The registration system is not currently available. Please check your network connection and try again.
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For the past six months, a persistent issue has prevented communication with a specific server despite successful pings, indicating network connectivity is not the problem. The device in question is a Netgear appliance, which recently applied the RC1 update but has since attempted to roll back to a previous version without clear cause. This rollback has hindered the ability to update critical services, resulting in costly downtime and limited router functionality. The problem is not related to the ISP, as this has been thoroughly verified, including the replacement of the modem and confirmation that no deep packet inspection is being performed. Given the $1,000 investment in the hardware, support was expected to be included, and a factory reset is not considered a viable solution. The focus now is on identifying the best course of action to resolve what appears to be an internal router issue.
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@techstarllc
You forgot to talk about the obvious :You bought a pfSense Plus license. Right ?
So you received a token or activation code ... Right ?
But you can't use it ?
Or something else : from where you are = your WAN IP, a connection to the 'Netgate Plus registration server' access isn't allowed ? Just thinking out loud here.Extra info : I never had to buy pfSense Plus myself.
For some reason, it came with the way less then 1000 $ Netgate appliance I bought. But I'm pretty sure, when you get a Plus license for some other device, you also get an support email - and a web access here. -
If it's a Netgate hardware device it doesn't need to be registered like that. All Netgate hardware already has access to Plus for life.
What issue are you seeing beyond that registration screen? What device is it?
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The Blue Netgate appliance, identified by its rear label, must be removed from the rack to verify the exact model number for software cross-referencing. Despite lifetime support being a key factor in its purchase, the primary issue is its inability to establish a connection. While the device responds to pings, it appears unable to retrieve its stored certificate or access key, potentially due to corruption, resulting in the error:
pfSense-repoc: failed to fetch the repo data
The system is locked on base version 25.11.r.20251118.1708, preventing any module updates. This limitation halts certificate renewal, as the ACME program cannot be updated, and both OS upgrades and downgrades are blocked. Additionally, the dashboard fails to recognize its own registration key, further complicating the issue.
System details: Netgate pfSense Plus,
Serial: KSA******* (partially redacted),
Netgate Device ID: <redacted>.I do have this from the unit's dashboard.
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attempted to roll back to a previous version without clear cause
As in, it booted and the automatic boot verification triggered and changed to a previous boot environment? There was a thread recently , but unless there was a real problem you may just be able to change to the newer BE.
You mention file issues, is the disk full? Old BEs will take up space.
Not sure the NDI should be public, you may want to remove that and DM/chat @stephenw10 .
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Ok interesting. That's not a Netgate device. Or at least not anything we have sold in the last 10 years.
It's running a free home/lab Plus upgrade license so I hope you're not using it in some commercial application.
That said it should be able to update.
Yes, check for BEs filling the drive.
That base version looks to be a 25.11-RC. I would try rolling back to a BE known to work and then re-upgrading from there.
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Blue Netgate appliance, identified by its rear label, must be removed from the rack to verify the exact model number
I’m trying to remember if any were blue? The rack mount kits are…
The model should be visible on the dashboard though.
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We did have some blue devices and some were rack mountable but none had a serial number of that format as far as I can tell.
@techstarllc The output of
kenvat the command prompt should show it in the smbios values. For example:smbios.bios.reldate="08/22/2022" smbios.bios.revision="4.13" smbios.bios.vendor="coreboot" smbios.bios.version="v4.17.0.3" smbios.chassis.maker="PC Engines" smbios.chassis.type="Desktop" smbios.entry_point_type="v2.1 (32-bit)" smbios.memory.enabled="4194304" smbios.planar.maker="PC Engines" smbios.planar.product="apu1" smbios.planar.serial="12345678" smbios.planar.version="1.0" smbios.processor.version="AMD G-T40E Processor" smbios.socket.enabled="1" smbios.socket.populated="1" smbios.system.maker="PC Engines" smbios.system.product="apu1" smbios.system.serial="12345678" smbios.system.sku="4 GB" smbios.system.version="1.0" smbios.version="3.0" -
I thought this was officially licensed for you guys because I bought it with plus on it it's been that way for 5 years then you stopped working the last few months Wait probably 4 to 6 months ago It just wasn't a critical issue until now I need some of the hats updated because they don't work anymore and it won't update and it's stuck on RC1.
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Ah. Nope that was never sold by us. And it should never have been sold with Plus on it, that would violate the license terms. Where did you buy it?
But that particular unit was registered for Plus upgrade In Jan 2023. It could have been reinstalled at that point.
Anyway I would still recommend rolling back to a known good BE and upgrading from there. Or reinstalling 25.11.1 clean. In both cases you could just restore the current config onto it.
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@stephenw10 I've had it since around 2019 or 2020, and it was licensed until about four months ago when it stopped working. It has never been reset or anything. I bought it on eBay, and the listing said it was a Netgate appliance, which is why I believed it was. I'm still looking for the receipt, but I've lost access to my email, so I'm trying to recover my eBay account to find it. If it helps at all, I'll look for it, but if not, I won't bother. I needed to update it, but I don't mind if it stays on the same version; I just can't download the apps or the ones sold to kids, and none of them are working properly anymore. I’m not sure if it's due to registration or something else, but the biggest issue is the ACME feature—it’s not generating keys on its own, which is a major problem since I use proxies with it. Honestly, I don’t even know the difference between the Plus and regular versions. I have a Portelli device somewhere, but it has the regular version, and I don’t have a power brick for it since I bought it that way. I sincerely apologise if I implied this was a negative appliance; I was going by the ad when I bought it, and since it came with Plus, I had no reason to think otherwise. It worked fine for at least five years, upgraded and everything, with no issues. I thought maybe whoever used it before had a perpetual license for the company, and when they went out of business, the license was revoked or something. I don’t know if the company still exists or if there’s anything more that can be done. I just don’t want to erase it or downgrade it because I have too much on it, especially since I don’t use the backup. If the company wants to negotiate a deal to buy a license, I’m open to it, but I can’t afford the retail price right now. If I reinstall it, I’d have to put the drive back in to avoid breaking the current setup, which would be a factory reset. I’m not sure if that would fix the problem, since I don’t know how the keys or settings reset. If the key structures are damaged and not preserved in the restore, which would be an old version, it might not help. Also, I don’t know if the device stays on the same version after a reset or rolls back like Windows used to before updates. Either way, a reset probably wouldn’t help me.
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@techstarllc The configuration file can be read by later versions:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-different-version.html
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html#recover-config-xml-from-existing-installation25.11 is unfortunately later than CE 2.8.1. If you can revert to 25.07 you can then install 2.8.1 and use that config file. Or possibly restore parts of the configuration file, not sure.
Plus was given out free for home/lab use, for a relatively short time.
You mention putting a drive back in...changing hardware can change the NDI and thus invalidate a Plus license, though I thought that was normally NIC hardware.
re: what Plus is: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/general/plus.html
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Try booting the Net Installer on it. It will almost certainly see it as registered for Plus and allow you install 25.11.1 directly. It will probably also allow you to recover the existing config during install and use that. But if it didn't for some reason you can still just restore an old config after first boot.
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