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pfSense/Netgate Support

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  • S
    SDGPeteBatin
    last edited by Jul 5, 2024, 9:02 AM

    Hi all,

    First time poster here.

    We had pfSense installed on a VM by a third party that acts as a firewall to our solution that we're having some issues with. We reached out by email on the 3rd July to enquire about support services as we'd really like it looked over by a professional and someone who knows the product inside out but we've yet to hear anything back. pfSense and Netgate is new to us a product/company, this delay normal for Netgate?

    TIA,

    Pete

    E G 2 Replies Last reply Jul 5, 2024, 9:59 AM Reply Quote 0
    • E
      elvisimprsntr @SDGPeteBatin
      last edited by elvisimprsntr Jul 5, 2024, 10:11 AM Jul 5, 2024, 9:59 AM

      @SDGPeteBatin

      I guess you can't contact the original third party?

      Which version of pfSense are you running? My guess is a severely outdated version of pfSense CE.

      Do you have an active TAC support license? My guess is no since you are running it as a VM.

      https://shop.netgate.com/collections/tac-support

      pfSense is not a Ron Popeil "set it and forget it" device. You really need to be paying somebody for support for regular updates, patches, upgrades, maintenance, backups, etc. Or hire someone knowledgeable directly to provide that support.

      S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 5, 2024, 10:19 AM Reply Quote 0
      • G
        Gertjan @SDGPeteBatin
        last edited by Gertjan Jul 5, 2024, 10:06 AM Jul 5, 2024, 10:06 AM

        @SDGPeteBatin

        Why should you wait to get info ?

        Or do you use the CE version (2.7.2) ? (see info at the bottom).

        Or contact ... let me get one for you (one of many ...) : https://lawrencesystems.com/ or any local avaible company.

        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
        Edit : and where are the logs ??

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          SDGPeteBatin @elvisimprsntr
          last edited by Jul 5, 2024, 10:19 AM

          @elvisimprsntr thanks for the reply!

          Hopefully not outdated, it's a fairly recent install and says there are no updates available. 2.7.2-RELEASE CE

          We don't have a support license yet, that was why I was reaching out with them, listing the issues I have and asking if that's something they can undertake if we purchase their services. It wasn't a "help me now!" sort of email, just introductory explaining our scenario.

          I'm the somebody that supports it, traditionally we've had dedicated servers and hardware Cisco firewalls. We're transitioning to cloud and VM. pfSense is new to me (selected and installed by the third party) who we would have reached out to for support but after migrating only two of our servers to the cloud we had to cut ties due with them for quality reasons. So I'll be picking up the ball with pfSense and learning the product but I want to eliminate the issues we have and ensure it's been installed/configured correctly to start with while I embrace the learning curve lol

          Also just realised that yesterday was 4th of July and due to time differences on the 3rd (UK here) today may be the first time they get an opportunity to read my email.

          S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 6, 2024, 12:53 AM Reply Quote 0
          • S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by Jul 5, 2024, 9:33 PM

            Yes, if you emailed sales you will likely see a reply on Monday because of the holiday in the US.

            Support is only available for Plus but purchasing it will make the upgrade available and we can assist with the upgrade process.

            Is there something specific you're seeing issues with?

            Steve

            S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 8, 2024, 8:19 AM Reply Quote 0
            • S
              SteveITS Galactic Empire @SDGPeteBatin
              last edited by Jul 6, 2024, 12:53 AM

              @SDGPeteBatin You can also look for a local partner on https://www.netgate.com/partner-locator.

              Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
              When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
              Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

              S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 8, 2024, 8:55 AM Reply Quote 0
              • S
                SDGPeteBatin @stephenw10
                last edited by SDGPeteBatin Jul 8, 2024, 8:22 AM Jul 8, 2024, 8:19 AM

                @stephenw10 Hi! Yeah I suspected the same about the holiday, I jumped the gun a bit on that one lol. Just that pfSense/Netgate is new to me as a product/company and sadly for a lot of open source products the organisations behind them sometimes fade away to obscurity so I thought I'd reach out here to see if that might be the case, glad it's not!

                As mentioned, we're happy to purchase services to get the product running as best as it can to give us a good foundation before we continue with migrations.

                Below are some of the issues we're facing that I was enquiring to see if it's within their support remit to work on:

                • The web GUI is extremely slow to load most of the time (sometimes/occasionally it can be lightning fast), navigating from page to page can take an eternity, it makes administering the firewall very tedious and time intensive. From resource usage it doesn't appear that the VM is anywhere near at capacity.

                • So far we have two mail servers (windows based) behind it, they aren't able to resolve each other by DNS and so if an mail account on one server tries to send an email to domain mail account on the other server it's unable to connect. To get around this we've had to hardcode their respective IP's of the hostnames into the host files of each server. We're cautious about adding more VM's (web servers) that will have difficulty communicating with each other and the mail servers. Externally of the firewall all of our clients are able to connect to the servers behind the firewall with no problems.

                • The mail servers/firewall are in their own Virtual Data Center, we have another Data Center for exclusive use for one client only (both DC's are from the same cloud vendor). The web servers in that DC aren't able to connect via SMTP (or any standard mail port) to the DC that has the pfSense firewall/mail servers but they can connect to other smtp's like gmail. However, again, all of our clients (and ourselves) are able to connect to the mail servers from remote locations on all mail ports.

                • We also didn't get to implement the VPN (before cutting ties) to more connect securely to the VM's behind the firewall for remote desktop and as a work around have added one of our static IP addresses to a whitelist, but this is something we'd also like setup.

                • Lastly, we'd just like an audit (correcting where necessary) of it to make sure everything has been implemented correctly/as it should be, that we're taking advantage of features that would benefit us and using it to it's full potential.

                @SteveITS thank you, I'll check that out also.

                S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 8, 2024, 11:52 AM Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  SDGPeteBatin @SteveITS
                  last edited by Jul 8, 2024, 8:55 AM

                  @SteveITS just having a browse now, there are 7 partners listed for the UK, 2 are Premier and the rest are Authorised. Do you know what the difference is? Would it just be the MSP's out of those that would provide the service I need (VAR and Reseller just being sales)?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    SteveITS Galactic Empire @SDGPeteBatin
                    last edited by Jul 8, 2024, 11:52 AM

                    @SDGPeteBatin re: partners, sales volume and IIRC required training.

                    re: DNS, sounds like you want Host Override or Domain Override in the DNS Resolver settings. Probably your mail server issue tooโ€ฆ? Otherwise, need details on how theyโ€™re trying to connect.

                    Re: slow GUI, randomly slow/fast on any page?

                    Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                    When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                    Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 12, 2024, 2:49 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by Jul 8, 2024, 2:29 PM

                      If you have port forwards set there you may also need split-dns or NAT reflection if you are accessing the servers by FQDN.

                      https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/port-forwards-from-local-networks.html

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        SDGPeteBatin @SteveITS
                        last edited by Jul 12, 2024, 2:49 PM

                        @SteveITS slow GUI: any/all pages, sometimes 1-2 minutes per page, very rarely instant.

                        I'll look into the other items you mentioned.

                        S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 12, 2024, 2:56 PM Reply Quote 0
                        • S
                          SDGPeteBatin
                          last edited by Jul 12, 2024, 2:52 PM

                          Well I'm saddened to report back that I've had no response or acknowledgement to my email to sales@

                          I've sent it 3 times in total and kinda lost confidence in Netgate during the process. I'll reach out to one of the partners instead and hope for a better service.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            SteveITS Galactic Empire @SDGPeteBatin
                            last edited by Jul 12, 2024, 2:56 PM

                            @SDGPeteBatin said in pfSense/Netgate Support:

                            sometimes 1-2 minutes per page

                            Hmm, only time I recall seeing that is when a router uses a large alias, such as "all US" in multiple NAT forwards or rules, and the router is essentially CPU limited when generating the HTML.

                            A long time ago there was a bug where the GUI was slow if DNS on pfSense itself wasn't working but IIRC that was long fixed.

                            Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                            When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                            Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                            S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 15, 2024, 8:14 AM Reply Quote 0
                            • S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by Jul 12, 2024, 9:44 PM

                              Yup some DNS issue could be a problem on some pages but not all.

                              Do you have any ticket numbers from those emails?

                              Steve

                              S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 15, 2024, 8:04 AM Reply Quote 0
                              • S
                                SDGPeteBatin @stephenw10
                                last edited by Jul 15, 2024, 8:04 AM

                                @stephenw10 Hi!

                                No ticket numbers, this was an email to sales@, was just introducing us as a company, listing the issues we face and asking if what we wanted would be covered by their support. All we wanted back was a simple, "Nice to meet you, yes we can do that, please purchase XYZ" and we would have purchased their support.

                                S 1 Reply Last reply Jul 15, 2024, 12:37 PM Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  SDGPeteBatin @SteveITS
                                  last edited by Jul 15, 2024, 8:14 AM

                                  @SteveITS we've not really tasked it with much yet, it has a 3 dedicated external IP's that NAT forward to 3 internal IP's going to 2 different servers. As far as rules go, incoming: everything blocked apart from standard mail ports and a single external IP whitelist exception. So quite a simple setup/requirement.

                                  As of right now, it's using 9% of 4GB RAM. 1% of CPU, 0% of 1GB SWAP and 4% of 20GB disk.

                                  I did do some research into it and read about similar stories where the slow down was being generated by the dashboard stats so I removed all of them apart from System Information, Disks and Interfaces but that didn't make any difference.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @SDGPeteBatin
                                    last edited by Jul 15, 2024, 12:37 PM

                                    @SDGPeteBatin Hmm, I would have expected an email to automatically create a ticket response. Let me me confirm that though, it's not something I ever do!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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