# No IP addresses are getting assigned



## balanga (May 2, 2021)

I'm having a problem on my LAN with no IP addresses being assigned. I'm using pfSense and tried getting help on their forum but someone said to reinstall pfSense! 

Is there anything I can do from the server's command line to figure out what is wrong?

I tried setting up a static IP on one system and pinging the server but only got Host is down.

Any help appreciated.


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## balanga (May 2, 2021)

Don't know what happened but `arp -a` only showed three adresses; both the addresses of the two interfaces, and the address of the Internet router. After a manual reboot of pfSemse things are back to normal (for the time being...)


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## Emrion (May 2, 2021)

balanga said:


> Don't know what happened but `arp -a` only showed three adresses; both the addresses of the two interfaces, and the address of the Internet router. After a manual reboot of pfSemse things are back to normal (for the time being...)


Yes, that's for sure, don't expect any help from the pfsense forum. This is why so many people come here hoping a best answer or, at least, one answer. But, as you know, we can't (or shouldn't) speak of FreeBSD derivatives here.

That being said, we are lucky to have such hight quality free softwares (I mean pfSense, FreeBSD but also so many others).

Concerning your problem, it could have been a network issue. So, next time, post more network related informations (and more informations in general).


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## balanga (May 2, 2021)

Emrion said:


> Yes, that's for sure, don't expect any help from the pfsense forum. This is why so many people come here hoping a best answer or, at least, one answer. But, as you know, we can't (or shouldn't) speak of FreeBSD derivatives here.
> 
> That being said, we are lucky to have such hight quality free softwares (I mean pfSense, FreeBSD but also so many others).
> 
> Concerning your problem, it could have been a network issue. So, next time, post more network related informations (and more informations in general).


Actually I think you are being a bit unfair to the pfSense forum, I've often found help there..

As far not mentioning pfSense, I know what the rules are and I can see a point if someone wants help with the GUI or something, but if it's an underlying technical issue, then why not ask here since the base OS is FreeBSD and you might use standard FreeBSD tools to diagnose any problems. In my case, I think the problems were concerned with the pfSense itself box because it seemed to shut itself off from the internal network, I couldn't even ping it, but after several reboots it seems to be working OK.


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## fraxamo (May 2, 2021)

balanga said:


> but if it's an underlying technical issue, then why not ask here since the base OS is FreeBSD


Can you guarantee that there have been no downstream changes to the underlying FreeBSD source code that pfSense is running? If not, then it may be difficult to work out what the issue is.


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## kfv (May 3, 2021)

balanga said:


> I'm having a problem on my LAN with no IP addresses being assigned. I'm using pfSense and tried getting help on their forum but someone said to reinstall pfSense!


Reinstallation is not a wise recommendation, I'd say. Unless you're pretty sure you've broken something and you don't have the knowledge to fix it up.



balanga said:


> Is there anything I can do from the server's command line to figure out what is wrong?


Sure, connect to the network (either wirelessly or via cable), then either set a static IP or get one from DHCP, read logs over and over and see if you find anything.



balanga said:


> Any help appreciated.


Well, you've provided no information, so how would you expect us to help?



balanga said:


> Actually I think you are being a bit unfair to the pfSense forum, I've often found help there..
> 
> As far not mentioning pfSense, I know what the rules are and I can see a point if someone wants help with the GUI or something, but if it's an underlying technical issue, then why not ask here since the base OS is FreeBSD and you might use standard FreeBSD tools to diagnose any problems.


Emrion said nothing, just that you'd better seek guidance on the pfSense forums, and that we don't discuss derivatives much here as things differ a lot in them. OTOH, we understand why you've opened this thread, thinking the base system is the same and when it comes to consoles, it's just FreeBSD. It is not completely true, but OK.

In case you ever need us to help, please provide detailed information. Your issue might stem from the cable, the setup, the switch, the router, the hardware and NIC support, typos, etc. And as far as you don't provide enough information, it doesn't matter on which forums you ask your question - nobody can help.

And I, personally, wouldn't consider it solved because it is working fine again just after several reboots.


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## balanga (May 3, 2021)

kfv said:


> Reinstallation is not a wise recommendation, I'd say. Unless you're pretty sure you've broken something and you don't have the knowledge to fix it up.
> 
> 
> Sure, connect to the network (either wirelessly or via cable), then either set a static IP or get one from DHCP, read logs over and over and see if you find anything.
> ...


Actually I did provide information in my original post when I said:-



> I tried setting up a static IP on one system and pinging the server but only got Host is down.



So you would have known that I already tried your suggestion..

For some reason, unbeknown to me the server had cut itself off from the internal network. Running `arp -a` showed that something was wrong and it was probably a glitch in pfSense following an unsuccessful update. A reboot eventually sorted things out.


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## sko (May 3, 2021)

balanga said:


> but if it's an underlying technical issue, then why not ask here since the base OS is FreeBSD



because they make a lot of (unknown) changes to the base system and usually A LOT of default stuff is handled by custom scripts of their backend, which means many things that 'just work' or have a single config file on FreeBSD are completely handled via some scripts that rely on configurations being made in their frontend.
Doing the "default troubleshooting" you'll do with a standard FreeBSD system will very likely blow up the house of cards most of those appliances with web-based frontends have in the background. And that's why there is this rule in place: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/ghostbsd-pfsense-truenas-and-all-other-freebsd-derivatives.7290/

If you really want to learn what's going on in the background, start with learning how a vanilla FreeBSD system works - and then, if you still think you need a fancy web-frontend, you can start looking at derivates like pfSense/OPNsense and take a look behind the curtain at their scripts and how they manage things in the background (and then scream in horror and rush back to a vanilla system...)


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## balanga (May 3, 2021)

sko said:


> because they make a lot of (unknown) changes to the base system and usually A LOT of default stuff is handled by custom scripts of their backend, which means many things that 'just work' or have a single config file on FreeBSD are completely handled via some scripts that rely on configurations being made in their frontend.
> Doing the "default troubleshooting" you'll do with a standard FreeBSD system will very likely blow up the house of cards most of those appliances with web-based frontends have in the background.


pfSense only has  a web-based frontend if you can access it! In my case I couldn't and only had access to a command prompt on the box, where I had access to the standard FreeBSD commands such as netstat(), sockstat(), arp() etc. Those were the sort of tools I was asking for help with.


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## SirDice (May 3, 2021)

balanga said:


> Those were the sort of tools I was asking for help with.


Just because it has a number of the same commands doesn't change the fact that pfSense is configured entirely differently.


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## Phishfry (May 3, 2021)

Seems dubious that right after you asked about how to setup a DNS/DHCP server that pfSense DHCP server fails.
It is a symptom of having two DHCP servers on the same network using the same host IP.
The IP assignments fail. The two servers are conflicting.
Are you sure you didn't have two DHCP servers running on your network?
Even plugging in a router into your system could cause contention with the 192.168.1.1 address and the DHCP server.


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## balanga (May 3, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> Seems dubious that right after you asked about how to setup a DNS/DHCP server that pfSense DHCP server fails.
> It is a symptom of having two DHCP servers on the same network using the same host IP.
> The IP assignments fail. The two servers are conflicting.
> Are you sure you didn't have two DHCP servers running on your network?
> Even plugging in a router into your system could cause contention with the 192.168.1.1 address and the DHCP server.


I don't think the other one was switched on, but if it was then wouldn't some of the systems on the LAN have been assigned an IP address from the other one? Everything I looked at had an address of 0.0.0.0.

As a matter of interest, how do you going about testing a second DHCP server to make sure it doesn't interfere with the main one? Do they have to be separated physically in terms of different wiring?


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## Phishfry (May 3, 2021)

Most off the shelf routers come preconfigured for 192.168.1.1 just like OpnSense and pfSense do.
So that is where the conflict can happen.

So for example my APU2 NanoBSD wifi box is behind OpnSense.
The network I created for the APU has a different subnet -192.168.100.1- and I used the additional gigabit interfaces as 192.168.101.1 and 192.168.102.1
The APU2 is the home of the my secondary DHCP server using dnsmasq.
It has a different network address range than upstream OpnSense which issues 192.168.1.0 addresses.
My APU2 assigns all wifi clients an address in the 192.168.100.0 range.

That is how 2 DHCP servers can co-exist. Separate networks.
You must make some rules to allow transit of some packets.


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## balanga (May 3, 2021)

So if you have two DHCP servers on different subnets, then either could service a client... I guess you would have to specify MAC addresses if you wanted a client to be serviced by a particular server...


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## Phishfry (May 3, 2021)

balanga said:


> specify MAC addresses if you wanted a client to be serviced by a particular server...


Think of the subnet as a branch. It can only service the computers that are connected thru it.
Then the packets work their way to the trunk and downward to the internets.

No MAC is required because clients are requesting a DHCP address. (It is logged by the DHCP server if specified)
DHCP server will pluck an unused address from its range and assign it to the client upon request.

You can use a MAC address for a constantly assigned IP address. Called a static DHCP lease.

"So if you have two DHCP servers on different subnets, then either could service a client..."
No this is not how it works. DHCP servers provide a dhcp address to all directly connected computers.


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