Roku devices are being intermittantly blocked by PFsense firewall

1

I am a new user with a SG-3100 running PFsense 21.05.2

I have intermittant problems with my Roku boxes buffering a lot, to the point that they are almost unusable. They are both hardwired and Wifi.
It appears that the roku ip addresses are being blocked by the firewall.
What is the best way to allow this traffic and get rid of the buffering problem?

2

If buffering is your problem, then you need to do some research on the Limiters. See Traffic Shaper ā€” Limiters | pfSense Documentation

3

The problem seems to only occur when connected to Spectrum/Charter IPs when using the spectrum app. I can connect normally to other Roku streaming apps such as Netflix, CNN, Fox News, NewsMax, YouTube, History, Discovery, etc.

I did watch Toms Limiter video and set it up, but it did not seem to have any effect.

4

When I talk to Spectrums customer service, they blame the SG-3100 for the problem. Basically, not our router, not our problem. They havent been real helpful.

5

You may have a buffer bloat issue

6

I examined the firewall log and noticed that Snort rules were being applied to connections being utilized by my roku boxes. i disabled Snort and that seems have solved the problem. Iā€™d like to continue to have the protection provided by Snort, but not sure how to proceed.

7

You have to determine which rules are triggering and turn them off if they are wrong or false positives.

8

Thank you for the suggestions. Iā€™d also like to thank you for your Pfsense setup videos, I doubt I would have been able to get my SG3100 up and running without them.

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9

I have a disabled instance of Snort on my SG-3100. Can I install Suricata and leave the disabled instance in place, or is there a de-installation process to remove Snort that should take place first?

10

I would remove any unused packages.

11

Hi Tom, still was having intermitant Roku buffering, so I tried installing the Codel limiter again . This time I was was able to get the limiter working. I discovered I had originally made an entry error in the floating rule. It has improved my DSLReports bufferbloat rating from D to A. Roku buffering problems seem to be gone. Tested it by disabling the rule and Roku buffering occurred a few times this afternoon. Thank you for your assistance and for the YouTube videos!

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