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Troubleshooting (When Running Firewalla)

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Firewalla
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If at any stage you have problems, please feel free to open a support case using this link. Customer satisfaction is built into our team culture. We will guarantee to respond in less than 24 hours.

Reminder, all traffic graphs in firewalla can be tapped.  After tapping, a flow table will be presented, you can then navigate the hours.  Sometimes the graph may appear to be empty, tapping into the graph may show minor flows. 

Please make sure you always use the latest software (app) from iOS or Android app stores.  Some feature may work only with newer apps. 

The most common problems encountered are listed here.

 

If your Firewalla Box is unreachable

There are several things you can try to get Firewalla box back:

1. Check your physical connections.

  • Is your internet still up?  
  • Make sure your phone has internet;  if possible try LTE/4G as well.

  • Make sure the SD Card is securely pushed in. 

  • Use the enclosed USB adapter for power. If you use your own, make sure it supports 5V/2A.  Firewalla will reboot randomly if it is 'under' powered.

  • Make sure the Ethernet cable is securely connected on both ends, you may need to try a different Ethernet port to get it to work.

2. Power Cycle the Box

While booting, please check the status lights.  If you see anything abnormal, please click this link to open a case.

When booting is done (maximum 5 min), please kill the app and relaunch it.

Old Version of Firewalla Red (Firewalla Red purchased before May 2018, likely is the with blue light inside.)

New Version of Firewalla Red (Red light inside)

Firewalla Blue (Red light inside)

3. Check your router

  1. Check your router and see if it sees Firewalla (has an IP address for it)
  2. If your router does not see Firewalla, reboot the unit.
  3. If after reboot, the router still don't see Firewalla, you will likely need to reset the box. https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004370213-How-to-Reset-Firewalla-Box-

If your router has Firewalla

  1. Power down Firewalla
  2. Wait 1 min
  3. Power on Firewalla
  4. Wait 5 min
  5. Visit https://diag.firewalla.com
  6. If you see web page come up:
    1. tap on the IP address and see if you have any output, if you do, send it to help@firewalla.comhttps://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
  7. If you do not see web page come up:
    1. Try to reset the unit https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004370213-How-to-Reset-Firewalla-Box-

4. Reset app data and repair Firewalla Box. 

Do this as last resort.  If possible, please contact us help@firewalla.com before doing the reset.  

 

Network slow down

Physical Connections

How the firewalla is connected to your network can influence your network speed.  Some of the basic checks

  • Try to switch to a different ethernet cable.  A bad cable will slow down the speed.
  • Try to connect firewalla to a different port on your router or switch.
  • If you are not using Red, check the light indicator on your router and make sure it is indicating Gigabit speed.
  • If you have a spare dumb switch, try to connect that between Firewalla and your router.  We have seen the router port not switching correctly when directly connect to Firewalla. 
  • Make sure the Firewalla is connected as close as possible to the router (via a switch is okay).
  • The Firewalla box should be connected to your main router, or off a switch connected to the main router. Do not connect Firewalla to a satellite unit of a meshed router, or a network extender.
  • Please be aware that the maximum packet processing speed of Firewalla Red is 100 Mbps and Firewalla Blue is >500 Mbps. (Why there are limitations in Firewalla speed?)

Software

  • If your network is slow down to under 30Mbps, your router is probably not compatible with Firewalla. Check Router Compatibility here.
  • If you are using a meshed router please see https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008005173-About-Mesh-Routers
  • Please also make sure your router's firmware is up to date. We have seen one case with NETGEAR R6220 where the router firmware was slowing down Firewalla to 30% normal throughput. Upgrading to the latest firmware solved the problem. 
  • If you have Fing/circle/Cujo/Bitdefender/PiHole or similar products on your network, please see https://firewalla.com/compatibility for details.
  • If you have router within a router or networking device (access point, bridge devices, extenders) under your network, please make sure they are not monitored.  (Tap on devices->tap on the device->scroll to the bottom and turn off monitoring)
  • If you have restricted or filtered DNS on your router (such as Merlin) please do not filter DNS requests from Firewalla. 

More ways to check

  • Check to see if you have QoS turned on Firewalla and your router that may limit the speed of the ethernet ports on your router. We have seen this on the Asus router.

Rules

  • If your network used to work and suddenly slows down. Please check your rules button, under it, make sure you are not blocking "CDN" or similar sites. Try to pause the rules and make sure they are not slowing you down.
  • There are things like "Adblocker-blocker"; try turning that off and see if things are faster.

 

Others

  • We have seen routers like the Linksys E9500 when Firewalla is connected directly to the router, there is a visible slowdown.  Connecting Firewalla to a switch (and all other devices are also on that switch) fixed the slow problem.  

 

Not able to see some devices? (Simple/DHCP Mode)

After installation, if you are not able to see all the devices in your network or 'missing' traffic on some devices, it is likely that you have two routers (and likely they are running in router mode).  When a router running in router mode, it creates a separate network on its own.  Firewalla can only monitor one network at a time. 

 

If your network looks like this:

[ISP Router] <---> [Wifi router in Router Mode]

This is considered as two networks.  You only have one Firewalla.  Firewalla can only see all devices on the router that it is connected to, it won't be able to see the devices on the other router.  Therefore, you are running into missing device problems.

How to fix:

Choice 1:  Move all wired and wireless devices to [Wifi router], and plug Firewalla to [Wifi router]

Choice 2: Buy another Firewalla; plug one to [ISP Router], another one to [Wifi router].

Choice 3: Change [Wifi router] from router mode to Bridge/AP mode, and you can plug Firewalla anywhere. The best place is the [ISP Router].  Make your network look like this:

[ISP Router] <---> [Wifi router in AP or Bridge Mode]

(**look up your router manual on how to change from router mode to bridge/AP mode)

 

Not able to access the network? (Router Mode)

Please check this doc: How to debug network connectivity issues?

 

 

Not able to access the network? (Simple Mode)

Most problems encountered in this mode are compatibility issues.  Firewalla software tries its best to predict compatibility, but it is not perfect.  Please consult router compatibility, there are tips in this document.  

If your phone can no longer talk to Firewalla

  • Change your phone to use LTE/3G/4G network, most of the time you should be able to talk to Firewalla
  • If this method doesn't work, please reboot the firewalla box by unplugging and plugging it back.
  • Double-check your power plug, make sure it is from us, and/or can deliver 2A of current.
  • If above doesn't work, please unplug Firewalla, contact us help@firewalla.com with the model of your router.

If all devices are not able to access network

  1. Turn off monitoring of the Box. This should restore your network.
  2. You should try to switch to DHCP mode. 
  3. If everything fails, send an email with your router model to help@firewalla.com

If one device is not able to access the network

  1. Check if there is any blocking rule applied to the device. Tap on Device-> Blocking rules.
  2. Turn off monitoring on a device.
  3. Check the device network setup. (IP address, DNS, gateway and etc)

If only wired network works, or only wireless network works

  1. Check router compatibility page, likely your router is NOT compatible with the simple mode
  2. If so, you will need to switch to DHCP mode

 

Not able to access the network? (DHCP Mode)

First please check if your device is getting an IP address, and that address should be in 192.168.218.x range. If not please reboot Firewalla Box. If you still do not have access to the network, please send an email to help@firewalla.com.

Try these commands on your PC/MAC

ping 1.1.1.1

nslookup firewalla.com

If nslookup firewalla.com fails, you have a DNS problem, please see below.

 

DNS Problems:

If you are running into DNS problems while just switched to DHCP mode, please try this.

1. Keep DHCP service on the router on, and set Firewalla monitoring to a limited mode.
2. Change the DNS of the router DHCP service to 1.1.1.1 (or another public DNS).
3. Reboot Firewalla so that it can pick up the new DNS server info from router DHCP.
4. Change Firewalla monitoring mode to DHCP mode.
5. Double Check Network Settings to make sure the DNS server of both Primary network and Overlay Network is NOT the router's IP.

Main -> Settings -> Advanced -> Network Settings

6. Turn off DHCP service on the router.
7. Reconnect your device to see if the problem is fixed.

 

 

If only certain websites or Apps you can't access

Please check this doc: What to do when can't access certain websites?

 

 

Not able to see network traffic?

If the graphs come out empty, please check the following:

  1. Make sure the box monitoring mode is on. If there is a light gray dot on the monitor button, tap on the monitor button, and either turn on Simple or DHCP mode.
  2. If you are in DHCP mode, likely some devices don't have the new IP.  Disconnect and reconnect the device to the network and you should be fine. Double-check that your router's DHCP server is off. 
  3. Check the device menu and make sure the device internet or monitoring option is not off.
  4. Check if the device is an ipv6 only device.  If it is, Tap on "+" and enable the ipv6 service. 

Select the more option within the device you are investigating   Select the Ipv6 options   Turn the IPv6 option on in the Firewalla App   

5. Check if you have any network extenders such as EX3700.  These extenders will hide MAC or randomize the real MAC addresses, which make tracking impossible.  

If the graphs are showing something

  • Very likely the problem is some flows or network traffic is going over IPv6.  To check, try to block that particular device and try to visit https://firewalla.com and https://google.com, if  firewalla.com fails and google.com succeeds, then follow above to enable IPv6. 

 

Not able to block ads, porn, or some domains?

  • Firewalla can only block if it can see the network traffic.  If you can't block, likely Firewalla can't see. Please see "Not able to see network traffic".
  • Some blocks are DNS based, try to flush DNS cache (going to airplane mode and come back, for example).  
  • For Adblock, use this site to check https://ads-blocker.com/testing/
  • If you have ipv6, make sure you turn on ipv6 (tap on + and turn on ipv6).

 

Not able to connect to VPN？

Check out this article: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004274633-VPN

 

Not able to receive Notifications？

Check out this article: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026210794

 

Internet access is unstable

Check out this article: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053534593-How-to-debug-network-connectivity-issues-

 

 

If you still have any problems, feel free to open a support case here. 

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