Lost connectivity trying to change the LAN or WAN description name

sgnoc

I'm trying to rename my interfaces to better organize them in the GUI, particularly in the Rules section and the dashboard. I've already changed the setting to organize the interfaces alphabetically and have been able to change the description names for the other interfaces.

When I try to change the LAN or WAN interface descriptions, I end up getting errors on the network where there is no connectivity. I can ping the pfsense router, but I can't get to the internet. Trying to ping outside of the network gets general transmit failures, or 100% loss.

Initially if I try to change LAN, I get this error: The Router Advertisements Server is active on this interface and it can be used only with a static IPv6 configuration. Please disable the Router Advertisements Server service on this interface first, then change the interface configuration.

But when I work to get that resolved, I then lose connectivity. For the WAN, I have no problem changing the description, but then I get the same connection issues where the entire network goes down.

The interface statistics screen shows the interfaces all up. I can release/renew the WAN DHCP assignment from my ISP, but no other connections work, either ICMP or any other data in/out.

Is it just not possible to rename the WAN/LAN without connection errors?

sgnoc

I finally figured it out after a day and a half of troubleshooting. I was able to get all interfaces except LAN and WAN configured with the names I wanted, then I did change by change and tested.

First I enabled IPv6 on LAN with an IP ::1.
I saved this, but did not apply the changes.
I next when to the DHCPv6 settings into the RA screen and changed routing to disabled.
I saved that screen and returned to the LAN interface.
I removed ::1 from the IPv6 IP and changed IPv6 to disabled, then saved and applied.

This allowed me to change the LAN description to what I wanted. After applying the new name, I tested and the interface was still up and I was able to access the internet.

To change the WAN,

I changed and applied the new WAN name. This killed my access to the internet. I was getting a "Destination host unreachable" message trying to ping any internet IP.
I then figured out to change the default route from Auto to the specific new WAN interface name. I figured this out because I was able to ping my WAN IP and the WAN gateway, but nothing else from the pfsense box. Once the WAN route was changed from Auto to the new WAN name, I was able to get out.

It is an extremely simple fix, but it took a while to figure out what combination would work. Hopefully this helps someone else that may be looking. The LAN trick was taken from a reddit that I found. It took a little while to figure out the WAN default route issue. When I was ssh'd into pfsense, trying to ping an internet address gave a "no route to host" message, which led to the solution.

Hope this may help someone else in the same boat. I'm not sure why the Auto feature wouldn't pull up the WAN, other than it possible does the auto detection just based on an interface with the name "WAN".