Hello there, please may I have some help?
My opnsense router is not conencting on WAN
I have a router behind a router setup, out of strict necessity. It worked fine. It was plugged into the ISP router, and had a dumb switch plugged in with all my devices plugged in. I will upload screenshots of my setup but it is very basic. I know Opnsense isn't meant to be a router, it's just something I found recomended on the internet. The VLAN part isn't active, I started the first step of making one and realised it was too complicated and not necessary. I have two NIC ports, the MOBO one goes to the ISP router, the other one goes to the dumb switch. The ISP router isn't showing the Opnsense as a connected device. My PC is connected to the dumb swicth but is falling back to wifi, yet can also connect to the media server that is on the dumb switch, so LAN access is fine. The opnsense just stopped doing WAN after weeks of uptime. I have cable tested EVERYTHING, I even pulled the ethernet socket out of the wall and checked for crossed wires it was fine. For now if I want stable ethernet I just plug my PC into the wall that the Opnsense would be and just use that, but lose my homelab. It's a very simpel setup really. I'm no tech expert and I only built this thing because other managed switches weren't working either.
Please may somebody help?
A few more screenshots.
https://ibb.co/v498Wx1H
https://ibb.co/YFt7dDh9
https://ibb.co/DfjBT1k1
Maybe related, Maybe not :
Feel free to ENABLE the option 'Prevent Interface Removal' for all your Interfaces just to be sure nothing weird happens to them for whatever reason :)
Quote from: nero355 on March 23, 2026, 07:27:22 PMFeel free to ENABLE the option 'Prevent Interface Removal' for all your Interfaces just to be sure nothing weird happens to them for whatever reason :)
Nice interface you got there. 'd be a shame if something happened to it 😎
Ok, done that. When you make changes like this, is rebooting necessary? I frequently reboot after hitting "apply" and wonder if it is required.
Quote from: Patrick M. Hausen on March 23, 2026, 07:29:29 PMQuote from: nero355 on March 23, 2026, 07:27:22 PMFeel free to ENABLE the option 'Prevent Interface Removal' for all your Interfaces just to be sure nothing weird happens to them for whatever reason :)
Nice interface you got there. 'd be a shame if something happened to it 😎
LOL! NICE! ^_^
Quote from: justjake on March 23, 2026, 07:32:26 PMOk, done that. When you make changes like this, is rebooting necessary? I frequently reboot after hitting "apply" and wonder if it is required.
Should not be necessary.
Ok, one part of the puzzle is solved, the lead had become loose in the socket of the opnsense router. Now on the interfaces overview page, the status icon is green, and has gone from "no carrier" to "up". I have since released, renewed and flushed my DNS and restarted BOTH router and PC at the same time, I still have to WAN access.
Quote from: justjake on March 23, 2026, 11:54:11 PMthe lead had become loose in the socket of the opnsense router.
So far I have experienced something like that two times with a RJ45 port on two Switches from completely different brands so I guess it can happen to NIC RJ45 ports too sadly...
Hmm well I opened up the case, checked the NIC card was secured, it is and am using a different cable, all secured and lights coming up. I just don't understand haha. Still no WAN access but everything seems setup fine.
Ok something has changed...the performance. I noticed web pages were loading a lot snappier than they were before, like I was on ethernet again, I checked my network settings and it is acting kind of like it is connected? See the screenshots. Strangely if I disconnect from wifi though I get no internet. My media server on the lan is reachable but seems to have no WAN access either.
Quote from: justjake on March 24, 2026, 05:05:03 PMSee the screenshots.
Please try Disabling connections/Network Cards you are not using and only leaving the connection/Network Card you are using Enabled.
I don't trust Windows being smart enough to figure out which connection it should use to be honest and do the same all the time with one of my PCs that has multiple NICs connected to multiple networks or different network devices :)
On windows? The whole Opnsense network has no WAN access. It can't access the web, or traceroute, the media server has no web access either. The opnsense router is seen on the ISP routers device list. I think the boost on network activity on my PC was just temporary.
EDIT: The Opnsense router has no extra or unused connections or network cards
Quote from: justjake on March 24, 2026, 09:02:22 PMOn windows?
Yes, but it seems we got some kind of misunderstanding here ?!
QuoteThe whole Opnsense network has no WAN access.
OK, but how far does a
Quotetraceroute
go for example ?
Two things I can think of :
- Your ISP's Router uses 192.168.1.0/24 just like OPNsense does on the Default LAN.
This will cause a conflict and you will have no Internet access at all.
- You changed something to the Default OPNsense LAN or are using an additional self created LAN/VLAN and have no
Default Allow Any/Any Firewall Rule(s) which will make sure there is Internet access for all the Clients on that network.
Quote from: nero355 on March 24, 2026, 11:15:41 PMQuote from: justjake on March 24, 2026, 09:02:22 PMOn windows?
Yes, but it seems we got some kind of misunderstanding here ?!
QuoteThe whole Opnsense network has no WAN access.
OK, but how far does a
Quotetraceroute
go for example ?
Two things I can think of :
- Your ISP's Router uses 192.168.1.0/24 just like OPNsense does on the Default LAN.
This will cause a conflict and you will have no Internet access at all.
- You changed something to the Default OPNsense LAN or are using an additional self created LAN/VLAN and have no Default Allow Any/Any Firewall Rule(s) which will make sure there is Internet access for all the Clients on that network.
The LAN is set to a 10.0.0.X network on opnsense so shouldn't have any conflict, right?
Traceroute simply times out, doesn't even start.
I'm not completely sure what you mean by the last part but all my settings are in the screenshots, could you point me to some part of the menu system I might be missing please?
Quote from: justjake on March 25, 2026, 02:11:08 AMThe LAN is set to a 10.0.0.X network on opnsense so shouldn't have any conflict, right?
Right :)
QuoteTraceroute simply times out, doesn't even start.
That's weird...
Even when you disable DNS Resolving with the -n option ?!
QuoteI'm not completely sure what you mean by the last part but all my settings are in the screenshots, could you point me to some part of the menu system I might be missing please?
See this screenshots from another topic : https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=53362;image
The two Default IPv4 and IPv6 Firewall Rules at the bottom are not created automatically when you create a new Interface/Network so if you don't have those then you need to create them or copy them from the Default LAN network to a new network ;)
Ok traceroute via the terminal works a little differently.
The firewall rules seem to be in place.
Quote from: justjake on March 25, 2026, 05:13:03 PMOk traceroute via the terminal works a little differently.
So your OPNsense has WAN connectivity :)
Now do the same from any Client please.
QuoteThe firewall rules seem to be in place.
Then LAN should be able to reach the Internet by IP address for now!
This is from another device on my opnsense router, not much going on.
Quote from: justjake on March 25, 2026, 06:16:36 PMThis is from another device on my opnsense router, not much going on.
If the traffic does not go past the local gateway then you need to check your routing :
- Is NAT setup correctly ?
- Default Gateway is also the correct one ?
Please note that you also did not use
traceroute -n to avoid any DNS Resolving issues.
Okay, traceroute -n still gave nothing from the media server, and the default gateway is the correct IP address. When you say NAT do you mean the one on the router or the client?
Quote from: justjake on March 26, 2026, 01:44:33 AMand the default gateway is the correct IP address.
I am guessing your OPNsense WAN is simply set to DHCP and should be the Default Gateway : Is that the case ?
QuoteWhen you say NAT do you mean the one on the router or the client?
I mean Outbound NAT in OPNsense : Is it setup correctly ?
In general you never NAT on the Client side ;)
But to be honest I think it might be easier to reset your configuration and just follow the First Boot Setup Wizard correctly to fix this issue, unless you figure out how to fix everything manually...
The WAN interface is set to DHCP but haven't done much in the settings for it, the screenshots should show all of that.
I've disabled NAT and it all still seems the same.
Although it's a simple setup, being a newb,it was still a bit difficult and i'd prefer not having to do it again. I'd rather learn what i've done wrong to be honest.
Quote from: justjake on March 27, 2026, 08:28:53 PMI've disabled NAT and it all still seems the same.
Disabling NAT is a bad idea at all. This disables the outbound NAT, which might be required to access anything on the WAN side from behind.
Check if the default route is set properly:
System: Routes: StatusThe default route should point to the internal IP of the upstream router.
Also check the outbound NAT, if you didn't set up the new source NAT yet.
Firewall: NAT: OutboundEither automatic or hybrid mode should be enabled and down under automatic rules, you should find rules on WAN for your LAN subnet.
If you have source NAT rules configured, recheck them.
Also ensure, that didn't state a gateway in the LAN interface settings.
Ok, so I have put NAT back on Automatic, there was/is no automatic rules at the bottom of that page.
The default route is passing straight to the "upstream router" or my ISP one.
LAN interface settings has no gateway declared, it says nothing about "gateway" appart from "IPv4 gateway rules" which is set to disabled and I don't think i've ever touched that.
Quote from: justjake on March 27, 2026, 09:53:43 PMOk, so I have put NAT back on Automatic, there was/is no automatic rules at the bottom of that page.
Do you have a WAN rule in
Firewall: NAT: Source NAT instead?
There is nothing in any NAT section apart from this:
Quote from: justjake on March 29, 2026, 10:57:55 PMThere is nothing in any NAT section.
Outbound NAT is either
Automatic NAT or
Hybrid NAT and if not then that's why you don't have any connectivity !!
Like I said : Maybe just start with a fresh install again and follow the Setup Wizard after the first boot would be easier ?
Quote from: justjake on March 29, 2026, 10:57:55 PMThere is nothing in any NAT section apart from this:
So yes, this is the 25.x series section. "Firewall: NAT: Source NAT" is only available in newer versions.
So in your case you should see automatically generated rules on the
Firewall: NAT: Outbound page, presumed automatic or hybrid rule generation is enabled. If you change this setting ensure to hit the save button.
If there is nothing, also check the gateway settings in
System: Gateways: Configuration.
The WAN gateway should be displayed there. Push the Edit button and ensure that "Upstream Gateway" is checked.
Ok thank you all for the help. I decided it was best to just start from scratch, I restored to default settings and the problem resolved itself. Happy Days!