Question about WAN prots on 8200
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I am comparing the Netgate 6100 and the Netgate 8200.
I see they both have 10 Gbps SFP+ ports. But the 8200 calls these WAN ports.
I wonder, does this put a limit on what I can use this port for?
What if I wanna use these two for two separate internal networks (client & prod), and rather use one of the 1 Gbps or 2.5 Gbps ports on the 8200 for WAN, as our uplink is limited at 1 Gbps anyways.Thank you.
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Any interface port can be used for anything you like.
I happen to use a 2.5GbE port for my WAN with one of the 2 SFP+ ports for a LAN+VLAN.
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Right, that's what I thought.
Thanks for answering.Do you have any idea why they call it WAN ports then?
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@sich97 they’re just preprinted labels. See the second note here:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/netgate-8200/io-ports.html#networking-ports -
@sich97 said in Question about WAN prots on 8200:
Do you have any idea why they call it WAN ports then?
Many of us would prefer it if they were labelled ix1, ix2, igc0, igc1 etc, that way they would mean something real and align with the interface assignments in pfSense.
Presumably Netgate thinks they look more friendly this way as I am sure the manufacturer would label them anyway that was requested.
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We also ship those with TNSR installed and using FreeBSD specific interface names wouldn't make sense there. However labeling them WAN/LAN has caused some confusion.
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@stephenw10 Yet P1-P8 is a bit meaningless when first connecting it up, unless maybe there’s a card in the box to say P1=WAN. “P1/WAN” and “P5/LAN” with the others just numbered as P#? Just thinking out loud.
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@stephenw10 said in Question about WAN prots on 8200:
We also ship those with TNSR installed and using FreeBSD specific interface names wouldn't make sense there. However labeling them WAN/LAN has caused some confusion.
Surely they remain physical intel ix, igc etc interfaces, even when under the cloak of TNSR?
When I got mine I did make a little reminder card so I didn't make a mistake:
A man has to know his limitations. Or something.
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The NICs remains the same but Linux presents them completely differently:
https://docs.netgate.com/tnsr/en/latest/platforms/netgate-8200/io-ports.html#networking-portsThere's no perfect solution here. We can always try to do better though.
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There is no perfect answer of course - opinions are just that. I don't think there was much wrong with the manufacturer's original look, just showing the interface speeds:
Of course, everything looks better in black.
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We need actual port numbers of some sort in pfSense at least because the order is not what might be expected given the NIC naming.
It's very unlikely we would change it on something that has been released but all input is welcome for future products.
Steve