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

    Internet Occasionally Drops for No Apparent Reason

    General pfSense Questions
    3
    44
    4.4k
    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.
    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      That's after setting that interface to something in the same subnet?

      Check Diag > Routes to make sure it sees that subnet on igb0.

      If so perhaps the modem isnt using that IP any longer...

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

        @stephenw10 yep, set to 192.168.1.10 and checked routes and that is ok too.

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

          Found it by guessing in the end, the modem appears to be at 192.168.2.1 and can ping from the firewall with interface set as 192.168.2.10

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

            Finally in to the modem, will now check the logs!

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

              Nice. So you will probably need to add an outbound NAT rule on that interface to translate client traffic to 192.168.2.10 to allow the modem to reply.

              That or add 192.168.2.1 as a gateway on that interface which will that create the outbound NAT automatically. If you do that though make sure to set the default IPv4 gateway as WAN_PPPoE rather than automatic. Otherwise the system may failover to the modem as default if PPPoE drops.

              With one of those in place you should be able to reach the modem gui from a LAN client.

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

                @stephenw10 Sorted NAT and can access the Vigor 130 GUI. However, there isn't an obvious way to see the Syslog when it is bridge mode so will have to look into that. I know it can be done via SysLog utility, just not managed to achieve it yet!

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

                  First thing I'd check is the uptime if you can see it. Make sure it's not rebooting when this happens.

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

                    @stephenw10 System uptime below....

                    6a0bf8ae-8052-4ed7-9548-61a71be939a2-image.png

                    Around 58 days by the looks of it!

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

                      Good to confirm. The speed it reconnected seemed unlikely the modem could boot that fast but good to know for sure.

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

                        @stephenw10 Looking like a cable then or possibly the BT socket as it is one of those rubbish MK4 ones!

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

                          I doubt it's anything upstream of the modem, like the BT master socket. pfSense shows it's actually losing link on the NIC which means it's an Ethernet problem between igb0 and the modem.

                          It could potentially be the modem dropping the link for some reason but I have no idea why it do that deliberately.
                          If it has any logs it might show that or at least show it also losing the link when pfSense does.

                          One thing you could try here is putting a switch in between pfSense and the modem so that each side is only liked to the switch. It would have to be an unmanaged switch to pass the VLAN or have the VLAN configured on a managed switch.

                          Another thing would be to reassign the WAN to a different port to confirm it's not a failing NIC.

                          Steve

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

                            @stephenw10 said in Internet Occasionally Drops for No Apparent Reason:

                            I doubt it's anything upstream of the modem, like the BT master socket. pfSense shows it's actually losing link on the NIC which means it's an Ethernet problem between igb0 and the modem.

                            It could potentially be the modem dropping the link for some reason but I have no idea why it do that deliberately.
                            If it has any logs it might show that or at least show it also losing the link when pfSense does.

                            One thing you could try here is putting a switch in between pfSense and the modem so that each side is only liked to the switch. It would have to be an unmanaged switch to pass the VLAN or have the VLAN configured on a managed switch.

                            Another thing would be to reassign the WAN to a different port to confirm it's not a failing NIC.

                            Steve

                            The only thing between igb0 and the modem is a patch lead (already changed). Could swap the nic cards over to confirm but they are both new.

                            Spent a fair bit of time last night searching for modem logs. Using Telnet I can show the logs but they are empty, no idea why.

                            I do have an unmanaged switch here so could put that between pfsense and the modem but xan you explain how that would help?

                            Steve

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

                              Sometimes you find that two specific NIC chips will either not negotiate a link correctly or are unstable when linked. It shouldn't happen because both sides should meet the specs for Gigabit Ethernet but it can.
                              Putting a switch in between means that both the igb NIC and the modem are linked to the switch not to each other so at the lowest level the link negotiation/stability is different.

                              What NICs do you have in the firewall? If you have something that isn't igb you could try using that as WAN.

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

                                @stephenw10 Cheers for the explanation. Currently there are two 4 port NICs (both the same model) in the PC. There is another port eth0 on the motherboard, which is unused except for diagnostics etc, so I could try that one.

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

                                  Any idea what NIC that uses? eth is not a FreeBSD driver.

                                  But just re-assigning the WAN to one of the other igb NICs would be a good test.

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

                                    @stephenw10 Not sure what NIC it uses, I will go and see if I can find out. It is on DELL Optiple 5050 SFF so should be able to determine it

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

                                      If it's recognised by pfSense you should be able to see it as an available interface.

                                      If not it should be in the output of pciconf -lv.

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

                                        @stephenw10 It is recognised by pfsense

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

                                          Ok, so what does pfSense recognise it as? I'm not sure what type of NICs are in that device.

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

                                            @stephenw10 It shows as :-

                                            28447a8e-0a50-4fa4-ace0-1935a59ad424-image.png

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