Speed graph on main login page

the other day i was streaming from my NAS drive, on the LAN. the NAS (synology) has a traffic graph that shows network traffic of that device. i logged into the pfsense gui to see if the graph on the main page shows the same thing (i switched to LAN, by default it shows WAN and the rest are collapsed).

the pfsense LAN graph didn't spike over 100kbps, while the synology NAS graph was showing about 6mbps. the NAS and the PC that was streaming from the NAS were on the same switch, pfsense is not connected to that switch, directly, but it is part of the same LAN.

i do have some vlans, but this was all on the same network, it was not part of a vlan.

why wouldn't pfsense see/display that traffic?

thanks.

stephenw10

That traffic was not flowing through the pfSense lan interface so it isn't graphed. Traffic between your nas and client is only on the switch, you couldn't even sniff for it from the pfSense box.

Steve

@stephenw10:

That traffic was not flowing through the pfSense lan interface so it isn't graphed. Traffic between your nas and client is only on the switch, you couldn't even sniff for it from the pfSense box.

Steve

that is exactly what i was thinking, which makes me ask this question….why is that LAN graph there?

in what scenario would it pass through the pfsense? just when traffic flows from WAN to LAN?

thanks.

stephenw10

If you have multiple internal interfaces you can see the traffic on each one. So you can see how your total WAN throughput is generated by each lan.

Steve

@stephenw10:

If you have multiple internal interfaces you can see the traffic on each one. So you can see how your total WAN throughput is generated by each lan.

Steve

but only if the traffic passes through the WAN, correct?

or are you referring to VLAN traffic talking to other VLAN traffic?

when traffic goes from VLAN1 to VLAN2, if both VLANs are on the same switch, does the traffic have to pass pfsense in order to know how to tag it? if that is the case, then it would graph on the VLAN (both VLAN graphs, that is).

stephenw10

You will see traffic passing between two internal interfaces vlan or not.
The only way you wouldn't see that is if your switch is layer 3 and is setup to route between the vlans.

Steve

@stephenw10:

You will see traffic passing between two internal interfaces vlan or not.
The only way you wouldn't see that is if your switch is layer 3 and is setup to route between the vlans.

Steve

thanks. that does make sense.