WAN going to sleep

[sryse]

Hello all:

I have decided to give PFsense a good hard look in an attempt to replace some higher end firewalls that we have, and have seem to have run into an issue I cannot resolve.

I have installed pfSense v2.2.2 on VMware (ESXi v5.5).  following this template/guide (https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_2_on_VMware_ESXi_5)

Everything seemed to install correctly except the em0 and em1 WAN/LAN were backwards from vmware to the physical world so I swapped them in the setup CLI.  (that went fine)

After the setup and reboot…

Everything seems to work, I went and setup inside NAT/IP network and the outside network
Note:  Inside is a /23 in 10.168.0  and outside is a Metro-E connection /27 public address.  No PPPoE

I downloaded the Vmware Tools Package, install was fine
Did some browsing from the LAN to the WAN --> internet and that also was fine.  Then nothing.

The Pfsense box for some reason loses its WAN connection.  Cannot browse installation packages or pass any traffic.

If i do any of the following the WAN connection wakes up for about 16-22 minutes or 1000-1333 packet pings  and then will 'shut off'

On Interface -> WAN make any change
On Interface -> WAN just click "Save" and "apply changes"  (even though no changes were made)
In VMware I disable the WAN connection and then recheck the radio box for "connected"

Making any changes to the LAN interface has no effect.

Other than this issue I like what I am seeing with pfsense.

thoughts?

Thanks to any suggestions.

[cmb]

Is your WAN DHCP or static IP or? Guessing static since it's metro-E and you mentioned a /27.

Can you ping the gateway IP when it stops working?

My first guess is IP conflict on the IP you assigned to WAN, all of the actions you mentioned to temporarily fix it would temporarily work around an IP conflict. System log may show the source of the IP conflict with a log like "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx is using my IP a.b.c.d".