(solved) Problem with Bubba|2- no traffic forwarding

[gusan]

Hi,

In about one week, it's been 5 years since I purchased my my Bubba|2 and started to use it as web-server + other things at home. During this long time, I've moved a few times, and always to new Internet connections (Fiber to ADSL and then now my last move was to another type of Fiber) and there have never been any problems until now.

Since I now have a fiber connection, I'd like to set up and use the Bubba as Firewall, and I have made it work in the past, but now it's just....poop

Here is how it's connected and my intentions:

(Internet)
|-WAN port
----Bubba----
|- LAN Port
----(Router with WiFi interface)----
|
----4p Switch----
|
Computer, HTPC, 2x RaspberryPi

The Bubba is set to serve as Router+Firewall+Server, and it receives a IP similar to the IP my computer gets when it's connected directly to the internet.
BUT, I can't get a connection to the Internet on my computer, using the setup above. I can't even reach the Bubba... If I change my network settings and set the IP on the computer to 192.168.10.something, I can see and connect to the Bubba on 192.168.10.1, (which is it's default "fall-back" internal LAN IP adress; it took me a hour or so to figure this out....)

Doing this, I can reach the web-interface of the Bubba, and change settings etc. I can and have tried to SSH into the Bubba and tried to ping external addresses, and this works as a charm; so I'm pretty sure that the Bubba reaches Internet, but somehow it refuses to forward-translate trafic to the LAN port.

In my previous apartment where I had ADSL-modem, the Bubba was connected to one of the ports in the Modem, and it served as a firewall/server etc. without any problems so I'm very confused that it does not work now...since I haven't made any deliberate changes or settings.

I have also tried to use the simplest setup (internet-Bubba-Computer) but with no luck.


Can anyone advice me on where to start my troubleshooting? just tell me what to check, and I'll post it here. I asked a colleague at work and his idea was that the NAT somehow had locked itself to the previous IP but I don't know how/where to check this if it's residual settings messing up.


//Anders.

[Gordon]

Doing this, I can reach the web-interface of the Bubba, and change settings etc. I can and have tried to SSH into the Bubba and tried to ping external addresses, and this works as a charm; so I'm pretty sure that the Bubba reaches Internet, but somehow it refuses to forward-translate trafic to the LAN port.

That's not what NAT does. NAT rewrites the envelope on your network package, changing either the source address or the destination address. The most used used implementation of rewriting the source address of a package is where a firewall changes this to its own WAN address, also known as "masquerading". Obviously for the firewall to perform this rewriting it has to receive packages that require rewriting and from the looks of it you're not sending any of those packages to the Bubba.

Your primary issue appears to be that the Bubba uses a different IP on the LAN than you're expecting. So apparently it is supposed to receive a DHCP generated address from your Wifi router, which should also define the Bubba as the default router for other LAN clients. While not impossible, this is not a very common setup and also most likely not supported by cheap ISP provided routers. My guess is therefore that you must have had it wired differently before. Like so:

Code: Select all

                 -----------          -----------        -----------
                 |  Bubba  |          |  Router |        |  Switch |------- PC
internet ------- |         |----------|         |--------|         |
              wan|         |lan    wan|         |lan     |         |------- PC
                 -----------          -----------        -----------
                                          /
                                          -))) wifi

[gusan]

From your answer Gordon (thx for the reply!), I did some thinking and investigating and I found what was wrong.

WAN was set to "Obtain IP-address automatically (DHCP)". Unfortunately LAN had the same setting, and since my Router (a Netgear WNR-model) was also set to serve as DHCP server, there is no wonder it didn't work.

It now serves its purpose and traffic flows nice and steady through it.

[Gordon]

Well, that proves that I was right in my presumption that the router was the active DHCP server and the B3 a DHCP client. Which in turn proves that I was wrong about the alternative wiring. So I guess it will remain a mystery why it failed in the first place, but it is the result of your thinking that counts.