Pfsense stops all traffic for no known reason

[nadavbu]

Hello everyone
i run pfsense 2.0.3 on ibm x336 - 2X dual core / 4GB ram / 2x136GB iscsi (raid1 hardware)
i have 2 of those working in master and backup in carp
before adding the carp and also after -
at specific times of day pfsense stops forwarding traffic to and from the servers behind it
(i use many public ips as i host many websites and vps's) and everything just stops
i can log in to pfsense from inside or outside the network with no issues, it seems all public ips stop responding (i work with nat, not transparent firewall), i can resolve this by restarting the lan (ifconfig bge0 down - ifconfig bge0 up) but it fails again a few times before staying on for about 20 hours, and then again, this has been going on for a while now - cold/hard reset doesn't solve this also
packages i use: snort, pfblocker

things from logs:
Error while feeding rrdtool: Broken pipe
/usr/local/bin/rrdtool respawning too fast, waiting 300s

nothing else
appreciate any help

[nadavbu]

one more thing
i use static address as gateway - no PPOE or DHCP involved here

[stephenw10]

That logged error is normal and nothing to worry about.

Since you're using Broadcom NICs you should probably try this first:
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#Broadcom_bge.284.29_Cards

Steve

[nadavbu]

I will try
thanks a lot for this life-saving answer (assuming it will resolve the issue) :)

[nadavbu]

:-[ - the solution above seemed to have improve the situtation by far
however this morning it happened again, all nat was dropped until i restarted bge0

anyone else has seen this?

any help would be appreciated

[nadavbu]

now its even worse
it works for less than a minute after bge0 restart and falls back again

[nadavbu]

replaced broadcom onboard with pcix nic (intel em)
i will update in a week or so if problem is solved now

[stephenw10]

Hmm, interesting. What changes did you make exactly that initially seemed to help?

Steve

[nadavbu]

Hey Steve
i have added the lines exactly as they are shown on the tutorial you directed me to
it seemed to last for 48 hours before failing again

so i have added the intel nic boot loader settings as well, (i have previously added an intel network card with 2 nic)
and i have changed this:
WAN BGE1
SYNC EM1
LAN BGE0

to this:
WAN BGE1
SYNC EM1
LAN EM0

so far so good (been a few days)

thanks a lot for the help!! i hope i have seen the pfsense fail for the last time  :)

[stephenw10]

Good to hear.  :)
I only asked because other users have reportedly done that and ended up misinterpreting the instructions etc.

Steve