pfSense Homelab DHCP Help

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hi Everyone,

So after watching a lot of Tom’s awesome videos on pfSense I’ve finally decided to get my feet wet in it! I’ve setup a pfSense box inside by home network to create a miniature internal network so I can test out the features w/o taking my internet down for days as I figure things out. lol

I’ve been working on setting up the VLANs and I’m having trouble getting the DHCP requests to go through. I have a DHCP server on my network already and want to use continue using it. I’ve setup the DHCP Relay in pfSense to point towards my DHCP server. However, no matter which network by test device connects to it will not receive an IP. I think my setup is good so far, as I can enter a static IP on the device and all is right and happy with the world.

So, I’m beginning to think this is due to my DHCP server technically being on the WAN side of pfSense and so it is blocking, at the very least, the communication back to the client since I can ping the DHCP server from pfSense and its WAN IP even came from that same server.

Is there a rule I need to add to the firewall to allow that back-and-forth communication? Or is this something that DHCP Relay just wasn’t intended to do?

BTW, if it makes any difference, the DHCP server is a Windows Server. No hate please! :slight_smile:

Thanks all for help and advice!

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Your WAN connection is directed to your DHCP windows server? Or you use a wireless router in the middle? Can you send screenshots of your rules and interface setting?

3

This is what DHCP relay is for, but it is a more complicated setup, are you sure that is the way you want go?

4

@mariem56 If I’m reading your questions right, no, the WAN connection goes through a switch, with a port that is configured for the native VLAN on my production network. From there pfSense pulls an IP from the DHCP server (which is also plugged into this switch) for the WAN port, just like if it were connected to my ISP.

The rules and interface settings for the WAN are the defaults, with the exception of adding a rule so I can login to pfSense from a computer on my production network.

@LTS_Tom I won’t disagree on the complication. It was like pulling teeth to get it properly configured on my current router. However, I’d like to continue using DHCP on the server and having pfSense use Relay.

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