New pfSense Install Issues with 1 of 3 Samsing TVs. Cannot establish an internet connection
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FYI I am traveling and will log some additional traffic on the other tv's when I return tomorrow. Thanks so much for all the debugging help.
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OK, this is even more interesting to me to find the root cause.
Thanks for all your help so far. Just need a little more which will help me learn more about network communications.
Remember that;
(ptv wifi not enabled)
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When the problem TV (ptv) was connected via a cable directly to the modem, it worked, and this was repeated many times, including modem reboots. Worked = ptv reported an internet connection, hulu streaming and Samsung TV Plus (stvp) worked.
ptv > Modem -
When the ptv was wired directly to the pf's LAN port, it did not work. No internet connection at all.
ptv > pf > Modem -
When the ptv was to my switch connected to pf, it did not work.
ptv > SW > pf > Modem -
When I would re-save the static IP reservation in pf, even though no changes had been made to it, the ptv would stream sptv for a few seconds. This was inconsistent. I think it would only shoe video if the connection was long enough to fill the buffer.
ptv > SW > pf > Modem -
The second two points were true when;
There was a static reservation and the ptv was set to dynamic.
The ptv network settings were set to static
When the ptv IP was swapped with the working tv.
And in all cases the Gateway = pf IP, DNS was set to either pfs, 8,8.8.8, 75.75.75.75(comcast dns) or 1.1.1.1.
Ok now the new, news....
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I set the ptv to wireless and it was able to establish an internet connection and sustain it. IP Network settings = Dynamic. Gateway = pf IP, DNS = pf IP
ptv > AP > SW > pf > Modem -
Hulu worked, however Samsung TV Plus would not. Tried this several times.
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I changed the ptv DNS setting to 8.8.8.8 The ptf now worked completely including, Samsung TV Plus!
ptv > AP > SW > pf > Modem
Ok, now to the more interesting part for me ...
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I changed the ptv back to wired and kept the network tv setting static on the ptv and it still works
ptv > SW > pf > Modem -
I changed the ptv back to Dynamic settings which set the DNS back to the pf IP and it is still working
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The ptv settings are back to where I initially started, and it has survived tv ov/off cycles
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If I set the ptv network settings to static with the settings same as dynamic (Same IP, Gateway & DNS = pf IP), it still works.
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I unplugged the ptv network cable and the ptv lost connection as expected. When I plugged the cable back in, it came quickly back to life.
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Pulled the ptv power cord and waited a minute and plugged back in and the ptv came quickly back again.
So, I am at point where I cannot reproduce the problem and can't identify root cause and a permanent corrective action. Even though the ptv is now just tv, not knowing what caused this issue and what the corrective action should be, is not a space that I like.
Below is the capture of the ptv starting with it off and when I turned it on and its working. It looks quite different that the capture in my earlier post when it could not establish a internet connection.
It seems that the ptv needed to establish an internet connection wirelessly before wired worked but wired did work worked when plugged directly into the modem. No updated to the TV were done as far as I know. Automatic updates are disabled and the reported firmware ver didn't change.
Questions;
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What could cause this behavior?
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What can I do to make sure this issue does not return, especially when I'm gone and there are many very unhappy people watching a nearly blank screen that says no internet connection?
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How best to learn more about network traffic, packets, etc. I know this is probably like asking you guys, how to be a brain surgeon, but I would like to be in a better spot then I am now.
Thanks
Frank -
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Hers the packet capture file...packetcapture-tv working wired dyanic IP DNS pfsense.pcap
Not sure if I captured enough. Seem that there is a 2k file size upload limit.
PS: My old firewall (Zywall UGS) did not have this issue.
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Did you have a DHCP static mapping in place for the wifi MAC address when you switched to wifi?
Do (or did) you have 'ARP Table Static Entry' set on the static mapping for the Ethernet MAC?
This feels like once it was able to connect it may have updated and corrected whatever issue it was hitting. I could believe a bad clock in the TV might cause the continuous ARP requests for example.
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I neglected to write that down in my notes. I think it was dynamic DHCP when I switched to wireless.
No 'ARP Table Static Entry' Deleted that early on. It did not help at that time.
TV Clock has always been set to auto and the correct time zone. FYI:It does not have any time server settings that I can find.
But I would have thought that the TV clock would have corrected itself during the several times it was connected directly to the Modem, had an internet connection established and was streaming anything. Also, shortly before I moved over from my old firewall, it was working and the tv was not power cycled until I started the debugging. It should have had the correct time.
The capture log timestamps look like they are UDT, is that normal?
I do not have the pfsense NTP service enabled because it says not to if is running in a VM. How ever I did make the localization entries in the General Setup when I installed pfsense. I'm running pfsense as a VM in proxmox and it has had the correct time.
Does any of this info help? Thanks!
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Probably not a clock issue then.
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S stephenw10 moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
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Any suggestions for next steps?
Thanks
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Is it still working correctly? Not sure there's anything we can do if we can't replicate it.
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@stephenw10 said in New pfSense Install Issues with 1 of 3 Samsing TVs. Cannot establish an internet connection:
This feels like once it was able to connect it may have updated and corrected whatever issue it was hitting
But why wouldn't it have done that when he connected it directly to his modem? maybe he didn't leave it connected long enough?
Its still arping like crazy - every 2 seconds
That doesn't seem right... Do your other tvs do that much arp?
So I took a look at one of my tv's and how much it is arping, and MY TCL tv is arping for its gateway every 12 seconds.
Its better than every 2, but it still seems like a pretty insane amount of arp.. Do these IOT sort of devices not have any cache at all?
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Mmm, that does seem pretty crazy.
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@stephenw10 It seems a lot of people have noticed the excessive arp from my TCL and Rokus seem to do the same freaking thing..
But have yet to find a way to change the frequency, nor an explanation for it - other than just horrible coding?? Why should a device arp that much? Can't you cache it for even 30 seconds? Man if you put a lot of these devices on the same network, and lets say it was wifi - that would end up being a large portion of traffic for zero reason that I can think of..
Do you think the mac of your gateway is going to change that much that you need to arp for it every 2 seconds, or 12 even?
This is my Harmony Hub, its a bit better at ever 30 seconds..
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Yeah I have some thing at 30s. I highly doubt this is anything malicious. Almost certainly just lazy code.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor -
@stephenw10 Yeah agree I just think its just bad coding.. If you have a few devices, no big deal I guess.. But was at a bar yesterday to watch some of the madness.. They have 60+ tvs.. All of them arping every 2 freakings seconds - heheh that would be nuts..
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@johnpoz I just saw this post and am having the exact issue with two Samsung Smart TVs. They sometimes connect wirelessly to my network (behind PFSENSE and PIHOLE), but they continuously report they are not connected to the internet. Sometimes they report they are not connected to the local network. Very odd.
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Are you blocking or redirecting traffic from them?
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@stephenw10 In the tail logs, I can see zero blocked with anything to do with Samsung. What is really odd is that sometimes both TVs reports they cannot connect to WIFI and other times they (multiple) reports local connection only. I have rebooted, repowered, turned off blocking, etc. All same behavior. Next step will be to bypass pfsense.
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If they're actually not connecting to WiFi that's a lower layer problem. Are they both connecting to the same access point? Can you test a wired connection?
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@stephenw10 I will tomorrow and report back. I believe, however, they are trying to contact some samsung server somewhere to determine if they are on the network. Will advise, thanks for helping me think about what is going on here.
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@SixGun said in New pfSense Install Issues with 1 of 3 Samsing TVs. Cannot establish an internet connection:
contact some samsung server somewhere to determine if they are on the network
well out of the box pfsense wouldn't block them from talking to anything on the internet. Are you filtering outbound traffic in someway, dns with pfblocker or running IPS?
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In my particular case I found it was because of Kea DHCP server.
Samsung TV (UN58TU7000FXZC) would no longer connect to WiFi (UniFi U7 Pro AP).
As soon as I put back ISC DHCP instead of Kea it worked.
