Setting up downstream routers (basic)

adoucette

My two routers downstream of pfSense keep turning off their wireless or just plain crashing.
What are the basic (barney-style) instructions for setting up routers downstream of a pfSense box that protects a residential internet connection? This is just for my home…

I'm new to pfSense and have a setup like this:
residential cable modem
|
pfSense box 192.168.1.1
|
router1 192.168.1.2 <--> LAN clients (static) and wireless clients (DHCP)
|
router2 192.168.1.3 <--> LAN clients (static) and wireless clients (DHCP)

Both routers are Linksys e2000 running Tomato (Shibby). The routers have DHCP turned off, and have gateway and DNS set to pfSense box LAN IP. pfSense box has DNS set to OpenDNS servers. All LAN clients have static IP addresses served up by pfSense.

My previous setup was the same, minus the pfSense box, with router1 serving as gateway, DNS, and DHCP, and worked without any issues for years.
Ever since I added the pfSense box, my routers downstream of the pfSense box keep turning off their wireless or plain crashing.

TIA,
Ari

wallabybob

@adoucette:

My two routers downstream of pfSense keep turning off their wireless or just plain crashing.

Do they give any report of why they do that?

@adoucette:

What are the basic (barney-style) instructions for setting up routers downstream of a pfSense box that protects a residential internet connection?

Have you read http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Use_an_existing_wireless_router_with_pfSense

@adoucette:

All LAN clients have static IP addresses served up by pfSense.

I presume you mean the LAN clients are assigned a fixed IP address by pfSense DHCP, the IP address determined by the client's MAC address.

I suggest you simplify your configuration: start with one router wired as described in the referenced document, add one wired client, start the client, verify it gets the correct IP address. Then add a wireless client, verify it associates and gets the correct IP address. Repeat until the router crashes or turns off WiFi. Then look for a report on the router as to why that has happened. Give details of how the "non working" configuration is different from the previously working configuration and any report from the router. Once you have those details I suspect you will be better served by asking in a Tomato support forum because such a forum is likely to have more readers with detailed knowledge of Tomato.

adoucette

Thanks for the suggestions - a good start. I had already utilized the how-to document linked, and had evaluated the router and pfSense logs without much suggestion as to why this occurs.
I've reset and re-configured the routers (same config as before, just re-did it) and, so far is working… So hopefully is just a Tomato issue. But will keep posted if errors return.
Thanks,
Ari