Modded Intel NUC with Realtek, WAN or LAN
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Hi,
I recently modded my old 6th gen Intel NUC core i5 by adding a M.2 to GigE adapter (yeah I know Realtek isn't the best but this is what I got). So of course now with 1 Intel and 1 Realtek, what are your recommendations for WAN/LAN assignments and why?
My use cases:
NUC is used as the main home router to a gigabit fiber connection. I have 3 concurrent OpenVPN clients and 1 OpenVPN server with Suricata IDS/IPS running in legacy mode filtering and blocking some unwanted traffics on the LAN side (WAN I just have some FW rules to block the things I don't want).Currently I have my Realtek assigned as LAN and my Intel assigned as WAN, not sure if this is optimal or should I switch it the other way around? Oh and I installed the latest realtek kernel driver, so it's not running the stock version due to instability with stock drivers on Realtek.
Thanks in advance!
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I doubt there is any difference. Traffic must pass from both.
Newer realtek drivers work better too. -
@faux123 said in Modded Intel NUC with Realtek, WAN or LAN:
Currently I have my Realtek assigned as LAN and my Intel assigned as WAN
I'd suggest to use Intel for LAN, especially if you need VLANs.
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@psp thanks for the reply! Can you elaborate the VLAN with Intel/Realtek? I don't have any VLAN right now but I'm might venture into that area later on, just wondering why Intel is better at VLAN?
Thanks!
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Under FreeBSD, Realtek are just fine if used with recent drivers.
Intel NICs are generally able to handle (considering the hardware+drivers features) better "complex" traffic (i.e. VLANs, traffic shaping, high speed connections).
This is why I prefer to use Intel NICs on LAN (assuming that WAN is simply linked to an upstream router). -
@psp thanks for the advice. Yes, the WAN connection is just connected to the Fiber ONT. The LAN side is connected to a managed 16 port gigE switch which supports advanced QoS and VLAN configurations (not used at this moment). I have bunch of IoT devices running all on the same home network, so I'm planning to create a VLAN to segregate the IoTs from rest of the PCs/Mobile devices at home.
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@faux123 And then you want to experiment with rate limits and bufferbloating, so you are better off with intel on the wan. :)
realtek with recent drivers do work fine though, so vlans are not an issue with realtek too. -
@netblues Yeah, you are right, I have limiters and traffic shaping setup at this moment because Bufferbloat is a huge issue for me.
Thank you for your input.