Scheduled blocks won't work without manual states reset

-RYknow

Yes. I was never able to get it to work correctly with the ipod. I ended up just creating the schedule via the unifi software… but I would like to get it sorted at the router level instead.

-RYknow

thecableguy

The thing that surprises me the most is how long this issue has been floating around without being addressed.. Surely there would be others who could use this feature?

-RYknow

Yeah, you triggered my memory about this and I went and played with it last night… I set an ipod up with just strickly a block rule, (picked block... and chose the IP). and imessage still works... I have I have ipv6 disabled, as I was thinking maybe the traffic was using ipv6.... but imessage still works. Very strange.

-RYknow

thecableguy

Yeah, I can get this working on a test laptop reliably with a cron task to kill off states after the schedule expires but it doesn't work on the existing rules.

I will delete all the rules and start fresh.

thecableguy

Did you have any limiters on your rules for the Ipod?

-RYknow

I don't have any limiters on the iPod. Initially I was using a schedule I had created. At this point for testing I've gotten rid of the schedule completely, and I'm just using the block rule. When I disable it for any length of time, and re-enable it, the imessage stuff still works.

I'm going to test it some more over the weekend, I moved the ipod block to be the very first rule in the list. See if that makes much of a difference.

-RYknow

thecableguy

I am really confused now, I deleted all pass/block rules and now the schedule works on one host but not the other?

I even copied the rule and just changed the alias to suit the new rules…

I'm going to default my router one more time and if that doesn't fix it, I'm going to try another product.

twinbytes

I've tried several variations I found online for using a Cron job to kill the states after a rule becomes active and none of them work. The only way to ensure Skype and active game sessions get killed after the scheduled block rules kick in is to manually reset the states in the Diagnostics menu. It's a brand new install.

If someone can suggest the exact spelling with the full path of the Cron job other than what I already tried or maybe a different way other than Cron jobs if there is a way? I've tried the following Cron commands:

/sbin/pfctl -F state
/sbin/pfctl -k >IP on the block list<

thecableguy

I can confirm:

/sbin/pfctl -F state works sometimes (cron task)
pfctl -F state works sometimes (cron task)

/sbin/pfctl -k >IP on the block list<works sometimes="" (cron="" task)<br="">pfctl -k >IP on the block list <works sometimes="" (cron="" task)<br="">Both also seem to work in the Diagnostics/Command Prompt however, nothing reliably clears established UDP states.

After the PASS schedule expires, all states are cleared and then a few (Steam and Teamspeak in my case) immediately re-establish.</works></works>

twinbytes

Thanks to alot of my own trial and error I have figured out why it doesn't work for me and how I can make it work.

If I have the schedule block at 10pm at night and schedule the cron job to clear a specific IP states at 10:01pm it doesn't work.

If I change the cron job to run at 1 minute past the hour for every hour, it works!

To confirm the obvious, yes my computer time and pfsense times are correct and i've run the test several times. I've run now at 4pm scheduled block with cron to block at 1 minute past every hour and it worked immediately. I had it try before at 3pm scheduled block with 3:01pm run same cron job. It doesn't work.

So for some reason, cron doesn't recognize the specific hour! It's in 24 hour clock military time. I haven't checked if I can do 12 hour clock time if it's possible. But I obviously have the Cron job programmed correctly and everything else correct as the only difference that makes it work is specify to run the job every hour at 1 minute past the hour, rather than at the specific time. This is not a good solution as it can cause interrupts every hour.

I expect to be the first person to find the solution to this as no one has an answer anywhere I could find. Please prove me wrong and beat me to it.

twinbytes

I managed to get cron to work without saying * for the hour. I found out that although the schedule runs at 1800 hours (6pm) I have to schedule Cron to run at 2201 hours for it to think it is 1 minute past the hour. It then successfully runs the cron job 1 minute after the scheduled job and clears the state table. So for Cron to run the job 1 minute after the scheduled rule, I have to actually program Cron to run 4 hours and 1 minute after the scheduled rule.

My question now is why does Cron think it is 2200 hours when it is 1800 hours? In other words, why does Cron think the time is 4 hours ahead of what the schedule does?

thecableguy

@twinbytes:

I managed to get cron to work without saying * for the hour. I found out that although the schedule runs at 1800 hours (6pm) I have to schedule Cron to run at 2201 hours for it to think it is 1 minute past the hour. It then successfully runs the cron job 1 minute after the scheduled job and clears the state table. So for Cron to run the job 1 minute after the scheduled rule, I have to actually program Cron to run 4 hours and 1 minute after the scheduled rule.

My question now is why does Cron think it is 2200 hours when it is 1800 hours? In other words, why does Cron think the time is 4 hours ahead of what the schedule does?

Have you set the timezone correctly? - System/General Setup.

twinbytes

@thecableguy:

@twinbytes:

I managed to get cron to work without saying * for the hour. I found out that although the schedule runs at 1800 hours (6pm) I have to schedule Cron to run at 2201 hours for it to think it is 1 minute past the hour. It then successfully runs the cron job 1 minute after the scheduled job and clears the state table. So for Cron to run the job 1 minute after the scheduled rule, I have to actually program Cron to run 4 hours and 1 minute after the scheduled rule.

My question now is why does Cron think it is 2200 hours when it is 1800 hours? In other words, why does Cron think the time is 4 hours ahead of what the schedule does?

Have you set the timezone correctly? - System/General Setup.

Yes, the time zone is correct in General setup.

twinbytes

I saw another discussion someone wrote to use the following code but it doesn't work for me.

pfctl -k x.x.x.x/24 ; pfctl -k 0.0.0.0/0 -k x.x.x.x/24

I assume if my pfsense box is 192.168.1.1 that the x.x.x.x should be that IP address? Or is there something else I should be doing? That threat is closed to comments or I'd ask there.

twinbytes

Since killing the state table by IP, even manually pressing the button, is unreliable and the only method is resetting the entire firewall state table manually, I've set a scheduled reboot using Cron which works perfectly. I know it's not the idea solution rebooting the server every night, but I need results and this is the only reliable method.
/sbin/shutdown -r now

I hope pfsense will have a patch to fix clearing the state tables by ip address.

thecableguy

@twinbytes:

Since killing the state table by IP, even manually pressing the button, is unreliable and the only method is resetting the entire firewall state table manually, I've set a scheduled reboot using Cron which works perfectly. I know it's not the idea solution rebooting the server every night, but I need results and this is the only reliable method.
/sbin/shutdown -r now

I hope pfsense will have a patch to fix clearing the state tables by ip address.

I can't believe we are the only people who want this 'feature', I would expect pfsense to be capable of what the $100 routers seem to do quite well.

n3by

You are not alone and this is a very old problem on pfsense… only this thread is 3 years old.
In time what you can't fix you learn to live with that or if you can't, then you will try to find a solution that work to your needs.

This is how it finally work for my kids, see the attachment:

allow DHCP only to this VLAN/firewall.
allow DNS & NTP only to this firewall.
deny access to this firewall for all client except admin IP...

legend:
inet lucia = Mon-Sun 12:00-12:30 / Mon-Fri 19:00-20:30 / Mon-Sun 14:30-17:00 ( school )
vacanta = every day 06-23 ( no school )
zilnic = every day 06-22:15

p.s.
extra cron script to kill states,
don't forget to make the script x
...
15-30 22 * * * root /usr/local/bin/pf_stop_tablete_copii.sh

#!/bin/sh

/sbin/pfctl -K 192.168.101.111
/sbin/pfctl -K 192.168.101.112

schedule.jpg_thumb

twinbytes

@ecfx:

You are not alone and this is a very old problem on pfsense… only this thread is 3 years old.
In time what you can't fix you learn to live with that or if you can't, then you will try to find a solution that work to your needs.

This is how it finally work for my kids, see the attachment:

allow DHCP only to this VLAN/firewall.

allow DNS & NTP only to this firewall.

deny access to this firewall for all client except admin IP...

legend:
inet lucia = Mon-Sun 12:00-12:30 / Mon-Fri 19:00-20:30 / Mon-Sun 14:30-17:00 ( school )
vacanta = every day 06-23 ( no school )
zilnic = every day 06-22:15

p.s.
extra cron script to kill states,
don't forget to make the script x
...
15-30 22 * * * root /usr/local/bin/pf_stop_tablete_copii.sh
#!/bin/sh

/sbin/pfctl -K 192.168.101.111
/sbin/pfctl -K 192.168.101.112

Thanks, I'm not sure this all makes sense to me but it looks like an uppercase K where I was using a lowercase k?
Also, to specify allowe DHCP, DNS, NTP only to this firewall, i'm not sure where to set those rules?

n3by

see the attachment.

I have also a DNS server in another lan 192.168.22.16 for kids that filter dns with pihole and forward requests to opendns ( family shield… adult content... ) so I had to allow also open DNS directly just in case my server is offline.
Local DNS/NTP is your LAN interface IP and 127.0.0.1

Untitled.jpg_thumb

twinbytes

Odd thing, my router didn't reboot tonight at 10:05pm as scheduled (which I put 2:05am because it was working 4 hours in ahead previously). I tried setting the correct time and now it works. It seems to have fixed itself. Very weird but thought I'd share that problem is solved.
Just need to test more with rules to avoid rebooting.