Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC
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@NollipfSense Do you actually have 10G ethernet anywhere in/on your network that talking about using these NICs is a valid topic? Or, is this for something that you "might" be getting in the future, if your ISP eventually supports it. You say "later when I have fiber", but does that have a timeline, and if so, what's the proposed fiber speed.
No offense, but I'm tending to side with @kiokoman for this. You could spend less on a dedicated Netgate box that already supports inline IPS/IDS natively. I'm all for supporting and using old hardware, especially old Mac hardware (I'm a Mac user myself), but they fall so short for routing projects like this, I quickly discard the ideas. Sorry...
Jeff
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@kiokoman said in Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC:
@NollipfSense said in Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC:
Akitto thunderbolt 2 PCie
Just a suggestion if i can, at least to prevent you from buying something that maybe later you can't use: you also need to find out if the thunderbolt port with a pci-e extension/network card is compatible with/can comunicate with freebsd and not only with the mac, and even if it's compatible with freebsd you must find out if there are modules that need to be compiled for pfsense to make it work.
Well, yes, I have confirmed that on the FreeBSD forum; however, I was cautioned to wait for FreeBSD 12/pfSense 2.5 as it might already have the driver support for BGE gigabit interface. I also learn that there was some initial hesitation for IGB gigabit interface and Netmap in FreeBSD 11, because Netmap was really for the 10GB interface. Just to share, the SG-1100 is $159 and the SG-3100 is $349...if you check eBay you can find 2011 Mac Mini server for $200/free shipping.
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@akuma1x said in Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC:
@NollipfSense Do you actually have 10G ethernet anywhere in/on your network that talking about using these NICs is a valid topic? Or, is this for something that you "might" be getting in the future, if your ISP eventually supports it. You say "later when I have fiber", but does that have a timeline, and if so, what's the proposed fiber speed.
No offense, but I'm tending to side with @kiokoman for this. You could spend less on a dedicated Netgate box that already supports inline IPS/IDS natively. I'm all for supporting and using old hardware, especially old Mac hardware (I'm a Mac user myself), but they fall so short for routing projects like this, I quickly discard the ideas. Sorry...
Jeff
No Jeff, I currently don't have the 10GB network; however, I will be moving in four months and will have fiber service of 2GB/sec. So, I am doing ahead up on equipment for a three to five years usage but will depreciate all in the first as it's for a home/office/lab. Price for the Akitio thunderbolt 2 is below $200 and will keep going down...I believe.
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Well, I got the Akitio thunderbold 2 PCie enclosure used for leas than half the price of a new one and added the new Intel i350 card I had...now running Suricata inline mode no problem with my 2011 Mac Mini server. Persistency is the key to success!
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@NollipfSense congrats!
Jeff
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@akuma1x said in Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC:
@NollipfSense congrats!
Jeff
Thank you Jeff!
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@nollipfsense such an interesting post. So glad you added this post to set out the position for everyone reading later. Almost no helpful answers for you from anyone on this thread. So frustrating to read their posts. A completely valid helpful query which eventually you have helpfully resolved for everyone. Thanks.
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@jeremyj You're welcome!
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@NollipfSense I'd also like to thank you for posting this!
I wish I had seen this post earlier. I am asking very similar questions. Mine was in regards to the Akitio TB2 to 10 Gbe adapter. Link below if anyone wants to read, but short version is no it's not.
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/174420/tehuti-10-gbe-nic-tn9710p-supported
Oddly enough, I had also found a Sonnet TB2 to PCIe enclosure. However, your initial post back from 2019 indicated it wasn't supported in FreeBSD/pfSense at that point. Do you know if this has changed?
Also, looking at your signature (assume it's somewhat current today in 2022) I see you switched to a Lenovo M93p. Did the Mac Mini slow down, or did you run into another issue.
I've been a little on the fence about just selling my Mac Mini and couple those funds with what I'd spend on the enclosure + NIC and go with a Lenovo SFF or tiny PC that has a built in PCIe slot.
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@sledge said in Thunderbolt PCie enclosere and Intel NIC:
Also, looking at your signature (assume it's somewhat current today in 2022) I see you switched to a Lenovo M93p. Did the Mac Mini slow down, or did you run into another issue.
I got a great deal on the Lenovo and since I could up the RAM to 32GB. I decided to re-purpose the Mac Mini to an Adobe suite server.
The thing about the Mac Mini it’s awesome but since Apple OS runs the fan, FreeBSD may not have the driver and one has to wait around making a request for FreeBSD to include and that can be nightmare. Alternatively, one can compile the driver but that was over my head and would have loved the challenge but time didn't permit.
