Note to everyone reading this: The problem was indeed caused by the crappy Realtek driver in FreeBSD. Loading in the realtek-re-kmod driver fixed the issue. Sadly, once I upgraded my box to pfSense 2.6.0 the drivers where gone and I had to re-load these - this time directly from pkg.freebsd.org as instructed in this tutorial: https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/t872mx/fix_issues_with_realtek_nic_on_pfsense_260

So I finally tested the qnap card on another machine and it is detected and properly working. Googling around I found another user who had no luck with this card on an Asus J serie mobo with Celeron CPU, so I can only think about some kind of conflict or incompatibility. Just my two cents to avoid someone else to loose time.

@stephenw10 thanks I'll give that a try when I get off work.

should not be an issue. that is massive overkill for pfsense. you can vm it and run a few other things on that (adguard home, etc)

Yeah, it would be very unlikely to consume 400W most of the time. A system like that would be close to idle a lot of the time. The 6100 doesn't actually use 30W either. More like 15W unless you have everything connected and drawing power. Steve

The T15 does not use an X86 CPU, it has a POWER architecture processor. As such it cannot run pfSense. You may be able to run OpenWRT but it would likely require some development work. Steve

@alex-atkin-uk said in i5-8250U stuck at base clock: I presume I'm better off using the i350 ports as they have 4x4 queues vs the i211 2x2 queues? Yup. Better load spreading. Disabling hyper-threading doesn't really make much difference these days. I was a much bigger issue way back when it was introduced. (Pentium 4?). But 8 cores over 4 also doesn't give you much when the NICs have 4 queues so... try it and see! Steve

Right but unless it's a layer 3 switch traffic between different VLANs would still need to be routed/filtered by pfSense and that could be up to 1G. Steve

In the main filesystem the config is /conf/config/xml. There are also backup files in /conf/backup. The recovered config is not retained beyond the install. I always thought that would be a nice feature to have though. Steve

@stephenw10 it worked, thank you so much for your help. Now I just gotta get fully acquainted with all the features of pfSense.

Those hardware specs badly need updating. They probably date back to pentium 4! The NICs used here are key. If they are igb I expect to see at least 2 queues per NIC so loading across multiptle CPU cores if it;s working correctly. If they are em NICs they are single queue and you are limited by the individual core speeds. Steve

@lamer01 @dobby_ I already have a bunch small nuc-style hardware ( i have 4 of them ). Than it makes more sense to prepare an image to install it on all devices that is matching and/or fitting your needs for sure. I want only to tell you that this is only a situation where this drivers will be "discard" and they will be later for sure inside of pfSense again. So nothing really wrong with pfSense itselfs.

@stephenw10 most probably. I booted a windows 11 instance and benchmarked the cpu, It went easily over 3 Ghz mark. On idle went below 1.4Ghz. So there it is. I saw on some thread I lost, there are some amd specific modules, I need to look into it.

@stephenw10 Ok, thanks a lot!

Hello, I'm currently experiencing similar issue. My WAN keeps dropping every few days. I couldn't figure it out until I read the gateway log that seems to suggest the WAN interface is the issue. Comcast is my ISP, and I own my own cable modem (Netgear CM700). My gateway {pfSense 2.5.2} is an old repurposed HP workstation with a 4-port intel NIC. I have been running pfSense for about two years. I have a fairly complex system with multiple LANs /VLans and a plethora of managed switches. It could be my cable modem that's on its last leg since it has a poor reputation (the controversial PUMA chipset) or my switches due to an improperly configured STP because sometimes the issue would be temporarily resolved after rebooting only the switches. However, the issue continues after properly configuring STP. Refreshing openvpn would also temporarily resolved the issue. Also quickly unplugging and plugging solely the WAN ethernet cable would temporarily resolved the problem. I'm currently at a lost for solutions. It wasn't until today when I finally really read the pfSense logs in details that pointed me to the potential culprit, the WAN interface. Before that, I tried all types of fruitless solutions. I serendipitously stumbled on your potential solution, changing the speed/duplex of the WAN interface from autoselect to 1000 base T full duplex. I have applied it and hope that it works; fingers crossed and will find out in a few days if this was the issue.

@stephenw10 Thank you, I will give that a shot. I appreciate the feedback.

One more expression of appreciation @stephenw10 : I'm getting consistent 150Mb/s+ IPSEC on this thing. It's a beast! Thanks again!!

Mmm, I agree looks to be configured the same in all cases.

Take a look at a HP t620plus thin client, it needs to be the plus model though not the t620. The t620plus is thicker than the non plus because it has a pcie port to add a network card. They are quad core 2.0ghz and use around 12-15w of power, you can find them on ebay for around £100. The link below has some good information on the t620plus. Link to parkytowers site