Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect
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@RickyBaker said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
I do not remember ever turning this on.
It is not enabled out-of-the-box with any pfSense installation. It had to be enabled by you or another admin.
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@bmeeks well fair. They'll be back at the beginning of May so I can double confirm but i'm 99% sure. In the meantime i'd love to be able to actually USE my internet, aka fix it before they show up
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@RickyBaker said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
I simply don't know what to do and REALLY don't want to reattach all my hundreds of devices again....
If you have DHCP configured as you describe, there is nothing to "attach". Simply put them on the wire and let them acquire an IP address from DHCP. I suspect you need to greatly simplify this network of yours. It seems you are trying to be too clever by half and clicking/configuring yourself into non-functionality ...
Keep it simple.
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@bmeeks said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
Simply put them on the wire and let them acquire an IP address from DHCP.
what do you mean put them on the wire? I would be recreating all the assignments and interfaces/rules. I'm sure I'd do something wrong. But good point, if I leave the SSID the same all the Wifi devices should reconnect eventually....
And you are certainly right about the cleverness. I don't know how to fix it so yeah. it's too clever for me....
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@bmeeks said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
@RickyBaker said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
I do not remember ever turning this on.
It is not enabled out-of-the-box with any pfSense installation. It had to be enabled by you or another admin.
Not in my case. I've seen this enabled by default in recent version of pfSense CE. YMMV, but in any case, as long as OP is not using IPv6 on WAN, there's no reason he can't turn it off.
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I agree with those that say it sounds like a network loop. I'm not sure the Unifi controller will really tell you precisely where the loop is, though it will tell you ports its disabling, which might give you a place to start.
If I were troubleshooting this, I'd do two things.
- I would disable mesh functions in the wifi completely.
- I would pull all wiring and reconnect one step at a time. Connect first switch to router, attach wired systems that typically attach to first switch, and test. If all is well, connect second downlink switch, reattach all its clients, and test again. Once all switches are connected, start reconnecting wireless APs and testing as you go. Continue until everything is working, or until something goes sideways.
As far as network loops, since you are serving multiple floors, I'd make sure there's not something strange going on like a cat6 cable connecting two wall jacks.
Might be worth checking the wiring
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@bp81 well thanks for the suggested steps. One question though. If my non POE switch is what's connected to the pfsense, I would in a sense be testing as many non-wifi devices as possible first? without any APs/WiFi? Then plug in the POE switch and plug one AP at a time in? then other POE devices?
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@RickyBaker said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
@Patch said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
You have a VPN. How is that segmented on your network?
Does this have the information you were asking about?
Repeating the question does not provide an answer.
The reason for VPN segmentation information is I believe it can cause asymmetric routing if not configured appropriately.
But I still recommend you find your fault by drastically simplify your network then progressively rebuilding it.
Your network verbal description suggests you have some network complexity, so for others to help a network diagram is required. Drawing one would probably also result in you identifying the problem.
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@Patch said in Network becomes totally unusable when my parents connect:
Repeating the question does not provide an answer.
I'm very sorry my screenshot doesn't seem to have loaded:
Yes I'm in front of my rack right now trying to troubleshoot. First I did a speed test on the Wifi and then hardwired to the nonPOE switch and the diffferences were drastic. Perhaps the poor internet I experienced on the hardwired PC was actually due to it being ancient and not the internet. I wouldn't say my laptop directly connected is the snappiest internet experience i've ever had but it's def usable.
So sorry for the red herring. I unplugged everything then slowly started plugging things back in and the previously blocked AP again was blocked due to STP. I even changed the Static IP it's assigned an still blocked. HOWEVER when I switched the port it was plugged into it grabbed a signal and was not blocked. Albeit at a FE speed and not the GbE speeds I was expecting (and a warning about Poor Ethernet Link Speeds)
I even switched the static IP back to what it was before and it still connected without being blocked. It is only when it's plugged into port 48. i even copied the settings from the port that did work to the one that didn't and still it was blocked by STP. I don't even know if this is the issue, seems like that cable could stand to be reterminated but since I still had issues with it completely unplugged I'm guessing that's not gonna solve my problem. At least I have it actually narrowed down to the WiFi specifically now..
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Since it's WiFi should any of these options inside Unifi be enabled or disabled? I disabled the UDP Broadcast Relay that I had painstakingly built inside pfsense to no affect...
