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    Web down after power failure

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • S
      swisscheese
      last edited by

      In a very simple home installation (SG-1100), after each power failure we have to reboot the router to reestablish web access from our computers. I've searched the web for how to resolve this and the only solution given is to get a UPS. Isn't there a way to tell pfsense to talk to the modem and fix the connection automatically? Or at least do something in the GUI to tell it to do so without booting?

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

        What sort of power failure? What loses power?

        Do you have more than one gateway defined? Check in System > Routing > Gateways.

        Steve

        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          swisscheese @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10
          WAN_DHCP WAN Interface WAN_DHCP Gateway
          WAN_DHCP6 WAN Interface WAN_DHCP6 Gateway
          But P6 is always pending on dashboard.

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Should be OK on the route then.

            What loses power after the failure? Everything?

            Can you still reach the pfSense webgui from the LAN?

            Does the WAN have an IP address when it's in the failed state?

            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              swisscheese @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10
              This is the case of power failure to the house.
              Yes I can reach the pfSense webgui from the LAN after power is restored.
              How would I check if WAN has an IP address when in the failed state?

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                The interfaces widget on the dashboard would show it. Status > Interfaces will also show it.

                If you unplug the Ethernet from the WAN NIC and reconnected it does that restore the connection?

                It sounds like this could be a timing issue when both the modem and pfSense are booted at the same time when the power comes back.

                S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  swisscheese @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 After rebooting just the modem, web comes back with no problems. After rebooting modem and router at same time, pfsense WAN_DHCP shows a normal looking IP but Pending and computers have no internet. After disconnecting ethernet between router and modem for 10 sec and reconnecting, pfsense dashboard Gateways shows WAN_DHCP Online status but computer still shows "no internet". Reconnecting wifi in Windows did not help - same on phone. Ping 8.8.8.8 and google.com failed. CMD prompt ping amazon.com returns "Ping request could not find host amazon.com. Please check the name and try again." But ping via pfsense GUI succeeds:

                  Results
                  PING amazon.com (205.251.242.103): 56 data bytes
                  64 bytes from 205.251.242.103: icmp_seq=0 ttl=243 time=19.219 ms
                  64 bytes from 205.251.242.103: icmp_seq=1 ttl=243 time=17.778 ms
                  64 bytes from 205.251.242.103: icmp_seq=2 ttl=243 time=18.464 ms
                  --- amazon.com ping statistics ---
                  3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 17.778/18.487/19.219/0.589 ms

                  After rebooting router and reconnecting wifi in Windows all works.

                  Here is a recent DHCP logs:

                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhclient 74961 New Broadcast Address (mvneta0.4090): 192.168.100.255
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhclient 75582 New Routers (mvneta0.4090):
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhclient 76451 Adding new routes to interface: mvneta0.4090
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhclient 78246 Creating resolv.conf
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhcpd 85282 DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.200.73 from ... (Pixel-3a) via mvneta0.4091
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhcpd 85282 DHCPACK on 192.168.200.73 to ... (Pixel-3a) via mvneta0.4091
                  Sep 16 11:08:12 dhclient 64455 bound to 192.168.100.20 -- renewal in 30 seconds.
                  Sep 16 11:08:15 dhcp6c 43748 failed to open /usr/local/etc/dhcp6cctlkey: No such file or directory
                  Sep 16 11:08:15 dhcp6c 43748 failed initialize control message authentication
                  Sep 16 11:08:15 dhcp6c 43748 skip opening control port
                  Sep 16 11:08:15 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:08:17 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:08:19 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:08:23 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:08:31 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:08:42 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67
                  Sep 16 11:08:42 dhclient 64455 DHCPACK from 192.168.100.1
                  Sep 16 11:08:42 dhclient 42182 RENEW
                  Sep 16 11:08:42 dhclient 42575 Creating resolv.conf
                  Sep 16 11:08:42 dhclient 64455 bound to 192.168.100.20 -- renewal in 30 seconds.
                  Sep 16 11:08:47 dhcp6c 43748 Sending Solicit
                  Sep 16 11:09:12 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67
                  Sep 16 11:09:13 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67
                  Sep 16 11:09:15 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67
                  Sep 16 11:09:16 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67
                  Sep 16 11:09:18 dhclient 64455 DHCPREQUEST on mvneta0.4090 to 192.168.100.1 port 67

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Does it have a default route in that state? Check Diag > Routes.

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      swisscheese @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 When it's up normally it shows:
                      default normal ip UGS 7 1500 mvneta0.4090
                      But in the down state the default line is missing.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Hmm, do you see anything in the logs where it fails to add a default route?

                        Try setting WAN_DHCP as the default IPv4 gateway in Sys > Routing rather than automatic.

                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • S
                          swisscheese @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 said in Web down after power failure:
                          WAN_DHCP as the default did not help. Don't know how to read the various logs.

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

                            Well when the DHCP WAN comes up I expect the gateway to be reset as the default route. If that fails there would usually be an error in the System and/or gateways logs showing that failed and why.

                            Check the dhcp log for the dhclient entries. You should see something like:

                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	8480 	Starting add_new_address()
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	8722 	ifconfig ix3 inet 172.21.16.232 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 172.21.16.255
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	9400 	New IP Address (ix3): 172.21.16.232
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	10067 	New Subnet Mask (ix3): 255.255.255.0
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	10981 	New Broadcast Address (ix3): 172.21.16.255
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	11527 	New Routers (ix3): 172.21.16.1
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	12199 	Adding new routes to interface: ix3
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	13332 	/sbin/route add -host 172.21.16.1 -iface ix3
                            Sep 17 22:11:51 	dhclient 	14251 	/sbin/route add default 172.21.16.1 
                            

                            If that route add default command fails it should show an error there and/or in the system log at that time.

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                            • NollipfSenseN
                              NollipfSense @swisscheese
                              last edited by

                              @swisscheese said in Web down after power failure:

                              solution given is to get a UPS.

                              If you experience frequent power failure, investing in one is a must...

                              pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
                              pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

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                              • S
                                swisscheese @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                This post is deleted!
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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  @swisscheese said in Web down after power failure:

                                  Sep 18 07:32:28 dhclient 80717 Adding new routes to interface: mvneta0.4090

                                  Hmm, not trying to add a default route it looks like. I wonder if the dhcp server is sending it a default route. You might try capturing that dhcp sequence in a pcap and looking at what's actually being sent.

                                  However I think I would try a simpler test. What happens if you manually boot the modem and then boot pfSense after, say, 30s?

                                  If that works it's an easy workaround to add a longer boot delay to pfSense so that the modem has finished booting before pfSense requests a dhcp lease.

                                  Steve

                                  S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • S
                                    swisscheese @stephenw10
                                    last edited by

                                    This post is deleted!
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                                    • S
                                      swisscheese @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 Good idea on the boot delay. I used 60 sec (did not try 30) and it seemed to work. Thank you!

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