Netgate pfSense Router stopped working?
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I had a question for the community, is there a reason why my Netgate pfSense router would just stop working or crash or get corrupt?
Last night everything was working fine until I lost internet. I thought maybe internet went out but neighbors were all fine so it was just my house. I could not get to the pfSense GUI interface via web to check (This site can’t be reached https://172.16.1.1/ is unreachable), so I rebooted several times and nothing came back online. So I went ahead and swapped in an old Netgear router to see if it would work. Once I hooked it up everything came back online and was working. But as soon as I reconnect the pfSense router nothing works.
I tried pinging 8.8.8.8 and it says transmit failed.
So just confused and no idea what could have happened since was doing nothing other than the internet connection to my desktop computer just said it was no longer connected.
Not sure how else I can troubleshoot or diagnose it. Or what I need to do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. -
Does pfSense respond at the console directly? It could just be a hardware failure.
Steve
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@stephenw10 I tried earlier last night with no luck. Did not want to connect at all.
It has been a while since I last used the console so could be out of practice and maybe did something wrong. But did not think so and thought that it was just erroring out was because something was wrong with the box possibly. Plan on trying again later on when I get home.
Is there anyway to find out if the hardware failure? Or mainly only through pfSense console? -
If the hardware failed I'd expected to see either a bunch of errors at the console or just nothing at all.
If it's a config issue you can test from the console directly to determine if the WAN is down or the LAN has stopped passing.
Is that VGA or serial console?
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@stephenw10 It is a serial console. Dont believe there is a VGA port on the back at all just the RJ45 connections.
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Well if it shows nothing at all there it may be that it froze with an error but you won't see it if the console wasn't connected at the time.
In every other way the serial console is better because you can easily log the output and search it later, copy and paste it etc.
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@stephenw10 well I tried to connect but apparently I cannot get it to connect. When I have the console cable connected it gives me the error that the hardware device is not connected. I have tried it on 2 different computers and multiple USB ports on each computer, nothing will connect and even just trying to connect through putty it wont connect at all.
So not sure if that means the hardware is dead, even though the status light is green when it is powered on.
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What hardware is it? How are you trying to open the connection?
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@stephenw10 Netgate SG-4860, I am using the USB to 5 PIN via console port on the 4860 to my PC using putty terminal.
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Ah, OK. Does it create the new virtual com port when you connect it? They usually appear as com 4 or higher in Windows.
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-4860/connect-to-console.html
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@stephenw10 I installed the driver and did follow those instructions originally before. It currently shows COM3 in device manager, however the device status shows "Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer (Code 45). To fix this problem, reconnect this hardware device to the computer."
I have tried multiple USB ports on 2 different computers (however on the 2nd computer there is a Code 10 conflict since device cannot start. However on the other machine that I originally and have always used in the past to connect via the console that is the one that has the Code 45. I ordered 3 more cables just in case my original cable went bad. Just waiting for them to be delivered so I can test them out and see if it will actually show it is connected.
Does it matter if they show as COM3 instead of COM4 or higher?
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No, as long as you're not trying to use com1 or com2 it should be OK.
If you're able to try connecting it to a Linux client I would try that. Or even from an other pfSense box if you have that.
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@stephenw10 OK I will see if I can try to do that.
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@Blackops well I ended up replacing the console cable and once I did device manager acknowledged the connection. But still putty would not recognize anything even when reboot there was no output or log generated at all. So have to think something is wrong and it is hardware failure. Status light is green as well.
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The status LED starts out red then turns green when you power it on? If so that implies it is POSTing and you should see some output.
Is it connected at the correct baud rate? (115200bps)
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@stephenw10 yes that is correct. It goes out turns red then turns green.
Yes the baud rate is correct.
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Hmm, were you able to try a different client type, Linux or another pfSense box? Or really anything other than Windows?
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@stephenw10 unfortunately I have not been able to. I am going to try and see if I can get on a linux box and try and see. But windows is really all that I have at my house.
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You can always boot a live Linux image just to test. Who knows, you might find you like it.
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@stephenw10 Well I ended up finding a used cheap 4860-1U to use for the time being, and the console feature worked using the same cable and computers that the other one would not work with. So my guess is I had a hardware failure.
