thank you

There is no VGA console on the XG-2758 but it has a USB accessed serial console. The instructions are slightly different to the SG series models are the two Vitual Com Ports are shown. For details see: https://www.netgate.com/docs/xg-2758/connect-to-console.html Steve

Yeah, this box would be perfect with Intel NICs. At this point I wish I had gone with a mini ITX build with Intel NICs. For now, I'm using the one working NIC with VLANs so I can have WAN & LAN on one cable. I downloaded the realtek drivers from their website and compiled them on a FreeBSD virtual machine (got the idea from a discussion on this forum), and then loaded them on my pfSense box. The craziest thing is that both NICs started working! But then I restarted and it was back to only one NIC. I haven't been able to get them both working since.

It was defective.  I just happen to have an i3-3240 gathering dust (and I did notice that I needed to go to the i5's to get AES-NI) so I'm throwing that in for now until I can find a decent deal on another i5-3470T.  I'm currently using the SFF as a test box and so far so good.  I got EXSi 6.5a and ProxMox installed on it with no issues (separate SSD's I have a bunch of small ones 60-100GB) so I'll use it to test a few different firewalls.  If I get solid performance from it I'll use it as my firewall/gateway.  If not I'll just keep running pfsense in a VM like I am now (current server has L5640 cpu's and I have no performance issues, the upgraded virtualization servers have E5-2670s).  Either way I think I'll keep my eyes on good deals on these SFF's since they make nice small ESXi servers.

The performance is likely to be pretty bad, and USB network adapters can be unreliable. If your connection is slow enough it might work. If you don't have the computer yet, get something else. If you're trying to reuse a computer you already have the easiest thing to do is just try it and see if it performs well enough for you.

Doesnt matter, none of the ports work either for dhclient or dhcpd (both ports are on the same nic)

@mafiosa: Supermicro 5018a ftn 4 vs HP proliant gen 8 dl320e v2 for 300 captive portal users(70 active) with 80mbps bandwidth and squid guard..Comment your views, which one should I go for? Since the Supermicro has a C2000 series CPU, go for the HP.  The C2000 is currently the subject of an issue causing increased failure rates after 18 months of operation.  Otherwise either will do fine.

I had a similar isdue when enabling the ipSec dashboard widget on my 2220. Traffic and Ipsec was still working, but no webgui. In your case - is it possible that a dirty shutdown had screwed something up? I used to work a lot through serial consoles which were tempermental at time… how about sending a few 'break' signals?

I sent a note to Netgate support asking if they had any tuning recommendations, and if they thought their system should be able to do better than 500-600mbps, and I got this note back: –------------------------------------------------- 6-700Mbps is about what I would expect though from the 2220. It won't push 940Mbps. That is very dependent on the type of traffic in use though as always when trying to measure throughput. Pulling a large file while observing 'top -aSH' has always proved the most reliable method for testing high throughput for me. I found that many online tests, like speedtest.net, were inconsistent at high values. If you imported a config check you have powerd enabled. Without that the SG series boxes will run at their lowest speed. I doubt yours is though as you wouldn't get 500Mbps in that case. Thanks, Steve Turns out, I did not have PowerD checked.  I did so, and selected the HiAdaptive option and am now getting download speeds consistently over 800mbps and an sometimes over 900mbps!  %Idle drops to 5%-10%.  Although I'm still interested in continuing to tune and refine system settings to improve processing efficiency, I'm pretty happy with the overall throughput now. -Phil  

Thank You! for the responses. The APU2c4 looks interesting, and I've always been a DIY person. Some say control freak, but w/e.  ::)

@sachnet I am new to pfsense and planning to buy the same NIC- Sun ATLS1QGE for my Optiplex 760. Does it still work in your Optiplex 780 fine or did it stop working like in 740? TX

The right hand side LED indicates link speed. Amber is 1Gbps and Green is 100Mbps. Steve

If your Linux server can server something over http/s then: fetch -o /dev/null http://yourserverIP/sometestfile.big Otherwise you can FTP it or you could SCP it but that introduces massive encryption overhead. Steve

There are external VDSL modems that act as modems only and you have a bridged connection to ISP's network. Such as this one: https://telewell.fi/en/product/vdsl2-products/tw-ev902/tw-ev902

Thanks Jim.

I'd have a hard look at the 5018D-FN8T - it's the 4core Xeon D with a far better lineup in available interfaces. OK if you only need 2-3 NICs thats fine, but I'd take the FN8T with it's 4 cores and 6(!) Gigabit NICs AND 2 SFP+ 10G ports over any other version of the lineup. Sadly the only Xeon D board of Supermicro with real networking in mind and not throwing in strange mixes of interfaces. :)

@garyd9: @whosmatt: In addition to the RMA taking 3 months, he got back the same board, as verified by serial number. THREE MONTHS? From SM's warranty (available here: https://www.supermicro.com/support/Warranty/): If returned products are: a) within the warranty period, b) accompanied by the proper Return Materials Authorization ("RMA") and c) defective as determined by Supermicro; Supermicro will, at its option: 1) repair the defective product within 10 working days, 2) replace the defective product with a refurbished product or 3) issue a credit to the Customer for the current value of the product. For purposes of this Limited Warranty, "refurbished" means a product or part that has been returned to its original specifications. (note the "10 working days")  In addition, in regards to replacement, there is this: All product replacements are subject to quantity available in Supermicro stock. If Supermicro does not have stock to replace the returned products, Supermicro shall have at least 30 days to manufacture and replace the returned products. It sounds like your friend is considerably more patient than I am.  After the 10 working days, I'd have been on the phone with SM quoting their own warranty text to them.  If they hadn't repaired within 10 days, they should have sent a refurb.. or manufactured a brand new one for him/her. Yeah, I don't really know.  I asked him about it today after reading this post.  He was in contact with SM the entire time. The board went to Taiwan (from California) for repair.  Apparently he is indeed very patient.  It was a A1SRi-2758F IIRC.