My problem may not be traffic related, but possibly a hardware incompatibility.
When I go to the webui and bring up the traffic shaper, my pings to the internal interface of the pfSense increase in latency. You can see the period before I click on the traffic shaper, 1ms. Then while the rules are all loading the latency increases substantially. Then when the rules are done loading, the latency drops back to normal.
C:\Documents and Settings>ping -t 192.168.3.1
Pinging 192.168.3.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=141ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=173ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=208ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=220ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=234ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=266ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=300ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=314ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=328ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=329ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=359ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=361ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=366ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=398ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=410ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=409ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=413ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.3.1:
Packets: Sent = 28, Received = 28, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 413ms, Average = 211ms
I get the same results when pinging the internal interface or the external interface.
These tests were run while there was no major data being passed.
The hardware is a Dell Optiplex GX150 using the built in NIC and a 3c905b NIC.