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    Introducing Netgate Nexus: Multi-Instance Management at Your Fingertips.

    Port Forwarding Not Working

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved NAT
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    • KOMK Online
      KOM @datacare
      last edited by

      @datacare Did you go through each entry on the NAT troubleshooting list that was linked for you? In all the years I've been on this forum, I've never EVER seen a case where a NAT issue wasn't one of the items in the list. That's why Netgate made that list.

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      • D Offline
        datacare
        last edited by datacare

        I have used the Netgate NAT Troubleshooting guide.
        In example the pfsense gateway at WAN IP 24.149.91.10 is configure to forward port 8080 TCP to the pbx server on local IP 10.1.15.2. Testing access to this from 50.224.130.62 fails.

        As for hte firewall logs they show no listing of any NAT traffic related to this traffic.

        There are no active states indicating port 8080 attempting to be forwarded.

        Packet Capture shows traffic from the source IP arriving on the WAN interface but shows no related traffic on the LAN interface. Indicating to me that the gateway is receiving the traffic on it's WAN interface but not forwarding it.

        The NAT and Firewall rules have been triple checked and reentered.

        The pbx server at 10.1.15.2 is listening on port 8080 and is accessible on the internal network and from another lan as well. The pbx server has access to the internet through he gateway.

        I created a similar gateway with same hardware in the lab. If I restore teh same config to it it also fails. However when a fresh install of pfsense and manually configured with the same rules exactly and works. But on the test system I used the default configured wan port igb0 where as on the production system we have reassigned the wan to port ix0 so it uses the available fiber interface. Although I have checked the gateway assignment in interfaces and routing, I believe somewhere in the wan port binding to the physical interface is likely where hte problem is.

        chpalmerC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • chpalmerC Offline
          chpalmer @datacare
          last edited by

          @datacare said in Port Forwarding Not Working:

          I believe somewhere in the wan port binding to the physical interface is likely where hte problem is

          As much as this does not make sense at least to me I have to wonder..

          I actually have a similar setup here where my interfaces use the same drivers and my primary WAN is now a fiber connection from a switch. I doubt I would see the same issue but may try just because I can..

          I wonder if your config has something that is redirecting the traffic before it even gets to your port forward? Maybe @stephenw10 is watching and can chime in!?! 🤔

          I am curious about your actual setup though.. what kind of equipment are you running pfSense on? Mine is in my sig line.

          Triggering snowflakes one by one..
          Primary- Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G4400 @ 3.30GHz on an M470 WG box. pfSense CE 2.8.1
          Lab Unit- Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box. pfSense+

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          • G Offline
            giuliafw70
            last edited by

            One thing I would check in the config, before blaming ix0 itself, is whether the NAT rule destination is still set to the old WAN address/interface somewhere. If the rule says WAN address it should follow the assigned WAN, but if it was restored with a specific VIP/address or an old interface group it can look correct at a glance and still never match.

            A quick test is to add a temporary pass rule on WAN for that port with logging enabled, above any other WAN rules, then try from outside and see whether it logs as pass or never matches. If the packet capture sees SYNs on ix0 but there is no firewall log and no state, that points more to rule matching/destination than to the server side.

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            • M Offline
              MalagaFirewall8
              last edited by

              If you can reproduce it from one outside IP, I’d add logging to the generated WAN pass rule and also check Firewall > NAT > Port Forward that Destination is still WAN address, not a literal old IP/VIP from the restored config. Then look at Diagnostics > States filtered for 50.224.130.62:8080 right after a test. If tcpdump sees the SYN on ix0 but there is no log line and no state, the rule is simply not matching; comparing the NAT/rule section of the restored config with the clean lab config usually shows the stale interface/address reference.

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              • D Offline
                datacare
                last edited by datacare

                Here is the faulty port forwarding config, with secure elements removed of course. faulty-port-forwarding-config.txt

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                • stephenw10S Offline
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by stephenw10

                  Do you have any other port forwards that do work there?

                  If you see incoming traffic in a pcap but it never opens a state and never appears as blocked there are a few things that could be happening.

                  You might have a block rule that doesn't log. The default block rule does log but that can also be disabled.

                  You might have an IPSec instance that is grabbing the traffic.

                  You might have a captive portal instance inadvertently enabled on WAN.

                  I've seen all of those things. 😉

                  Edit: Oh I see you posted the full config. CHecking....

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                  • stephenw10S Offline
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Hmm, doesn't look like any of those things.

                    What I do see though is that at some point it looks like that config was manually edited to rename the internal interface IDs. wan1and wan2 would never be seen on a config generated entirely using the gui. That should be fin but it's not something that is ever tested. Is that possible?

                    D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • D Offline
                      datacare @stephenw10
                      last edited by datacare

                      @stephenw10

                      Yes you are correct. I believe when that gateway was originally deployed years ago I did edit the interface names manually to try to get them to display in a certain order in the GUI and I believe I changed the order they are listed in the config when I was working in that. That’s probably it! Well I will go out to the site and just reload the gateway from scratch this week.

                      Thanks to everyone for all your help!!!!

                      Rob

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                      • stephenw10S Offline
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Mmm, that would be good to know. It does make me wonder what what it does with those config rules if they are not created as expected. 🤔

                        If you're able to it would be good to check the actual running ruleset with pfctl -sr and pfctl -sn.

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