Multi-Link PPP (MP/MLPPP)

This article is part of the HOWTO series.

Overview

Multilink PPP (MP or MLPPP) has been included in pfSense since early 2.0-Beta snapshots and is known to work with a number of providers.

A simple MLPPP connection requires only two steps.

• Create a PPPOE group with member interfaces
• Assign PPPOEx to WAN

Create a PPPOE group with member interfaces

1. Navigate to Interfaces: PPPs
2. Click the + button to create a new PPP connection with Link Type: PPPoE, Link interface(s): (use the ctrl key to select multiple interfaces)
3. Make other changes on this page as required by your ISP, then click Save
4. Navigate to Interfaces: Assign network ports and assign the new PPPOE interface to the desired interface (usually WAN)
5. Click Save

Assign PPPOEx to WAN

Navigate to Interfaces: Assign network ports and in the drop-down menu for WAN, select the PPPOEx interface that you just created.

Using VLANs with MLPPP

When creating a PPPOE group, you may wish to use VLANs rather than physical interfaces to connect multiple modems to pfSense. This makes sense particularly in larger setups where it is neither practical nor necessary to install and allocate a physical NIC into pfSense for every modem.

This approach requires creating the necessary VLAN interfaces in pfSense, enabling them as static or DHCP interfaces, (ie, "OPT1", "OPT2", or "MODEM1", "MODEM2", etc) and selecting those as the member interfaces when creating the PPPOE connection in PPPs in the above step.

Caveats

• Disabling Scrub (System: Advanced: Firewall and NAT) is known to create problems on some systems. (http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,42586.0.html)

• Changes made on the PPPs page do not take effect until you hit the Apply button on Interfaces: WAN. Therefore, when making changes to PPPs, go first to Interfaces: WAN and hit the Save button. Make your changes on PPPs and Save there. Go back to Interfaces: WAN and Apply Changes.

Related Documents

[VLAN Trunking] [How can I access my PPPoE Modem on WAN]