OPNsense Forum

English Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: trekkie500 on April 07, 2026, 07:07:26 PM

Title: Unable to connect to gateway from Mac
Post by: trekkie500 on April 07, 2026, 07:07:26 PM
Hi,

I recently set up opnsense. My set up is fairly simple:

ISP Gateway/Router <-> OPNSense Gateway/Router <-> Unmanaged Switch(es) <-> other devices, Asus route in AP mode, other switches, etc.

Due to lack of managed switches, I have ISP on NAT 192.168.2.x to which all IoT/untrusted devices connect and everything on the other side of OPNSense is on LAN subnet 192.168.4.0/22 (192.168.4.0 - 192.168.4.1 - 192.168.7.254), no VLANs in use.

DNSMasq runs dhcp, allocating only 192.168.5.x range atm (mostly kids devices that will be filtered) and trusted devices run on 192.168.4.x that are statically assigned.

Most machines on the network appear to be fine, both in 192.168.4.x and 192.168.5.x range, with latter blocking as expected based on unbounddns rules.

My main issue is my work Mac which refuses to connect to the gateway. Whether I let it get a 192.168.5.x address (via ether or via Wifi) or whether I give it a static 192.168.4.x (unblocked access) address, it is unable to connect to the gateway (192.168.4.0) or ping it. The Mac is able to ping other 192.168.4.x and 192.168.5.x machines on the network. It can even connect to ports on those machines (with a long delay, but it connects). However it is unable to ping or connect to anything on the gateway (192.168.4.0).

I am not very familiar with Mac networking stack and have no idea whether the issue is the machine or opnsense. I tried live view to see requests going through but when I try to ping or connect to gateway, there is nothing that appears there. It's almost as if the gateway requests don't even leave the mac.

Any suggestions on how I may be able to troubleshoot this?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Unable to connect to gateway from Mac
Post by: trekkie500 on April 07, 2026, 08:04:06 PM
It seems I cannot delete this post. I just figured out the issue after hours of messing with it.

I must have done something wrong during setup and used 192.168.4.0 for my OPNSense box which is outside the subnet range and hence Mac was not liking it (even though other devices had no issues with it.. pure luck I guess). After setting gateway to 192.168.4.1 and renewing info from DHCP, everything is working again!