Newbie questions on Remote Desktop and Hostname

saikumargv · Oct 5, 2010, 3:02 AM

I am a newbie to pfSense and need help from experts out there.
Experience limitation using cheap plastic box routers and decided to go with pfSense running on a P4 with 512MB Ram.
The box has two Intel Pro 1000 cards and one Athreos wireless card.
I have setup the WAN, LAN and the Wifi successfully.

I am experiencing the following difficulties in network setup.
Would appreciate your help on this.

1. With my cheap plastic boxed routers I was able to ping using the hostname of the computers on the network. Now using the pfSense I have to use only the IP address. Why is this happening ?

2. With my cheap plastic boxed routers I was able to port forward WAN to a local computer for Remote Desktop connection. This allowed me to login to Windows 7 home computer when I am on the road. How to setup something similar. Will VPN/IPSec be a better option for this need?

3. I was able connect a 8x8 VOIP box successfully behind my old cheap plastic boxed routers. Now using the pfSense the VOIP box is not able to get a connection to the VOIP provider. Is some port needs to be forwarded? Any ideas?

4. Have to setup a FTP server so that I can upload/download files while on the road. Any tutorials would be helpful.

I have attached config file.

Thank you
Sai

config-pfsense.local-20101003203850.txt

Cry Havok · Oct 5, 2010, 3:25 PM

Your cheap plastic box probably allowed the computers to register in local DNS. pfSense doesn't do that by defualt.
Do the same, or set up a VPN according to your choice.
It probably supported UPnP. Try enabling it (it may be a package).
Just port forwarding, though FTP is tricky to get working correctly through port forwarding and you'd be better with SSH

saikumargv · Oct 6, 2010, 12:07 PM

Thanks Cry Havok for the reply. That was helpful.

The 8x8 VOIP box is still not working…...
I tried to enable the UPnP by Services->UPnP-> Check Enable UPnP and select Interfaces for LAN only.

I search through 8x8 FAQ and found this link
https://cognigen.8x8.com/support/faqs.aspx?docid=710099

Could you please explain what this means for QoS settings in pfSense.
I am using the BPA430 adapter

Regards

Cry Havok · Oct 6, 2010, 12:20 PM

QoS (Quality of Service) isn't your problem here but it may be that you need to ensure the VIOP box has a fixed IP on your LAN and the ports they list are forwarded to it.

saikumargv · Oct 6, 2010, 12:53 PM

Yes, tried the following and found the adapter not connecting…..

Firewall->NAT->
Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Schedule Description
TCP/UDP * * 192.168.1.201 15044 * WAN -> Vonage port forward

Firewall->Rules->
Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Schedule Description
TCP/UDP * * 192.168.1.201 15044 * WAN -> Vonage port forward

Cry Havok · Oct 6, 2010, 7:03 PM

The 1.2 NAT Port Forward screen doesn't have those headings - where did you get that from?

saikumargv · Oct 7, 2010, 11:51 AM

Sorry, I mixed it with the Rules page.
Here is the NAT screen contents

If Proto Ext. port range NAT IP Int. port range Description
WAN UDP 15044 192.168.1.201(ext.: any) 15044

Cry Havok · Oct 7, 2010, 4:43 PM

The 8x8 box has IP 192.168.1.201, with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway of the pfSense's LAN IP?

kpa · Oct 7, 2010, 8:09 PM

The port forward has external address set to "any" and that is almost always an error, set it to "WAN address".

Cry Havok · Oct 7, 2010, 9:50 PM

I have a number of "any" port forwards and they work perfectly.

saikumargv · Oct 8, 2010, 8:44 PM

The problem seem to be with the VOIP provider. Got it working after I made a call to the their tech support.

Thanks Cry Havok and kpa for your help.
To answer your questions I have "any" set for the external address.
Also yes the 8x8 box has IP 192.168.1.201, with a netmask of 255.255.255.0.

Thanks a lot,
Sai