mac. I've tried putting in my desired IP in the "IPv4 Configuration Type/static" and inserting my wanted IP in "IPv4 Address" in the WAN setup. No go. I get no connectivity and have to revert back to DHCP.

Thanks in advance for your help!

ScottyDM

I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Both mentioned networks are private. pfSense works on the assumption that at least one interface is "WAN" (has a gateway address to the rest of the world) and at least one is "LAN" (no gateway address). I assume your router connects to the rest of the world. And from your description it's doing NAT to translate the public IP to your first private network.

Do you have more than one public IP address, and is it static or dynamic?
Why are you connecting your first network to the pfSense box via wireless?
What do you mean by remote network?
With port forwarding, where are you coming from, and what are you trying to forward to?

You really should have only one DHCP server per network. And these days just about everything that has some sort of smart networking function (routers, modems, firewalls) includes a DHCP server, and it's on by default. Check everything and turn off the extras.

The way DHCP is setup is there's a pool of addresses. The default is to assume an 8-bit subnet (last octet is 0 through 255, and a mask of 255.255.255.0). In any subnet you can't use the first address (0) because it's the networks address. And you can't use the last address (255) because it's the broadcast address. Also the device itself is typically using 1. Therefore the default setup for a DHCP pool is 2 through 254. You should be able to set that down smaller–for example 128 through 254 (half your addresses in your pool). Then you have 2 through 127 (the other half your addresses) available to assign as local static addresses--for example one of them to your pfSense box, another to your LAN server, etc.

Best of luck.