My Dream System (I think)

[joeschmuck]

The cable modem does provide two MAC addresses, it may provide more but my ISP only uses the first one to register the device. But they are true external IPs.

I use the two IPs when I need to test something like remote access or when I want to run a VM on a separate network like to surf the internet and try new software out, as to keep bad things away from the good computers.

 

[Black Ninja]

The cable modem does provide two MAC addresses, it may provide more but my ISP only uses the first one to register the device. But they are true external IPs.

What model is the modem ?

 

[joeschmuck]

Model Name: SB6120
Vendor Name: Motorola
Firmware Name: SB_KOMODO-1.0.6.13-SCM00-NOSH
Boot Version: PSPU-Boot 1.0.0.4m1
Hardware Version: 3.0

 

[Black Ninja]

Model Name: SB6120
Vendor Name: Motorola
Firmware Name: SB_KOMODO-1.0.6.13-SCM00-NOSH
Boot Version: PSPU-Boot 1.0.0.4m1
Hardware Version: 3.0

Hmmm it doesn't look much different than mine. I would assume mine can do that too (if ISP let him) , but I have to find out how that works first.

 

[joeschmuck]

I would assume there is a maximum limit for the modem but I don't know. I have done a quick search and found one person with a CPE MAC of 4. I'm certain it's in the configuration software which your ISP uploads to your modem.

 

[Black Ninja]

I gonna have to read more about it. When I go to modem config page :192.168.100.1 which is probably same on yours, thers isn't much to configure but more info , and it shows the modem MAC ( single mac not too) and signal strength and other stuff.

I wonder how you are making the use of the 2 IPs, from the modem to your network ? If you have one router wan port hooked to you modem , this router will get 1 external ip by dhcp ?

 

[joeschmuck]

The configuration is dictated by your ISP. I've read that you can hack the configuration but eventually your ISP will upload a new configuration file and you will be back to square one.

To make use of both IPs I need to connect the modem to a 5 port switch to split the single Ethernet port into more than one port. At that point I can connect 2 devices to get 2 different WAN IPs. In my case I would connect two LAN ports from my ESXi machine and they would be WAN ports in the UTM.

 

[Black Ninja]

The configuration is dictated by your ISP. I've read that you can hack the configuration but eventually your ISP will upload a new configuration file and you will be back to square one.

I'll pretend I don't know what you are talking about, at least in public post

To make use of both IPs I need to connect the modem to a 5 port switch to split the single Ethernet port into more than one port. At that point I can connect 2 devices to get 2 different WAN IPs. In my case I would connect two LAN ports from my ESXi machine and they would be WAN ports in the UTM.

Thanks a lot for explaining. I wonder what will happened if I do the same thing ? Have you tried to connect a 3-th device/router on the switch after the modem , to see if will get you another IP ?

 

[Black Ninja]

By the way can somebody tell me where is jgreco ? It's been over a month since last seen and this got me worried.

 

[Mirfster]

By the way can somebody tell me where is jgreco ? It's been over a month since last seen and this got me worried.

Dunno, maybe he is taking a little time off for himself. Which everyone should do once in a while. Could be that he is recharging from all the questions he answered for you... :P

 

[joeschmuck]

By the way can somebody tell me where is jgreco ? It's been over a month since last seen and this got me worried.

Yup, there were some heated conversations going on in the forums and then he dropped off the face of the earth. I'm hoping all is okay with him and that he's on some long Caribbean Cruise and will come back to us.

 

[joeschmuck]

I wonder what will happened if I do the same thing ? Have you tried to connect a 3-th device/router on the switch after the modem , to see if will get you another IP ?

My modem specifically tells me I can have 2 IPs on the "Addresses" page. I'd still be curious what happens if you do this. BTW, I went and hooked up a second WRT-54 to act as my second IP router (I need to add a second LAN port into my ESXi server again if I want to use both WAN IPs) and it is serving up that second IP just fine.

 

[Black Ninja]

My modem specifically tells me I can have 2 IPs on the "Addresses" page. I'd still be curious what happens if you do this. BTW, I went and hooked up a second WRT-54 to act as my second IP router (I need to add a second LAN port into my ESXi server again if I want to use both WAN IPs) and it is serving up that second IP just fine.

This is what mine show in "Addresses" page. I assume yours show additional IP ?

To get more ports what I would do if I was you I would purchase this immediately. In esxi you can't have too many ports , like Freenas can't have too much memory. I only have 1 PCI-e on my MB , which has 4 LAN ports build in. I wish I could able to add 4 more, but I will use the PCIe slot for raid card, but You can easy.

 

[Black Ninja]

Yup, there were some heated conversations going on in the forums and then he dropped off the face of the earth. I'm hoping all is okay with him and that he's on some long Caribbean Cruise and will come back to us.

I really hope He is ok. He is not someone who can't post from a distance, so I hope nothing happened to him.

 

[Black Ninja]

Dunno, maybe he is taking a little time off for himself. Which everyone should do once in a while. Could be that he is recharging from all the questions he answered for you... :p

:D

 

[joeschmuck]

I've attach an image of my modem address page and you can see that I have a maximum of 2 ports.

As for adding a LAN adapter to ESXi, well one thing I've noticed is that when you use the LAN card and place it in pass-through, well all the ports are passed through, not just one or two. This creates a problem if you want to split the LAN ports between two pieces of software and for me that would be Sophos UTM. So I use one of the built in LAN ports and then I can use an add-on card for the second WAN.

So I wouldn't buy a 4 port card unless you KNOW that is can be passed through as four different ports/controllers.

 

[Ericloewe]

I've attach an image of my modem address page and you can see that I have a maximum of 2 ports.

As for adding a LAN adapter to ESXi, well one thing I've noticed is that when you use the LAN card and place it in pass-through, well all the ports are passed through, not just one or two. This creates a problem if you want to split the LAN ports between two pieces of software and for me that would be Sophos UTM. So I use one of the built in LAN ports and then I can use an add-on card for the second WAN.

So I wouldn't buy a 4 port card unless you KNOW that is can be passed through as four different ports/controllers.

The newer stuff should support that, but we're probably taking Intel i350 or better. Hypervisor support is also required, as far as I know.

 

[Black Ninja]

I've attach an image of my modem address page and you can see that I have a maximum of 2 ports.

Thanks for checking that out. I would assume these 2 IP's are there even if only one device is connected or it's when you connect the second one ?

As for adding a LAN adapter to ESXi, well one thing I've noticed is that when you use the LAN card and place it in pass-through, well all the ports are passed through, not just one or two. This creates a problem if you want to split the LAN ports between two pieces of software and for me that would be Sophos UTM. So I use one of the built in LAN ports and then I can use an add-on card for the second WAN.

So I wouldn't buy a 4 port card unless you KNOW that is can be passed through as four different ports/controllers.

I do have very similar quad port Intel nic, I can test it out to make sure it can do what you are asking , but let me share my opinion about the NIC pass-through with you:

I don't think pass-through on NIC is a very good idea in esxi , unless you have very specific reason to do so. You should leave it to the esxi host and manage your virtual nics , by connecting them to whoever virtual switch you want, which is connected to physical nic you want, otherwise you kind of defeat the whole virtualization purpose.

Here is the official guide on setting up pfsense for VM, I know you are using sophos but before you got to the actual software install you can see how this esxi networking is setup up for the machine , which will apply for any router/UTM machine.

 

[joeschmuck]

Thanks for checking that out. I would assume these 2 IP's are there even if only one device is connected or it's when you connect the second one ?

Nope, the IPs are dynamic and are not assigned unless there is a second MAC address. I can easily change my IP by changing the MAC address and rebooting the modem.

I will have to look into the NIC thing, thanks for the reference.

SO on my other project, I just found out that one of the pieces for my headlights is broken. It's a shroud cover and has three blemishes which I'd hate to live with but more importantly it has a small crack down it's side which I cannot live with since it will just break and fall off. So I took the front of my truck apart to check the alignment of the new projectors and they looked great, next I was putting the lenses together when I noticed the issue. I was planning to finish the installation tonight but now I need to wait on that one new part so I now need to reinstall my old headlights, what a pain to have to do it twice. Oh well. So I am need to go back outside and do that in a few minutes. I'm just a little heart broken is all. But one the new part comes in, I'll finish up and it will all be done.

 

[joeschmuck]

So I read the info about the NIC. It would be nice to have the ability to use that NIC and make it have two MAC addresses (two WAN IPs) so I can connect a single Cat5 cable between my modem and the server. I don't believe that is possible to have two MAC addresses for the NIC port. I wonder if I used a dual LAN port card, if I could force both MACs across a single LAN connection in ESXi.