PPPoE Bypass Username and Password Requirment

nix2fix

I need a way to add a PPPoE connection with a blank username and password.

I recently purchased a "MAXON UNIMAX HSPA+ ETHERNET ROUTER", these allow me to bridge any 3G/4G connection and it is presented to the firewall via Ethernet as a PPPoE connection.

However if you provide a username and password in the PPPoE settings on pfSense then the UNIMAX will try and use these details to authenticate with the cellular provider.

In my case the cellular provider requires a blank username and password.

Note: Incase you are wondering the APN setting is handled by the UNIMAX.

So supplying a username and password causes a connection failure.

I have tested the UNIMAX using other firewalls and windows that do not require the username and password and they can connect successfully.

The reason I'm writing to you know is that my favourite firewall is pfSense, so I hope that there is a way to resolve this. (I would hate to have to change firewall in 10 locations)

Thanks,
Nicolas

stephenw10

Hmm, interesting problem.
The pfSense webgui has checks to make sure you add a username/password for new PPPoE connections. I ran into this on my own connection that doesn't require a password. Fortunately for me it didn't care if I supplied one. Now the question is can the underlying FreeBSD client handle a no UN/PW situation. I'm betting 'yes'. The first thing I'd try then is to setup the PPPoE connection via the webgui with bogus info, then save the config file. Now edit the config file and remove the UN/PW and restore it. Does it now connect or are there additional checks that prevent attempting to connect without a UN/PW?

Ultimately I'm sure you could remove enough checks from various scripts to get connected.

Steve

nix2fix

Hi Steve,

On a fresh pfSense install the setup wizard did not complain when having left the username and password blank.

So I got the blank entry in a different way but unfortunately failed to connect.

When checking the PPP logs during connection attempts under "Status/System logs" I found that it was complaining about not having set the username and password.

Not sure what to try from here.

Thanks,
Nicolas

wallabybob

What build of pfSense are you running?

I'm running

2.1-RC1 (i386)
built on Thu Aug 29 16:33:12 EDT 2013
FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p10

and my system's configuration file has empty username and password on a ppp interface on a serial port and there is no complaint about that in the system log or the ppp log.