Yes, last octet is .28 and I have the MAC. if I unplug the NIC my ping stops. Flush windows DNS cache and ARP cache and let rebuild itself. .28 still does not ping (like on another NIC.) When I plug it in it gets a DHCP static reservation from pfSense, and the log shows the right MAC that is on the sticker for the machine.
At one point it stopped returning pings, but I think that was because I had misconfigured port bridging in pfSense. Unless it is some obscure timeout that the last update or two added, I am at a loss. Will end up letting it get a lease with a switch in the middle, unplug the pfSense and use a laptop to try and raise the dashboard page on port 8006. Firewall logs dont indicate port blocking, and I do not have other devices using 8006 elsewhere. May use wireshark tonight if I get home earlier. An answer is somewhere!
Thanks for the try, if I may have left something out of my procedure above, please let me know. More thorough than I normally need to be. The hub or switch I use to try the laptop test will keep the physical layer up and should leave my allotted DHCP lease alone. What bad could happen on a two node network once I drop the lab net firewall out of the picture. (It is my DHCP and DNS server, a pi-hole is planned but my board may be bad - won't display console or connect to my new wifi AP. (the list grows and grows!)
