Hello currently I run a retail router that I have installed OpenWRT to, but OpenWRT isn’t that great. So I wanted to try PFSense and I have an x86 machine that I built out of old parts and a [new] AMD Athlon 3000G processor. However, when I connect the machine directly to my modem’s ethernet port, I cannot seem to get it to get an uplink to the WAN network. My modem is a true modem, it isn’t a gateway. And the issue doesn’t exist if I try to connect it to an ethernet port on my router. Also I am trying to use the motherboard’s built in LAN port as the WAN and I have a 4 port Intel NIC in the PCIe slot. I want to set up the 4 ports as LAN ports too.
I’m not familiar with pfsense, but in general, you need to setup the WAN port as a DHCP client, while the LAN ports require a DHCP server. In some cases though, you’ll need to setup the WAN port with a static IP address and it may even be necessary to spoof the MAC address as well. All of these settings should be available in the pfsense OS/web-GUI.
If it helps: pfSense Configuration will give you the basics to setup Wan and Lan.
Check out https://www.tecmint.com/installation-and-configuration-of-pfsense-firewall-router/.
Router should be DCHP Server (Default Operation)
WAN should be onboard eth0 set to DHCP Client attached to router
LAN should be eth1-4(or similar) set to DHCP Server to your home network
If you want to have full control (Firewall in charge), Bridge the Router, Setup WAN Config Mirroring Router settings. No harm in writing all the setting down, if you have to revert.
I came across this video from a different tech YT-er:
Haven’t watched it, but you might be able to pick up some pointers as his content is usually pretty solid and informative. Bit like L1T thus 
As great as it is (and it is), at first glance I did not find that every aspect of pfSense configuration was intuitively obvious.
The official pfSense book is a great resource … but, if you don’t have a copy, that obviously won’t help you today. In addition to the book I would wholeheartedly recommend this series of vids:
The Lawrence Systems YouTube site also has several great pfSense vids.
1 Like
I think I’ve made a mistake. See, I kinda decided to build the hardware from scratch rather than using old hardware. There were two main reasons for this. First I wanted to build a PC and making a PFSense router (which was something I’d wanted to do for a long time) gave me a good excuse to do that. Secondly, I actually don’t have a lot of old PC hardware that would’ve been good for that. Well, I went onto Ebay and bought a used Intel NIC. The problem is that I wonder if it may be borked. Only one of the ports’ lights light up when a connection is plugged into it. Even then, it doesn’t behave like a normal hot RJ45 jack would. If it’s not borked then maybe it’s a limitation of my CPU (AMD Athlon 3000G) or motherboard? Anyway, everything else works - but only when I plug it into my router? But I wanted to replace my router with PFSense though so that kinda defeats the purpose imo. Anyway, I found out that Netgate’s hardware runs coreboot. Thus I kinda wanna get one of those. If anyone has a suggestion for what I can/should do with this, please let me know. Maybe I should sell it? It’s kind of a good market to sell this in rn I guess. What do y’all think?
To be honest, I am kinda hesitant to sell that machine. I’d originally used the motherboard in the machine for my friend. He never paid me for it, so he gave it back to me, after I started pressuring him. But anyway, through mostly no fault of his own, he went through a pretty rough patch financially and that impacted his living situation. So he went to live with some cousins who are, to be honest, trailer house white trash. The house was so infested with cockroaches that there was barely any room for the garbage all over the place. Anyway, they got all into the components of that PC - the motherboard, RAM, PSU, and the case. I threw away the case after salvaging screws, the PCB stobs, and the fan. As for the motherboard, I removed the CMOS, heatsinks, and backplate before dousing that thing in an alcohol bath practically for two days. For the PSU, I took it apart and did the same thing I did with the motherboard. The RAM is dead, so it’s a decoration on my bookcase lol - and he promises to replace that for me. 
Just to clarify, the RAM, PSU, Case, CPU, and SSD are all new on the PFSense machine. The NIC is new to me.
NIC is probably fubar.
get a cheap realtek/broadcom/etc
remove the router:
1-get all router wan/lan settings
2-router in bridged
3-Settings in pfsense WAN matching router setting
if not working goto 1
use it for dns cleaning/steam cache/network drive/Security system/etc…
never dispose, recycle
What kind of Modem are you using and What ISP services you?
My ISP is (unfortunately) Comcast and my modem is an Arris SB6183. (Comcast will never update their infrastructure in my area so this is good for life for me because I am moving to Starlink in the near future, but ultimately moving to somewhere with fiber).
I’ve decided that I am just going to sell my “PFSense machine” and use the money to get an SG-2100 Max. I looked into it and just the processor alone is double the price of what I paid for it. I should be able to sell it for pretty good as a “used” machine even though the processor and case are new. Also, I own my own router and it runs OpenWRT, so I am good in the meantime.
P.S, I’ve already installed Windows on it and I am gonna market it as an office-use machine.
Give this a try.
Edit: I just read that you have already decommissioned the machine to other duties. Maybe this’ll help someone else if they stumble upon your post in the future. Cheers.
no it doesn’t work for the PFSense box. But that is interesting because I experience the same issue with my modem after power failure with my current setup. I have a UPS, but the last two or three power failures have lasted so long that my 9Ah battery died before the power came back on. Each time they did, I had so much trouble that eventually, I just had to hard-reset the router (I couldn’t access anything over IPv4 - including LAN interfaces such as 192.168.1.1). Because that worked the first time, I’ve just been assuming that it is the fault of OpenWRT and some sort of software bug or something (as I try to keep my router fairly up-to-date).
Before, I was using a TPLink Gateway in bridge mode as my router (because I am a low income college student, I had to buy my networking equipment piece by piece - but my PFSense box was Covid-relief money xD). That never worked with PFSense either. Ultimately, that is why I bought a new modem because I thought that if it was dedicated to doing one function, it would like PFSense better. I was wrong apparently.
The real key to the instructions I put above, is that the modem needs to fully boot and get a WAN ip address without being attached to anything else via ethernet first. I actually feel like this is a thing with ARRIS modems instead of the routers or firewalls themselves.
Yeah, that’s something that I’m guessing too because the issue is happening with other people who have Arris [cable] Modems.