Best driver for Realtek 8111HN for PFSense 2.7DEV

N8LBV

Having some serious problems with PFsense CE 2.7DEV and a Realtek 8111HN.
Trying to figure out if I should be replacing the driver with a "better" one or is what's
built in the latest and greatest or only option available.
Then where or how about doing this. (I have never done this before)
I think pretty much what I'm finding in the threads applies to 2.6.0 only.
Thank you for any pointers on this.
Steve

stephenw10

Replace the NIC if you can.

Otherwise the only option is the alternative Realtek driver. In 2.7 that's in the pkg repo so you can just install it:

pkg install realtek-re-kmod

Then to load it at boot do:

echo 'if_re_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf.local
echo 'if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"' >> /boot/loader.conf.local

Steve

N8LBV

@stephenw10 Oh jeese!
I swear I did a search for "Realtek" in the gui yesterday.

Good to know that's available..
And yeah I have always avoided Realtek with PFSense.
And this is the first time I have dealt with this.
This got me totally off guard.
I ordered and recieved some Intel NUC computers fully expecting intel NICs.
One of those times where I didn't think to check the fine print :(
And it's biting me in the butt.
An Intel product with an onboard Realtek NIC.
WT-PH!

Thank You!

JimBob Indiana

@n8lbv Follow Steve’s steps exactly. If you go ahead and read some of those Realtek threads you’ll make this way too complicated

In the documentation for the “patch” it tells you to see a buffer setting in loader.boot.conf. I did NOT and I have no issues with the dual Realtek 8125B 2.5gb card.

I also figured out unless there’s some issue going on the “Auto select” is best option for the NIC configurations.

N8LBV

@jimbob-indiana This worked great!
I think I saw this posted a number of times but I thought it only applied to 2.6.0
This was a life saver.
And I will not be rolling out any Realtek in any serious or production manor.
But this gets me by for testing for now.

N8LBV

@stephenw10 This made all the difference from completely unusable beside crashing and rebooting to being usable. And so far from all testing reliable.
Not as fast as Intel NICs but for 100-200mbps.. (OpenVPN throughput) perfect.
I will be getting an intel i3 NUC with Intel nic this weekend to test.
Nat speed: 400-500mbps.
I've been stressing it for 10 hours moving huge file trasfers in both directions
and doing http speedtests.
both over openVPN and 1Gbps NAT.
Along with "regular" Internet usage.

-Steve