ATT Internet AIr
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@Gblenn The pics above , I believe , explain what is needed. Bottom line I have had a network setup for 2 years running flawlessly. The problem was that we decided we needed failover internet after a recent outage (and resultant business loss). The issue was that all 4 ports on the pfsense device were full
So we decided to at the switch and utilize VLANs to turn one port on the pfsense into 2 ports ...
1 - for the addnl WAN
and the 2nd) - for the orginal Camera LAN that was already connected to the port on the pfsense originallySince that port will be utilized as a trunk for both the new WAN and the existing Camera LAN I am not clear on how I should "assign" the parent interface ??? Maybe @stephenw10 could offer insight on this as well. I understand that the parent interface can remain assigned - but how do you assign a parent interface??
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You don't need to assign the parent interface if you are using two VLANs for the two subnets.
You would only assign the parent if you want the trunk link to carry untagged traffic and my preference is to avoid that if possible. And it's certainly possible here.
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@ahole4sure said in ATT Internet AIr:
Since that port will be utilized as a trunk for both the new WAN and the existing Camera LAN I am not clear on how I should "assign" the parent interface ??? Maybe @stephenw10 could offer insight on this as well. I understand that the parent interface can remain assigned - but how do you assign a parent interface??
Like @stephenw10 is saying, you don't have to. It was just my idea of putting all VLAN's on one interface, which included your default LAN. But that would also mean having untagged traffic on that trunk, which isnt' really best practice I suppose...
If you want to use that port for both Camera and ATT WAN, I guess you are missing VLAN 20 on the pfsense side. So that needs to be added like you did with VLAN 10.
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@stephenw10
Again thank you for your help!
This is probably a continued VLAN question but I think there is some pfsense general stuff going on.I finally got the 2 Failover modems to connect to the pfsense as intended - BUT it took hours of experimentation.
Main question(or topic) is that I just couldn't get DHCP to work for creating (and maintaining) the interface and esp the gateway -- it seemed to have to do with assigning the parent interface (or not) and possibly some weird MAC addresses showing up (maybe it was the MAC address of the switch port (not really sure) ...
the only way I seemed to have a stable configuration was to set the VLAN interface to static , create a "static" gateway, and then HAD to delete the gateway that was auto created by the DHCP initially
Note: the DHCP config of the VLAN interface worked initially but then the created gateway started showing weird addresses (not even on my network) like 192.168.224.1 (see FIRST PIC ) ( the subsequent remaining pics are the working setup that ended up after static config)Any ideas why the DHCP setup / config is failing? Is it MAC address issues? When a DHCP server doles out an address to VLAN what MAC address does it see? Does it see the parent interface MAC address? And what if the parent MAC address is configured and then used as a VLAN trunk - is the same MAC address used for the parent and the VLAN interface??
I can use the static as long as ATT is willing to keep providing static addrress for my modem. So that's not the end of the world but it would be nice to understand the process for the future ..... I even have a third location with much different network for later
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@stephenw10
here are the rest of screenshots
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@stephenw10
Here are the rest
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@ahole4sure That very last part, "Use mobile router as DHCP server"... why is that turned on?
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Yeah seems like it should be pulling a lease from a remote dhcp server at AT*&T somewhere. But that gateway you're getting is outside the range of both....
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@Gblenn
When I was testing on the parent port, if I turned off the modem DHCP server it didn’t send the DHCP info for the interface -
@stephenw10
I know. Weird…
Is the DHCP info for the interface something that pulled or initiated from the pfsense. Or is it something “sent” from the modem -
@ahole4sure DHCP is always "pulled" by clients through a DHCP request sent as a broadcast message reaching all servers (and clients) on a network. Which means that both the ATT modem and your ISP gateway will respond... Given the latency difference, it's not unlikely that the ATT modem will almost always "win". Regardless, make sure it is turned off in the modem.
I was looking at some info on setting those ATT modems up and it seems like there's more to it than simply "turning on passthrough"? Like choosing DHCP dynamic or fixed, where in the case of fixed you are required to input the MAC of your pfsense interface.
However, the MAC showing in your picture (B0-19-21 etc) is not the MAC you have from pfsense ending with ..68:43. In fact, based on those three octets, it looks like the ATT modem has actually picked up the MAC of your TPLink switch.
So I'm suspecting this may be the cause of your problem...Also, wrt static or dynamic IP from ATT, my guess is they are providing you with a (very) dynamic IP. Typically in mobile networks IP's get released to the "pool" pretty much immediately after a device releases it. So static here probably means it is one single device that should be receiving the IP, in case there are more than one connected to the modem. Which you actually have since the TPLink switch is also a device that can request IP via DHCP...
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Well spotted! Yeah that MAC for the pass through looks wrong.
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Man I am so appreciative of you all helping !!!
I have been pulling my hair out -- didn't see you posts unitl after I had done some more changes based on google (lol - one of my friend's wives is not allowed to google -- it can get you in trouble BUT)I tried enabling ipv6 and look what happened :
My ipv4 gateway came back online
The problem I was having was that in my testing (again I have to send this setup 5 physical hours away form me) - a power off (like with a power failure) would lead to my ATT gateway going offline and then getting "lost"I am very unfamiliar with ipv6 -- this is really weird
Thoughts please
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@ahole4sure said in ATT Internet AIr:
I am very unfamiliar with ipv6 -- this is really weird
Thoughts pleaseI don't use IPv6 so I'm speculating here but I'm assuming you didn't have to make any other changes, like entering the correct MAC in the ATT modem? But with IPv6 things work different, so it may work even if the modem was set to only hand out IP to that specific MAC. As far as I understand it, Pfsense could have figured out an IP based on the network prefix or some router advertisment from the ATT modem?? I'm sure @stephenw10 knows this and can explain?
But, I'm thinking there is a risk that your TPLink may still pick up that IPv4 address when it eventually requests a renewal?? So I'd go back and make sure to put the pfsense MAC in there asap.
And while you are at it, you could try to turn off IPv6 in pfsense and see if things work also on IPv4... with the correct MAC in the modem.
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I noticed that with the interface status that the ipv4 gateway is not being listed , only the ipv6
And no I have not messed with the MAC address settings yet
(? you are talking about MAC address settings in the ATT modem correct??)
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And to reiterate -- there are 2 ATT modems attached to this test setup
The one that is attached directly to a pfsense interface is not behaving like this , only the one connected to the VLAN
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Yes the MAC address in the modem passthrough settings should be the pfSense interface MACand it appears not to be.
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@ahole4sure said in ATT Internet AIr:
And to reiterate -- there are 2 ATT modems attached to this test setup
The one that is attached directly to a pfsense interface is not behaving like this , only the one connected to the VLAN
And the reason may just be that the first one only has one "client" attached, which is pfsense. Whereas this one has two where your TPLink switch happens to be the other. And since the switch connects first, that becomes the MAC it (the modem) picks up...
So if you go back to the UI of the ATT modem and change the MAC listed there, to 00:e0:67:1c:68:43 which is your opt3 MAC, it will likely work the same way as the other modem.
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So I could be being a bit dense here - but are you talking about putting the pfsense trunk interface MAC address? in the ATT settings??
The screenshot I have is from the "working" ATT modem connected directly to the pfsense box. For some reason I can't access the ATT modem connected to the switch (192.168.3.1) even though I got the gateways up to be able to see what is showing up there.
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@ahole4sure Precisely, see how that MAC matches the WAN in pfsense in your picture...
So you just enter the MAC from igb3 for this new ATT modem instead...
