cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble
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to be honest with you ive not much knowledge in this area, i was using a config file to just input my vpn details into it. Like i say it was working perfectly until 4 days ago.
Can you recommend a book to read about all this as i am feling pretty lost with it all.
I feel like i need to learn this from the ground up and at least get some basic understanding with it all.
In the meantime maybe i should just reset the vault to factory settings and download the config file? What do you think?
One thing i did notice when the firewall is cycling through the setup screen with just kyboard and monitor connected is that it is asking for my ovpn password, i will try and put something in there that matches the last details i put in before it crashed.
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@shdjshdjshd said in cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble:
that it is asking for my ovpn password,
Ah, that is almost certainly because you created an OpenVPN client config that requires a password and didn't enter one. It should still continue to boot once you enter a password there though.
I assume it did since you're able to reach the console menu which is only shown when bootup completes.
From the console menu you can try using option 15 to roll back the config. List the configs to see if you have one from a suitable date.
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Thanks I have restored the earliest one i could find before it crashed.
I just need to work out now howto access the control panel on the firewall , struggling to work it out with the ethernet cable option
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Well if DHCP as enabled on LAN and your laptop is configured to use DHCP then it should just pull a lease in the correct subnet. That is the normal setup and what I would expect you had it set to.
It's also possible the wifi access point was running the dhcp server so you might try through that again.
I would make sure your laptop is setup for dhcp first though.
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ok i seem to be back in the gui for some reason through the ethernet cable. It seems to have liked it when the firewall was switched into the menu first before attching the cable to my laptop, can now be opened via password on web browser.
I can see i have two vpn clients, maybe that was where the conflict was but i was having no internet before i added the second client.
Any idea how to proceed from here?
on the open vpn client instance statistics page it says
Reconnecting (Could Not Determine Ipv4/ipv6 Protocol)
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Hmm, there are a whole bunch of things that could be an issue if you're policy routing traffic via OpenVPN.
How did you set it up originally? Did you follow a guide?
The first thing to do here is find the missing password and either enter it in the OpenVPN client config or disable that client.
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Hi yes its through a intel techniques ( a privacy website ) firewall config file and user guide. I have reinstalled that tonight and can now access 192.168.1.1 wirelessly from my laptop, it doesnt appear to be as seemless as before though.
I have some new ethernet cables on order as in theory everything should work now. I need to plug the firewall into my isp router.
I have re setup my access point and i am connected to that .
Once i use my new cable to my ISP router into the firewalls wan port it "should" work, will report back once those cables arrive.
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Hi Stephen just wanted to say thanks so much for all your help in this.
I think the thing i got wrong was the server name in pfsense was changed by the vpn provider unawares to me.
New cable arrived today seems to have helped connect to the wan. I disabled all dhcp in my isp router also.
I guess they changed the catch all address i was using to connect to the fastest server and i am now choosing a specific ip address from inside my pf sense console.
Really great software this and i am thankful for not just connecting the vpn app every time again.
Thanks again man
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No worries, glad you were able to get back up and running.
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Hi Stephen
I have tried to update the pfsense software and its got stuck in a loop.
Tried updating from 2.7.2 to 2.8.1
Everything went fine but then it got stuck in a never ending loop.
Ive plugged a monitor into the firewall and it says it has
no/boot/kernel/kernel
so im guessing something hasn't been downloaded properly.
Do i wipe the firewall software and start again or is there an easier fix.
Thanks in advance
kicking myself as it was working fine
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Hmm, you might be able to load the old kernel to recover. At the loader menu hit option 6 to select kernel.old.
But if it's somehow lost the boot directory entirely then you will need to reinstall and restore the config. You can recover the config during the install if you don't have a backup (which you should
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@shdjshdjshd said in cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble:
kicking myself as it was working fine
Don't.
Keep in mind that "upgrading with a click in the GUI" isn't always the best way to upgrade (upgrading from the console is imho always better btw).
There are moments you actually can't / shouldn't upgrade from the GUI.
Reasons, easy to understand, are : hidden, reserved partition sizes changed (software always needs more space ^^), or the preferred file system changed (a couple of yours ago, it was ext3, now its ZFS that became the new thing, and to change the file system you need to nuke the partitions first).
You need some new knowledge : how to create a bootable USB stick. That's it.Here you go : the reading "how to do it" Prepare a USB Memstick will take you more time as actually doing the install.
Before you start, get a copy of your pfSense config file.
Then : re install pfSense from 'scratch' with the stick.
Do minimal WAN/LAN setup, so ou can access the GUI.
Upload your config file.
Reboot and done.And for free you get a nice hand's on experience : the day things break (hardwxare can break) you will know how to start from scratch and get your Internet access back "within 10 minutes" (after replacing that dead drive ^^).
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Could you direct me to the download page for the previous 2.7.2 version please as i just want to get this working .
Thank you for the help so far.
I have tried to use the free iso file but it says it is corrupted for some reason when im trying to load it into balena etcher for 2.8.1 off the netgate website. It is the one where you have to buy it for free.
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@shdjshdjshd said in cannnot get internet access through pfsense after 3 years of no trouble:
Could you direct me to the download page for the previous 2.7.2 version
Here you go: https://atxfiles.netgate.com/mirror/downloads/
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Thanks Balena Etcher dosent seem to be working at all for me.
Should i use Rufus to clean off the flash drive first that i have . I think i used this flash drive before for 2.7.2 although now it dosent work with the lastest iso file
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You should use the memstick img if you're writing to a USB memstick not the ISO.
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Hi Stephen
Apologies yes I meant the mem stick version
Yes I tried that it gave some error once it was downloaded the memstick one. It had gz on the end of the filename, is this correct? I thought it should have IMG at the end but I cannot find a file that works for me.
It's there any programme that completely wipes a memory stick so I can download this programme?
I remember all this being a lot easier first time I did it. Maybe I need a new memory stick.
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Etcher can extract the img from the gzip on the fly when it write it so that's not an issue.
What was the error?
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Okay managed to flash the drive
Pfsense loaded
Am I launching a shell for rescue or reinstalling do you think?
It's giving me three options
I don't have the previous config file ( think it's on an old hard drive) but I can quickly download and access one that I was using and edit it to my requirements
It says something about zfs for system, should I stay with ufs?
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In the first menu you should have an option to recover the config. Do not agree to wipe the drive until you have recovered it.
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-walkthrough.html#configuration-restore
Unless you are installing to eMMC or a very small SSD you should use ZFS.
