Netgear Aircard 800S 4G

linton

Hi all (thanks in advance)

Running 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3 (amd64) BSD 11.2 10p I set up a Netgear AC800S per the instructions at
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/94840/verizon-jetpack-4g-lte-mobile-hotspot-ac791l-as-a-wan
https://golb.hplar.ch/2019/01/pfsense-and-netgear-aircard790.html

It worked fine for about 2 weeks then it had it go down with these errors

php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: The command '/usr/sbin/arp -d -i 'ue0' -a > /dev/null 2>&1 ' returned exit code '1', the output was ''
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: The command '/sbin/ifconfig 'ue0' -staticarp ' returned exit code '1', the output was 'ifconfig: interface ue0 does not exist'
rtsold	31031	<main> failed to initialize ue0
rtsold	31031	<ifconfig> failed to get link layer information for ue0
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: Starting rtsold process
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: The command '/sbin/ifconfig ue0 inet6 accept_rtadv' returned exit code '1', the output was 'ifconfig: interface ue0 does not exist'
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: Accept router advertisements on interface ue0
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: calling interface_dhcpv6_configure.
php-fpm	340	/status_interfaces.php: The command '/sbin/dhclient -c /var/etc/dhclient_opt3.conf ue0 > /tmp/ue0_output 2> /tmp/ue0_error_output' returned exit code '1', the output was ''

Reboot fixed it but I was wondering what caused it to go wrong? Also if there was any way to set up a CRON job to reload the interface if there was an error so I dont have to bounce the box.
Currently I have a device quirk setup in the /boot/loader.conf.local hw.usb.quirk.0="VendorID ProductID 0 0xffff UQ_CFG_INDEX_X"

Regards

Lint

stephenw10

It's showing ue0 was no longer present so maybe it got disconnected? It powered down? Some standby mode?

That's really the issue with USB interfaces of any kind. pfSense is not expecting configured interfaces to disappear and it not equipped to handle it. If you use a PPP connection it is but obviously that's often much slower.

Steve

linton

Thanks, I thought that may be the case but was out of my depth. I will consider setting up a CRON job to bounce the box if the 4G goes down. The RJ45 adaptor may be a better idea long term.

stephenw10

Yup, using something that provides Ethernet connectivity is best.
A ppp connection works well if you don't need the bandwidth. I see ~40Mbps over ppp here.

Steve