Enabling Single link MLPPP

surrealillusion

If you want slmlppp and you don't have a spare physical interface, then you need to create and use a vlan interface as the dummy. The gotcha here is that a vlan interface won't show up in the interface list when you're selecting your pppoe bundle members unless you have first enabled that vlan as a static or dhcp interface.

Creating vlans in pfsense is effectively free, so just make a vlan on your WAN or some other port, so for example vr0 is your WAN, and you also create vlan 999 on vr0 and assign it as OPT2 (because vr2 is now OPT1). Enable OPT2 as a static IP address that does not fall on one of your existing subnets, and then go to ppps and make a pppoe bundle from vr0 and OPT2.

I'm still pretty new to pfSense and while I understand using a second vlan as a dummy interface, performing the actual steps are a bit daunting to me.

If I understand the steps correctly:

Interfaces > VLAN > Create new VLAN for dummy interface
Interfaces > Assign > Add new interface (select newly created VLAN)
Interfaces > OPT1 (in this case) > set IP config to static or DHCP
set up mlppp using WAN and OPT1?

I'm on Teksavvy and I'm trying to set up mlppp to work on pfsense.

clarknova

3. Go static or startup time will be delayed by a lot.
4. Use OPT1 and the physical interface of the WAN, I.e. vr0 (or the blank name as applicable, ie, vr0_vlan10).

surrealillusion

I followed those steps but have been unable to get a stable single link mlppp connection going. The PPP log shows that pfSense connects but then immediately disconnects. Any suggestions on what I should be checking?

clarknova

What snapshot are you using? There are issues with pppoe in the latest.

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,31247.0.html

surrealillusion

I'm currently running 2.0 beta 5 (Dec 25th build).

I created VLAN 999 on em0 then added OPT1 and enabled it (set the IP to my static IP from my ISP)
then I went into the PPP menu and modified my connection (added OPT1 to the bundle)
then the connection goes offline for a minute or two while it attempts to reconnect (pages will load then when you click a link the connection is lost)

a regular PPPoE session works without any issues

clarknova

OPT1 should have a static IP that is private and not the address from your ISP.

surrealillusion

I changed the IP address and still no go. The PPP log shows:

Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] PPPoE connection timeout after 9 seconds
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] Link: DOWN event
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] LCP: Down event
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] Link: reconnection attempt 1 in 4 seconds

repeatedly when I bundle em0 and OPT1 in as my PPPoE connection

gnhb

For those who want to push the envelope with mpd you can craft a custom mpd.conf file and place it in your /conf directory. pfSense will check there first before starting mpd. If it finds a conf file for the interface in question (e.g. if interface is WAN then it looks for /conf/mpd_wan.conf) it will use it for the configuration of that link.

You can use the GUI to configure mpd for the first time and then just copy the auto generated .conf file from /var/etc/mpd_wan.conf to /conf/mpd_wan.conf. Then make your changes and viola, you're good to go! You can do any variation that mpd allows.

If you want to enable slmlppp, you could set up a normal, non-mlppp interface with pppoe, then just add this line:

set link enable multilink

in the section of other "set link" commands in your /conf/mpd_wan.conf file.

GB

[this is from the code that configures all ppp type interfaces]
if (file_exists("{$g['conf_path']}/mpd_{$interface}.conf"))
mwexec("/bin/ln -s {$g['conf_path']}/mpd_{$interface}.conf {$g['varetc_path']}/.");

clarknova

@surrealillusion:

I changed the IP address and still no go. The PPP log shows:

Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] PPPoE connection timeout after 9 seconds
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] Link: DOWN event
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] LCP: Down event
Dec 29 20:25:38 ppp: [wan_link1] Link: reconnection attempt 1 in 4 seconds

repeatedly when I bundle em0 and OPT1 in as my PPPoE connection

Those messages are telling you that OPT1 is not able to establish a pppoe session, which is normal in your case because OPT1 is your dummy interface and not connected to a modem. You would see these message even if you had a working slmlppp connection on em0.

gnhb has given you a better method for what you are trying to accomplish and I suggest you try that route.

surrealillusion

Finally got around to trying that alternative method and it worked, finally able to enjoy proper torrenting speeds once again, thank you all for your help!