Possibe DNS/DHCP Issue with External Access Point?

rskirkendall

Hello all,

I'm having an issue with connectivity on an external access point connected to my pfSense router. My setup is as follows:

Gateway –> DMZ --> WAN (pfSense)
Lan (pfSense)--> Switch --> Wired Clients and Access Point

The router is geting its WAN address from the home gateway, and I have my LAN setup at 192.168.69.xxx. DHCP is enabled on pfSense and so is DNS forwarding. The wired clients all get their IP addresses properly assigned and have no problem connecting with other LAN devices and to the internet.

The external AP is another story. I have a UBNT PicoStation M2HP with a static mapping back to the router, and the local DNS and gateway on the AP set to the pfSense box. The AP has DHCP enabled and it's LAN address set to a different subnet (in my case, 192.168.70.xxx). Clients can connect to the AP, but they get limited connectivity and cannot access the internet. A quick check with ipconfig shows me that the wireless clients aren't getting assigned an IP address.

I've spent a few late nights this week lurking around various forums looking for a solution but have yet to find one. I'm thinking its a DHCP/DNS issue with the AP, but was curious to see if anyone had any ideas or suggestions.

This is my first post, but not the first time I've visited this board, and I'd like to thank everyone for the help they have (unknowingly) provided to me in the past, and potentially the future.

-rskirkendall

johnpoz

"The AP has DHCP enabled and it's LAN address set to a different subnet (in my case, 192.168.70.xxx)"
"A quick check with ipconfig shows me that the wireless clients aren't getting assigned an IP address."

What would pfsense have to do with the dhcp server of your ap not handing out addresses?

From the way I read your post you have dhcp server setup on the AP - so if your clients are not getting an IP from this, then that is on the AP.

Common setup with AP is that they do not do dhcp – your saying that your wired lan is 192.168.69, but your wireless is handing out 192.168.70 -- I assume this is different segment, but you did not give out what masks your using.

So you have this device in router mode? Vs bridge mode -- doing a quick look of the manual from their website.

rskirkendall

Sorry,

I should have clarified a bit more. Masks are 255.255.255.0.

I've tried setting up the AP in both bridge (with no DHCP) and in router mode (with DHCP). If I connect the AP directly to my home gateway, I don't have any connectivity issues. Thank you for the response.

johnpoz

So in bridge mode it works fine then? Connected to pfsense?

I run a AP off my pfsense, on my normal pfsense lan and don't have any issues at all.

Bridge is a bridge, should not matter what lan its connected too. Unless you having connectivity issues to your switch behind pfsense in bridge mode it should work just fine.

As to in Router mode with dhcp server on the AP – again that has nothing to do with what the AP is connected to or even if connected to anything. If its not handing out dhcp to wireless or wired clients on its lan interface that would be the AP issue.

Now if your going to use it as router on pfsense -- pfsense would have to have routes to that network on the AP lan side. Unless the thing is doing nat? But again you still have to get IPs on the clients before you worry about why you can not get to the internet, etc.