Connecting to 2Degrees UFB with pfSense

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nih

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Topic # 194927 30-Mar-2016 13:51

Hi guys

Apparently my router stopped working on Monday (although it seems to be fine in every way other than establishing a PPPoE session - I'm skeptical) and as a result while I wait for a replacement to be sent I'm trying pfSense over VirtualBox. I'm far from an expert though so any advice would be welcome. I also tried setting a PPPoE connection tagged as VLAN id 10 on Windows 10 but it appears my Intel network card just won't do VLAN tagging on Windows 10.

I've plugged my desktop directly into the ONT on LAN 1.
The power and optical lights on the ONT are green, LAN 1 is orange.
Set up VirtualBox and installed pfSense
Created two virtual NICs for the VM
Associated one with LAN and one with WAN in pfSense
Set up VLAN id 10
Set up a PPPoE connection with my username, password and a blank service name and associated this with VLAN 10
Set the WAN interface to use the above PPPoE connection
Set permissive firewall rules for incoming and outgoing connections

Nothing happens. 2Degrees do not see an authentication attempt at their end. There is no info in the logs why other than "connecting to '' " over and over. This is where my skepticism that it's even a problem at my end kicks in. I could have pfSense configured incorrectly but it could also be an undiagnosed upstream issue.

I was also wondering if because I'm passing this packet through a virtual NIC in Windows 10 if the above VLAN problem Windows 10 has is stripping the packet.

Any ideas?

nih

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Reply # 1523191 31-Mar-2016 10:41

Followup question: they've sent me a Fritzbox 7490 which states on the front that it's good for up to 100mbit WAN connections. This is a problem because I'm on a 200/200 fibre connection. Is the information on the box correct?

Lorenceo

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Reply # 1523216 31-Mar-2016 10:57

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I believe the 7490's are used by 2degrees on their Gigatown connections, so should be fine.

As for the pfsense router not connecting, my understanding is virtualbox creates a virtual NIC within Windows, and then runs NAT, etc on top of that in software. At a guess, unless pfsense is running natively on your hardware, it is probably running into the same issue you did when trying to tag packets as VLAN 10 on Windows (it can't due to driver limitations, as well as being a virtual device).

Your best bet IMO would be to try connecting with something you know with 100% certainty is meeting the requirements (VLAN 10 tagged PPPoE). If you don't have another device to test with, wait for the replacement Fritzbox to arrive. If it won't connect either 2degrees will probably have to log a fault with the LFC over it.

nih

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Reply # 1523225 31-Mar-2016 11:03

Thanks for confirming that. I have the box with me now so I'll find out tonight what's up.

hio77

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Reply # 1523226 31-Mar-2016 11:04

the 7490 is fully gbit, it is also snaps preferred device for 200/200 and preforms perfectly under that load.

likely your issue with a virtualized system is the vlan tag not carrying across.

I run pfsense under esxi, vlan 10 tagged and PPPoE for my adsl connection. to allow vlan tags to cross the virtual switch and out the port the virtual switch needs to be set to allow tagging.

Im not sure what that setting would translate to in virtualbox, but it sounds like the same issue.

To get your intel card to do tagging on windows 10, you need to load the official drivers not windows ones. it is a pain to deal with and often that driver will revert while doing an update.

Remember if your wanting to do routing inside a VM, it helps to disable all IP functionality for that nic in windows, then it will simply be a dumb passthrough. This is an extra issue when your isp supports both PPPoE and DHCP over vlan 10, as while you may with to use PPPoE the DHCP will pickup in windows and end up with two sessions. - pretty sure snapdegress dont do DHCP at all so a nullissue for you, but a general warning regardless.

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nih

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Reply # 1523255 31-Mar-2016 11:49

The official Intel drivers oddly include everything you need to do VLAN tagging then display in the driver window that it's disabled under Windows 10. I forget what exact card I have but the internet is full of people upset about it.

hio77

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Reply # 1523277 31-Mar-2016 12:09

I have the same issue with my main rig which I sometimes directly connect for testing.

When I get home I'll post full details on it as my nic is currently running the Windows drivers since the last rollback.

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nih

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Reply # 1523283 31-Mar-2016 12:20

Thanks, I'd appreciate the info. I'm pretty keen to get pfSense running regardless of having a router there or not. I wonder how well it'd run on a Pi 2...

hio77

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Reply # 1523330 31-Mar-2016 14:05

Personally i wouldnt run it on a Pi, mine can take quite a pounding on a dual core 3ghz (slightly older cpu)

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hio77

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Reply # 1523380 31-Mar-2016 15:03

Okay, so i dug out the newest drivers. A check of the current drivers shows its running the native windows ones first.

First thing i note, Advanced Network Services has been disabled all together. - What a pain!

Like any good hoarder, i had a copy of the older drivers that i do know to work (be it with their quriks)

Success! vlans away!

Unfortunately, this is where my statement of quirks comes out.

So its a system of rebooting, enabling and disabling from here. I used to have this system down to a packt` but i cant seem to recall the trick to get the interface itself to come back up.

If i recall correctly, last time i played with this exact driver on windows 10 reboots were needed for the vlan interface itself to load in, which is not the case now.

I have had some work come up, so had to stop playing and return back to an active connection. however version 20.2.3001.0 is the one that was working for me. hope it helps, ill tinker later on again.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

nih

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Reply # 1524329 1-Apr-2016 22:20

I'll give that a go, thank you!

Benoire

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Reply # 1524342 1-Apr-2016 22:31

Which fritz do you have? My 7390 does port forwarding fine, its under Internet > Permit Access > Port Forwarding

nih

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Reply # 1524345 1-Apr-2016 22:42

Haha I'm slow. Thanks.