FreeNAS behind pfSense, my eyes are tired...

[BigDave]

Ok, so I've got my Freenas server up and humming along, it's taken a whole year but I've
managed to avoid the common pitfalls thanks to this forum and it's awesome members!
Looking for a new project, I built a pfSense firewall/router and got rid of my pos Verizon
Fios (MI424WR rev I) wireless router and had my ONT feed switched over from Coax
to Ethernet. Every thing went well with the configuration and my network is golden.
But I have one very serious problem. I discovered my email reporting feature in Freenas
is no longer working. I have checked my FN email config, checked my root email setting too.
My email reporting was fine before I made these changes to my home network, so I'm at
a loss as to what this might be. Is it a Verizon problem? Is it a pfSense config setting?
I know my mail server settings are proper because my iPad has no problem with sending
emails (wirelessly) with the same config as I'm setting up in FreeNas. I've searched
forums for pfSense, Verizon and here of course, I've gotten nowhere. I'm hopeful that
someone around here has a FreeNas server behind a pfSense firewall and also uses Fios
that can end this nightmare for me.
Network config;
ONT > Cat6 > pfSense WAN port
pfSense LAN port > 16 port unmanaged switch > Freenas, desktops, printer
OPT1 port > verizon wireless router as AP and Coax LAN for TV STB

Thanks
Dave
PS. Before anyone asks, yes from the GUI shell I can ping out to google & outgoing.verizon.net,
but not smpt.verizon.net ( but I think this last one has to do with Authorizations)

 

[Steve Lumponalog]

Hi Dave,

I have a FreeNAS server, and literally two hours ago switched over to new PFSense router running on a PC Engines APU1C4 kit system. My FreeNAS can still send messages fine, though I'm not using my ISP's mail servers, as I've had a lot of trouble using them (Shaw seems to be a Canadian equivalent of Verizon). Shaw's mail servers are unreliable, have had outdated server certificates, and regularly stop working for no apparent reason.

To get around my Shaw mail server problems, I set FreeNAS to talk to a third-party mail SMTP server directly (for your Gmail account, it might be smtp.gmail.com on port 993, and you may have to enable POP or IMAP support for the account). As long as you configure FreeNAS to send messages to an encrypted SMTP server, it shouldn't get blocked by your ISP.

Sorry -- it's not a solution to getting mail to work again with FiOS; I just wanted to chime in with my PFSense/FreeNAS experience, and offer a potentially viable work-around.

For what it's worth, under Settings > E-mail, I have the following settings:

• From e-mail: FreeNAS <myaccount@fastmail.fm>
• Outgoing mail server: mail.messagingengine.com
• Port to connect to: 587
• TLS/SSL: TLS
• Use SMTP Authentication: Yes
• Username: myaccount@fastmail.fm
• Password: ************
• Password confirmation ************

 

[BigDave]

Thanks Steve!
You inspired me to sign up for a new mail account and guess what?
Not a problem with Freenas and my new email provider. The test
email from Freenas went quickly through without a hitch:D
Now my only trouble is what to do with the rest of my weekend... ;)

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Big Dave, did you have two separate email addresses set up in FreeNAS? What I mean is, did you set up FreeNAS to use email account "A" to email the admin at email account "B"? I didn't understand what was going on at first and set up "A" to email "A" when I was getting things set up. Glad it had a happy ending, so to speak.

 

[BigDave]

I have had this report email working flawlessly before making all these changes.
Because of that fact, I assume the settings were correct. I signed up today for a
Google Mail account and configured Freenas with the new settings and BANG,
it worked the very first time. I have no clue as to why my Verizon server settings
would no longer work from Freenas, but it's over. I also set up my new mail in
my iPad, which is where I check my emails while having my morning coffee.
Now if there's something going on with my server, it will show up in my incoming
morning mail. I was checking my zpool status and smartctl for all 6 of my drives
almost daily, what an everlovin' pain in the Azz

 

[9C1 Newbee]

We are just a bunch of data slaves.

 

[BigDave]

We are just a bunch of data slaves.

That my friend is the sad truth :D