Help, I'm a noob

Timbro

Hello, I don't know if this is the right place for me to ask this question, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I recently read an article about building my own router and how I could build something that would put any commercial router I could buy to shame. Having spent probably thousands of dollars over the years buying routers that always end up having issues and disappointing me, this really appealed to me. I've built my own PC before, and the router-building process (at least according to the article I followed) seemed pretty straightforward, so I decided to do it.

Here is the build:

Case: Cougar QBX
Motherboard: Asus H110I PLUS DDR4 LGA 1151 Mini-ITX
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 128GB SSD
PSU: 500W Fully Modular 80 Plus Gold
Network: HP 436431-001 NC364T Gigabit Quad Port Ethernet PCI-E Server Adapter

I realize that this is way overpowered for what the machine will do, but I figured, if I was going to build something, why not have a little fun with it.

I was able to install Pfsense successfully, but I wonder if I'm missing something when it comes to connecting all the ethernet cables. I would like to continue to use my current router as an access point since the machine I built doesn't have any way to broadcast the wifi signal.

Using the Assign Interfaces option in the Pfsense CLI, and using the auto detect option, I connected my modem to the WAN (em0) port on the ethernet adapter of my homemade router. I then connected the LAN port (em1) on the ethernet adapter to one of the LAN ports on my old Asus router.

I went into the Asus router's GUI and turned off the DHCP server (I had read elsewhere that this was necessary) but none of this worked. With the DHCP server on the Asus router turned on, I was still able to connect to the router but not access the internet. With it turned off, the wifi on my cell phone could see the router, but it said it couldn't find the router's IP address and wouldn't connect to it.

I assigned my homemade router the IP address 192.168.1.125, and I assigned the Asus router to 192.168.1.147. I thought that this meant they would be part of the same subnet (another thing I had read was necessary) , and that I would therefore be able to continue to use my old router as an access point, but it's still not working.

So I'm hoping someone can help. Am I just not connecting the ethernet cords to the right ports? Is there some other piece of hardware that I need to buy? Do I need to do something in the Pfsense GUI or the Asus router's GUI?

While I'm at it, can anyone recommend any good books to learn more about networking? Seems like every time I want to learn something, I just end up banging my head against this impenetrable wall and getting frustrated.

Thanks in advance,

Tim

chpalmer

Do you have a public IP on the WAN of the pfsense box or is your modem also a router?

Timbro

I'm not sure how to check if there is a public IP, but the modem is not a router. Or at least, I've never used it as one it can't be used that way as far as I know.

chpalmer

What kind of internet connection? Model of modem?

Your WAN address is not 192.168.1.x is it?

Timbro

It's a cable internet connection. The modem is a Ubee brand, model number UBC1301.

I changed the IP address of the homemade router to 192.168.1.125, so I assume the answer to your second question is yes? Or is it possible to have the IP address used to access the browser interface be different from the WAN address?

JKnott

@Timbro

Plug a computer directly into the modem and see what address you get. In Windows, you'd open a command prompt and enter ipconfig.

chpalmer

@Timbro said in Help, I'm a noob:

UBC1301

https://mediacomcc.custhelp.com/euf/assets/documents/modem%20user%20guides/Ubee_UBC1301-AA00_%20User_Guide.pdf

Yes it is a router by default. This doc shows its LAN subnet as 192.168.100.0/24 so things should work out of the box. But if your ISP has them configured different it may be 192.168.1.0/24 which would not work. You can not have the same subnet on the WAN as you do the LAN.

See if your ISP or yourself can put your cablemodem in bridge mode. Then restart both modem and pfsense.