Half Gbit PPPoE on VLAN201 new user setup quandary
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I have 500/500 CenturyLink fiber delivered to an NTD connected to my Intel J4125 I225-V pfSense 22.05 box.
At my location CenturyLink is delivered on VLAN201 via PPPoE MTU 1492.
Coming from edgeOS I found MSS clamping is required at my CenturyLink location.
My pppoe0 TCPmssFix setting is enabled and MTU 1492 is correctly discovered. Initially I set the WAN interface MTU/MSS to 1492/1452, but that competes in unspecified ways with TCPmssFix two "Advanced" clicks below the WAN interface settings. I now have no entries for MTU/MSS in the WAN interface which has the IPv4 Configuration set to PPPoE. No IPv6.
Fiber NDT -- igc0.201 -- pppoe0 assigned to WAN
igc1 assigned to LAN on 10.0.0.0/24
igc2 assigned to MANAGEMENT on 192.168.1.1/24
wireguard etc...All good, but configuring the WAN to use PPPoE on a VLAN hides my underlying igc0 negotiated speed on the pfSense Dashboard - which unexpectedly dropped to 100/full from 1000/full - so I want to keep an eye on the ethernet link speed.
To bring the ifconfig media information onto the dashboard, I assigned and activated my igc0 interface. My Dashboard Interfaces now shows speed for pppoe0 under IGC0.
There must be a better way to bring forward the pppoe0 link speed on the dashboard, but coming from edgeOS I'm not there yet.
I want to see the status of an unassigned interface [igc0] in the Dashboard Interfaces block without doing an assignment & activation.
Running "ifconfig icg0.201" via the Diagnostics > Command Prompt, the Status > Email Reports or ssh all show if my link is at 1000BaseT <full-duplex>.
I suspect pfSense Notifications will be the final solution for an alert on my flapping WAN igc0 connection speed.
Perl and Python are pre-installed on pfSense, so slamming in a flashing yellow up arrow for the WAN status comes to mind as a wake up call, but maybe an ifconfig igc0 to renegotiate the link speed is a solution... similar to the PPP "Periodic Reset", but I'm not sure that the PPP "Periodic Reset" recycles the parent VLAN ethernet NIC.
[pfSense 1st impressions - wow.... yes, PPPoE, WireGuard out of the base, FreeBSD/Linux, Plus, etc... but hardware offloading problems on MediaTek and Cavium with CenturyLink PPPoE/VLAN pushed me to a software only firewall, which pushed me to a stronger CPU with multiple firewall platforms. My ER10X remains my hot backup, at ~25% below provisioned limits]
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The dashboard widget there will only show assigned and enabled interfaces.
Is there some reason you don't want to show it that way?
You could rename it 'WAN_LINK' or similar. You could also assign igc0.201 instead which will also show the Ethernet link state.
It's not uncommon to assign the PPPoE parent interface in order to access the modem.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in Half Gbit PPPoE on VLAN201 new user setup quandary:
The dashboard widget there will only show assigned and enabled interfaces.
Is there some reason you don't want to show it that way?
Showing it this way works.
I did not want to assign and activate an unused interface for fear of kicking in traffic on igc0…. but igc0 was was already active and the base for my WAN PPPoE on VLAN 201 before I assigned it to reveal the link speed.
You could rename it 'WAN_LINK' or similar. You could also assign igc0.201 instead which will also show the Ethernet link state.
I played with different names. WAN_LINK is good.
I’ll take your hint to watch the parent interface of my PPPoE because on a real bad day igc0 might look good while VLAN 201 on igc0 is in the weeds.
It's not uncommon to assign the PPPoE parent interface in order to access the modem.
Steve
Thanks - John
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As long as you don't assign any IPs on it you should never see any traffic there directly.
Though as I say it's common to see that assigned with an IP in the modems subnet in order to access it. I use that. Just make sure the default gateway is set to the PPPoE WAN if you add another gateway.
Steve
