Fix: pfsense ping and VPN not working after 2.6.0 upgrade

Issue description:

I started running into an issue within the last few months where one VLAN on my pfsense had lost the ability to ping to internet destinations, and clients connected to that subnet were unable to connect to several different types of VPN connection. Other interfaces on the same firewall were able to ping internet destinations without an issue. After troubleshooting the ruleset, I eventually came to the conclusion the rules definitely were not the issue as there was nothing blocking ICMP outbound. Packet captures looked as expected on the WAN interface (ICMP echo and reply flowing normally). On the internal interface, I would see the ICMP echo sending out, but no reply was present. I started troubleshooting installed packages on the device, which eventually lead me to this topic identifying that the issue is with the Captive Portal feature (which was enabled on the affected interface).

Solution:

I installed the System Patches v2.0 package. Once the package was installed, I went under the System > Patches menu option and enabled the Fix Captive Portal handling of non-TCP traffic after login option.

After a reboot of the firewall, the issue was resolved! I’m posting this quick write-up in hopes that it helps others running into the this issue!