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    Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • J
      JohnnyBeGood @johnpoz
      last edited by

      @johnpoz said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

      You happen to be running arpwatch?

      No, I never used arpwatch ☹

      I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        So how many times has it done this?

        Did it start after you upgraded perhaps? Or made some other change?

        Just how dead is it when it stops? Does the console still respond?

        I would still try that driver myself. It has helped a lot of people who were seeing issues with Realtek NICs. If you can't swap out the Realtek for a real NIC of course! But with a locked NIC you usually still see traffic on the other NICs and the console remains responsive.

        Steve

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        • J
          JohnnyBeGood
          last edited by

          This is 2d time with same issue. No access to GUI, does not responds to ping and every device on the network can't see each other.
          Last upgrade was to v.2.4.4 and I did not notice any issues afterwards. This started out of nowhere and I did not made any changes nor did I installed any new packages so I'm confused. Remote log files don't have any useful info http://prntscr.com/mmupuy

          I do have really old HD in it though. Can that be an issue? Should I upgrade to a small SSD?
          If I remember correctly, a while back I read that pfSense once its running it loads everything into the memory and does not use HD?

          I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by johnpoz

            @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

            every device on the network can't see each other.

            That has nothing to do with pfsense.. Your router/gateway has ZERO to do with clients talking to each other.. Your router is how you get off the network, to a different L3.. How a client talks to another client on the same L2 has zero to do with the L3 router.

            So unless your box failed in such a fashion that is was flooding the network with so much traffic that prevents others from talking.. You can turn pfsense off, unplug it from the network and box A can still talk to B.. Only at such time that their dhcp lease expires and the dhcp server is not there (pfsense) would it matter, or if they were trying to resolve a name and pfsense is not there to resolve it, etc.

            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 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • J
              JohnnyBeGood @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

              So unless your box failed in such a fashion that is was flooding the network with so much traffic that prevents others from talking.. You can turn pfsense off, unplug it from the network and box A can still talk to B.. Only at such time that their dhcp lease expires and the dhcp server is not there (pfsense) would it matter, or if they were trying to resolve a name and pfsense is not there to resolve it, etc.

              Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense.

              I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

              I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by

                @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

                Ok that has nothing to do with box A pinging box B on your network - if that is not working then you got something more wrong than just pfsense locking up..

                So either it failed in spectacular fashion and is flooding your network with crap which prevents anyone else from talking.. That would be RARE!!! Or yeah it failed hard, if you can not get to console then yeah something major wrong..

                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 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                • J
                  JohnnyBeGood
                  last edited by

                  I've tried pings from box A to pfSense and box B to pfsense. No response.
                  After I did reboot (power button once) 3 days ago its working normal like before. I think I should get SSD to rule out problem with my old HD.

                  I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                    last edited by

                    And did you ping from A to B? ;)

                    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 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                    • J
                      JohnnyBeGood
                      last edited by

                      Now I question my self if I did :)

                      I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        @johnnybegood said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                        I remember that pfSense was not responding to pings nor I could get GUI to respond.

                        Both those things would happen if the LAN NIC locked up as Realtek NICs sometimes do.

                        But that would not stop the console responding and that's an important test. In the console is still responsive then you know you have a NIC issue. It is isn't you probably have some other hardware issue, bad ram overheating etc.

                        Steve

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                        • DerelictD
                          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                          last edited by

                          Could also be something else coming online with the same IP address as pfSense. But still has nothing to do with hosts on the same L2 communicating with each other.

                          Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                          A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                          DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                          Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                          • J
                            JohnnyBeGood
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 said in Every couple of weeks pfSense completly stops responding?:

                            console

                            You guys are referring to being physically at the pfSense connected with keyboard and monitor? I don't have either one connected but I guess when it happens next I can connect monitor and keyboard to see if it responds.

                            I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Yes exactly. Or the serial console if your firewall has that. But something out of band of the Realtek NIC.

                              Steve

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                              • J
                                JohnnyBeGood
                                last edited by

                                Thanks, I will try that next time.

                                I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                                • J
                                  JohnnyBeGood
                                  last edited by

                                  So this happened today again and this time I had a chance to connect to the monitor and keyboard. It was not showing anything on the monitor nor did it respond to any of the keyboard strokes.
                                  Only after pressing power once on Shuttle DS437 it shutdown.
                                  First I updated to 2.4.4-p3 and then updated to "Official Realtek Driver Binary 1.95 For 2.4.4 Release" as stephenw10 suggested.

                                  Can driver issue cause console access to the point it does not display any video?

                                  I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                                  • GertjanG
                                    Gertjan
                                    last edited by

                                    Device Driver issues are very capable of taking the system down, or parts of it.
                                    So, no "more screen" is possible, the system locked up ..

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

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                                    • J
                                      JohnnyBeGood
                                      last edited by

                                      Interesting. Keeping fingers crossed ☺

                                      I like to fill my tub up with water, then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit!

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                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Yup, that could be it. Though that's not one of the symptoms usually seen with Realtek NICs I would not rule it out.

                                        Steve

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