General Questions

My home/office network has been using m0n0wall for about 7 years now with no problems. Using Ver 1.32 since May. There are 3 NICs in the m0n0wall PC (IBM 300GL, 500Mz Celeron), WAN port, LAN port and OPT1 port. OPT1 port is bridged with the LAN port.

As an experiment, I decided to setup OPT1 port as a captive portal. OPT1 was reconfigured to not bridge it with the LAN port. OPT1 Rules are set to pass everything. One PC is connected to the LAN port and another PC is connected to the OPT1 port for this experiment. Restarted m0n0wall, and both PCs to make sure I have the new addresses.

As a test before activating the portal, both PCs should have access to the internet. They did not!

Checked the IP addresses on both PCs using IPCONFIG /ALL. On the OPT1 port PC they looked right. The Default Gateway and DHCP Servers address was correct, as configured for the OPT1 port. The IP assigned to the PC was from the correct OPT1 DHCP pool and the DNS Servers addresses were the ones entered in the General Setup. DNS forwarder is enabled. However, I can't PING the OPT1 port. The request timed out.

The LAN attached PC had some wrong IP address assignments. While the DHCP Servers IP address was correct (as configured for the LAN port), the Default Gateway and DNS Servers address was the OPT1 address. The IP assigned to the LAN PC was from the OPT1 DHCP pool. I can PING the LAN port.

To confirm that the interfaces are working, I've gone back to bridging the OPT1 port to the LAN port and once again, all is well. Both PCs have access to the internet and all assigned addresses are correct.

What am I missing?

This has really got me puzzled but I like a good challange. Saved my original configuration XML file, deleted the XML file on the floppy (using CD boot version with no HD in system) and did a complete reinstall. Set DNS Servers address to use my OpenDNS account, enabled LAN DHCP address pool, set LAN rule to pass everything, enabled DNS Forwarder. After the install, verified that my LAN port had internet access. All good so far, as expected.

Then enabled OPT1 port, set the OPT1 IP address, set Bridge with to none, added a rule for OPT1 to pass everything, enabled OPT1 DHCP address pool, DHCP Forwarder is enabled, and checked for internet access on both ports. Nothing!

Again the LAN port PC had the Default Gateway address as the OPT1 address. The DNS Servers address was also the OPT1 address. While the DHCP Servers address was the correct LAN address, the IP Address assigned to the LAN port PC was from the OPT1 DHCP pool.

The OPT1 port PC has no internet access, although the IP addresses assigned look correct.

I reconfigured the TCP/IP Properties in Windows to the correct DNS and Gateway addresses and the LAN port PC now has internet access. All IP addresses are correct as seen using IPCONFIG /ALL. However, I shouldn't have to do this.

In prior versions I've used OPT1 port for a WI-FI portal using a Linksys BEFW11S4 as an AP with no problems. Anyone using OPT1 port in Ver 1.32 seen this problem or have any ideas?