Choice of monitors and/or can't ping modem on 192.168.0.1

[jupiters_spot]

I have a dual WAN setup and desire to configure failover.  My backup WAN is a tiny DSL line through Qwest; unfortunately I cannot find an IP in Qwest's IP space that will serve as a good monitor – anything I can ping from within Qwest space is also ping-able from the outside.

Since I couldn't find a "real" IP to monitor, I decided to go for the DSL modem's internal address of 192.168.0.1.  However, psSense can't ping that address, so it too fails as a monitor.

It seems very strange that I cannot ping 192.168.0.1 since it is the address of the DSL modem which serves up the dynamic IP to pfSense on the Opt2 interface.  Is there something that I should be doing to allow pfSense to ping this address?  Perhaps I need a static route or similar to get it to work?  I have a firewall rule that allows any traffic originating on the internal interface to pass to the outside world.

What am I missing?  I would dearly like to get 192.168.0.1 set up as a monitor IP for my failover.

Thanks,
David

[Perry]

anything I can ping from within Qwest space is also ping-able from the outside

Doesn't matter as a static route is created for the monitor ip. It can be tested with traceroute in pfsense gui
imo using the gateway address will be a bad idea. A nearby dns server is what I would recommend.
http://theos.in/windows-xp/free-fast-public-dns-server-list/
http://www.dnsserverlist.org/

But as to why you have a problem with 192.168.0.1… I would recheck that block privat ip... is unticked and the subnet settings is correct

[jupiters_spot]

Thanks Perry – I did indeed have private networks blocked. Stupid user error strikes again...

I am also using a nearby DNS as the monitor.