The box has internet access, When I ping from the console the round trip for the packet is 3ms so it has a connection. I vaguely remember checking the block privite networks box, mostly because it said if I was unsure to leave it checked. I will have to restore my box to default settings and re-run the set up but I think that may have been the problem all along.
Heh, it all looks good except the DHCP server isn't running... :P helps to have that thing on ;)
haha yep Ill put that on
Turned DHCP on. By the way, How in the world do you understand the output?? Its nonsense to me
Well I do look at that kind of stuff all the time, but like sockstat and netstat are pretty easy to understand if you read the headers. Sockstat for example shows network sockets open on the system, and -4 limits the output to ipv4 sockets. I just looked down the command and address columns to make sure that the necessary programs were running on the appropriate addresses. Netstat -rn -f inet shows the ipv4 routing tables, the interesting columns there being destination, gateway, use, and netif. Ifconfig really does have a lot of info and some of it I don't even fully understand, but the part I was interested in was which interfaces you have, their current state, and making sure the bridge had all the right members.
Maybe I really do spend too much time looking at this stuff...
Alright well I tried the box hooked up to the campus internet and I sill have no connection unfortunately.
Hmm, verify that dhcpd is running (ie sockstat -4 has dhcpd in the output, or the Services->DHCP Server page shows the green icon like
)
Also make sure on the client computer you release and refresh your dhcp lease. Are you getting an IP but no connection to the outside world? If you aren't getting an IP address assigned, what happens if you set a static IP address on your computer? If you DO get an address via DHCP, maybe you are having trouble because the DNS forwarder isn't enabled in pfsense? That would be dnsmasq in sockstat. I don't think that would be the problem though because the DHCP server would just hand out the university's DNS servers if the internal DNS service was disabled. Does it work with the firewall disabled?
I am still unable to access the web configuration when I am connected to the box directly, even when I disable the firewall
I am getting an IP but have no connection to the outside as well as what I stated above.
What functionality do you need from pfSense beyond it acting as a higher powered switch? At this point I have pretty much no clue why your system is acting up. It would not be difficult to just set up a dumb install of OpenBSD or FreeBSD and create a simple bridge that doesn't need a web interface or anything fancy. If you want, I'll help continue beating pfSense to fit, but for your time it would take far less headache to set this up a different way. Setting up a bridge that persists across reboots is just a few configuration lines in a text file with vanilla BSDs. If you have the extra peripherals for it, you could even have a fairly usable desktop in addition to a powerful managed switch just doing by a base install of OpenBSD.
What I was looking for from pfsense was to be able to use the caching and the firewall that can be added on. Personally I would forgo those to get this switch to work.The only reason I chose pfsense originally was because Logan made a video about it and it had a set up guide. So I would be ok with using open or freeBSD to make the thing work and if it can do some kind of caching then that would be even better.
Ok, a major development has been made. I am now able to communicate to the outside world. I am posting this while being connected to my pfsense box. In a last ditch effort I powered down both my system and my switch and then hooked them up, rebooted and then I was able to access the web interface but still with no connection. With some poking around I found out that the switch had access to the outside but not my system. I then tested to see if my ps3 could connect to the network, it could. That led me to think that there was some kind of config issue with windows. With more poking around I ended up in the UPnP section, there was a box there that said that it was used with windows based machines. After starting that up it appears that I have full access to the outside. Only, when I try to access my uni's site I get thrown a server not found error. But for now the box is working.....mostly.
Late last night from out of the blue
I wondered if Windows might be messed up, too.
With a chuckle, I cracked, "Am I out of my mind?
Windows works on his campus network just fine!"
So with that matter settled I relished the thought
that these days it's such a relief to be able to assume that an operating system as mature as Windows is smart enough to function properly without having to "repair this connection" or "troubleshoot" anything or otherwise have to worry about any of that stuff that should be automatic anyway.
You can perhaps go to Status->System Logs->Firewall and see what rules appear to be blocking the connection, then add a rule that allows that route? I suspect the problem is related to your uni being on a private network, but I dunno. Maybe the site is just down? :) Going OpenBSD or FreeBSD still seems like a good idea to me, as all the packages for firewalling and caching are available on those operating systems, but I digress.
Hell man at this point I would enjoy trying out something different. Pfsense is, kind of, working now but the thought of being able to mess around with another piece of software is kind of exciting. So what route were you thinking? OpenBSD or FreeBSD?
Either would be fine, but if you think you might want to keep a monitor hooked up and have a desktop running on the machine as well, OpenBSD comes with one out of the box. I'm personally more familiar with FreeBSD on the other hand, so if I had to arbitrarily pick one for you I'd say go with that. Maybe just toss a coin to decide :)
Well I'm downloading FreeBSD right now, so I will finish with that and burn it to a dvd and let you know when I am ready to go. Thanks man
I get off work at 4 CST so I will be ready to go after that.
Ready to go. DVD is inserted and ready to begin install. However, I'm not sure how complex the setup is.
If you just go with the defaults it shouldn't make you have to think too hard. I did a test run through and went with the guided partitioning; it was a breeze. You may want to add on the documentation (very handy to have, but then again its always available online too) and turn on "powerd" for CPU frequency scaling when the question pops up, but that's up to you. You may be tempted to deselect the "games" set, but just install it. It's not anything big and fancy, but the big plus of it is that every time you log in to the box, you'll get a random useful little blurb of tips for using FreeBSD.