Netgate 1100 connection
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Recently I've my WAN connection has been dropping, but also my connection to my Unifi AC Lite has also dropped at the same time. When I go to the main menu page, the WAN connection appears as if it is connected with zero packet loss. Even though I see this, I still have no connection to the Internet.
Upon reboot, the Internet connection will be resolved.
Any ideas? Which logs should I look at? Is there a way to download the logs? (I couldn't find a way to download logs... only cut and paste)
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Hi, from your description to me it sounds like you lost DNS. A couple of things come to mind. Your ISP may have updated the modem, causing your limbo state . With the reboot, you got current leases and if it doesn’t happen again, I would guess that was it. Another possibility is if you have overcomplicated DNS. If you have check some boxes in the name of security and privacy , but don’t know exactly what these boxes do. For instance, if you are forwarding your DNS and have DNSSEC checked. A good review of your settings might reveal something that’s out of date.
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@Uglybrian said in Netgate 1100 connection:
Hi, from your description to me it sounds like you lost DNS. A couple of things come to mind. Your ISP may have updated the modem, causing your limbo state . With the reboot, you got current leases and if it doesn’t happen again, I would guess that was it. Another possibility is if you have overcomplicated DNS. If you have check some boxes in the name of security and privacy , but don’t know exactly what these boxes do. For instance, if you are forwarding your DNS and have DNSSEC checked. A good review of your settings might reveal something that’s out of date.
Thanks,
I'll look into this. I would have thought that if I lost DNS, I would see "pending" at the most on the pfsense dashboard. Is there any reason why it would say connected but not be connected?Does anyone know if you can download logs? Or do I just have to cut and paste.
It also seemed strange that my two access points (unifi AC lite) wouldn't show up in the list of available networks. I feel that I should have been able to at least see them and connect with no Internet access.
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I would also check for a default route change. If you have more that one gateway defined and the default IPv4 route is still set to automatic then it might switch to that other gateway even if that doesn't go anywhere (like some internal gateway) and it won't switch back unless that does down. Or at reboot, which is what you're seeing.
Do you have an internal gateway defined?
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@stephenw10 said in Netgate 1100 connection:
I would also check for a default route change. If you have more that one gateway defined and the default IPv4 route is still set to automatic then it might switch to that other gateway even if that doesn't go anywhere (like some internal gateway) and it won't switch back unless that does down. Or at reboot, which is what you're seeing.
Do you have an internal gateway defined?
I kinda doubt it's a gateway change, but I could be wrong. For one thing, I have no idea how to define more than one gateway. All the gateways were set using the setup wizard. The only other gateway that is defined is the WAN_DHCP6, which is always at pending. I don't know if that could have caused an issue after a power failure.
The only thing I have set up is static routes within the LAN. This seems to help keep my devices (network printers etc) online.
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Yes, that cannot be the problem if you only have one IPv4 gateway.
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@larryjb said in Netgate 1100 connection:
my connection to my Unifi AC Lite has also dropped at the same time. When I go to the main menu page, the WAN connection appears as if it is connected with zero packet loss. Even though I see this, I still have no connection to the Internet.
From where ? From a device connected over Wifi, over the Unifi AP, over the cable between the Unifi AP to pfSense ? An only then : over the WAN ...
You've added a detail about the WAN : no packet loss.
That leave me with these suggestions :
Chzck the LAN side of pfSense : the interface, the DHCP server (is is distributing leases ?), the DNS - the Resolver is u and running ?
Check also the AP, it has a (also !) GUI where you can see the state of its radio (wifi) connection, and the state of it's LAN port. -
I may have found my problem and solved it. Hopefully.
Before, when I made static mappings, I was able to, and did make static mappings within the Address Pool Range. I didn't realize that this could cause conflicts.
If I have this right, the Address Pool Range is the range within which pfsense can assign an ip to a device trying to connect to the LAN. So the address of my unifi AP may have not been available, hence the dropping out of my wifi. In general, the pfsense documentation does say that, while it may be possible to make a static mapping with the address pool range, doing so may result in unexpected behaviour.
I have reduced the address pool range so that no static mappings are in that range. I'll see if this resolves our wifi dropping out now.
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See it like this : the pool size you define in pfSense should be "as big + a margin" to contain all the device that you don't care about what IP (lease) they get.
Your static dhcp mac lease devices, you do care about what IP they get, hence the "static MAC ..." setup.
These device should be outside your defined dynamic DHCP pool.Example : typical LAN : 191.168.1.1/24 where the pfSense LAN uses 192.168.1.1
Your static MAC DHCP Lease device should be set up t use 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.50 (lets imagine your have 50 devices with such a setup) and you define a dynamic DHCP pool from 192.168.1.200 to 192.168.1.250 for your dynamic 'don't car' device.
You need more static DHCP MAC lease devices ? Just assign beyond 192.168.1.50.
You need a bigger dynamic DHCP pool ? Lower the 192.168.1.200 pool bound. -
Interestingly, I made some reassignments in the static ip addresses, and also turned on the "Allow clients from only this interface".
Even though I added my phone MAC to a static address, I had changed the ip address so I could group devices logically (keeping phone devices in the same range of ip addresses). So, when I left the home and came back later, my phone would connect to the wifi, but not to Internet. When I checked the DHCP leases, both my phone was up, and my wifi AP's were up. Although I was able to connect to the wifi, the firewall wouldn't connect to the Internet. It's almost as if part of my firewall recognized the new IP, and the other part didn't. Once I rebooted the firewall, it was up.
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@larryjb said in Netgate 1100 connection:
Even though I added my phone MAC to a static address
Remember that (most ?!) phones change randomize their MAC address.
If you trust your own wifi/LAN ( ^^ ), you could/should/would set, for this wifi connection, the randomize option off. This way the DHCP server can honor the static MAC lease, as the MAC doesn't change anymore.
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