Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Gateway offline, Packetloss

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    90 Posts 6 Posters 23.8k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • A
      Apaar @stephenw10
      last edited by

      Okay but then how will this issue solve ?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        It won't. You need to make sure pfSense is actually sending the ARP query when you remove the entry fro the table. That's why you are running the pcap and filtering for ARP and the gateway IP.

        If your previous pcap the gateway starts to respond each time pfSense sends that query.

        A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          If it does then one thing we could do it set the ARP timeout much shorter. That would be a workaround though, it shouldn't be required.

          sysctl net.link.ether.inet.max_age=300
          

          Steve

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • A
            Apaar @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 Can you help me a bit sir, I don't know much about it. I deleted the gateway entry from the ARP table, what to do now ?

            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A
              Apaar @Apaar
              last edited by

              After deleting the ARP table the gateway shows as incomplete mac address.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                Run a pcap and see what's happening. If it shows as incomplete in the ARP table that means pfSense is ARPing and the gateway isn't replying, which is not what was happening in the last pcap.

                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  Apaar @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 i ll run a packet capture and send you the file in some time.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • L
                    louis2 @stephenw10
                    last edited by louis2

                    @stephenw10

                    stephen if you look into ^my IPV6 thread (link send)^, you can see that:

                    • at certain moment ^pfsense^ detect that the GW is gone
                    • the GUI keeps that state ^for ever^
                    • and later on a ping shows that the GW is back again
                    • something not detected by ^pfSense^

                    So in ^my error case^ it is clear that ^pfSense^ is not behaving correctly

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      @louis2 said in Gateway offline, Packetloss:

                      https://forum.netgate.com/topic/173356/issues-with-ipv6

                      You are clearly seeing some issue there but it's with DHCPv6 over PPPoE in 2.7. None of those things are in play here so it seems unrelated to me.

                      Steve

                      A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • A
                        Apaar @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 Sent the Pcap on the same old link

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Ok, so if you look at the pcap you can see pfSense first sends an ARP query in packet 2278 and the gateway responds correctly. Then it immediately starts responding to the other traffic.
                          That is 776s into the pcap. Is that when you deleted the ARP entry?

                          Traffic continues until packet 2341 at 788s. So only 12s.

                          But later in the pcap we see traffic for 21s and then 13s so it's not consistent.

                          However it is exactly the same behaviour we saw in the previous pcap. I also note it is still monitoring the gateway IP directly and not something external.

                          I would retest with a client directly on the connection there and see if that still works. From what we are seeing here I wouldn't expect anything using that to work for more than 20s at a time unless it's spamming ARP queries.

                          You could try, as a test only, setting that max_age tunable to something very low like 10s. I'm betting the connection would remain up in that situation.

                          This really looks like someone else is also trying to use the IP address.

                          Steve

                          A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • A
                            Apaar @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 Can you please help me setting up the max age.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by stephenw10

                              At the command line run: sysctl net.link.ether.inet.max_age=10

                              That can really only be as a test though. 10s is a ridiculously short ARP timeout.

                              Steve

                              A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • A
                                Apaar @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 Okay Sir I will try that

                                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • A
                                  Apaar @Apaar
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10 Done Sir! Screenshot 2022-09-11 at 6.49.15 PM.png

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Did it make any difference?

                                    A 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • A
                                      Apaar @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 I haven’t checked it yet, i m out. Can i let you know by tomorrow. Sorry !

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • A
                                        Apaar @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 No Still the gateway is showing offline, I will try to do a Pcap and send you the file.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • A
                                          Apaar @stephenw10
                                          last edited by Apaar

                                          @stephenw10 It is working, Thank you Sir for your help. Just this command helped.
                                          sysctl net.link.ether.inet.max_age=10

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Ok, so that proves it's some odd ARP issue but it appears to be at the provider.

                                            You should contact them and ask why you are having to send them ARP requests every 10s to prevent the gateway forgetting about you.

                                            I still think it's probably another customer trying to use the same IP address. Setting the ARP timeout so low will have completely broken it for the other customer though so they will be complaining to the ISP.
                                            I did ask this before, but just to confirm, there is no possibility that you have another device connected using the same IP?
                                            If it was connected to the same link as pfSense you would see pfSense complaining in the logs because it would be able to see the ARP broadcasts from the other device. So I doubt that's the case.

                                            Steve

                                            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.