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    Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question

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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @lnguyen
      last edited by

      @lnguyen said in Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question:

      @stephenw10 Do you actually have Cable Internet? Or lucky enough to have standard AT&T Fiber ethernet?

      I don't have either. I'm not in the US. 😉

      That is interesting that adding the switch would make any difference to a docsis issue though. Hard to see how that could happen. 🤔

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        ngr2001 @lnguyen
        last edited by

        @lnguyen

        I just noticed something odd, when I moved the PF LAN nic from 1Gb to 10Gb the GUI is no longer showing Flow Control being enabled. I would expect to see rxpause & txpause.

        9d4ae57d-788e-401f-9037-339ca98776bf-image.png

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          What NIC is it? Not all drivers report it so it can be displayed there.

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            lnguyen @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 Using a switch with larger buffers only mask the symptoms of broken TCP Flow Control. This isn't a pfSense issue. It's a DOCSIS issue when the WAN speed is greater than a LAN client, ergo 2.35Gbps WAN to 940Mbps LAN

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              ngr2001 @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              My LAN MTU is now 1460 in PF, so far no change is certain speedtests like fast.com when PF lan @ 10Gb. Speeds still slowly tapering down to 500Mbps. However with MTU at 1460 and PF Lan at 1Gb performance is still solid.

              df59a454-a701-4812-8717-29b819e240c5-image.png

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                lnguyen @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @ngr2001 Yes what NIC are you using on the pfSense?

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                  ngr2001 @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10

                  Intel X550-T2

                  When that same LAN NIC is moved to 1Gb is reports (rxpause & txpause) when I move the patch cable over to 10Gb these values disappear in the GUI.

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                    lnguyen @ngr2001
                    last edited by

                    @ngr2001 Can you do a show int 10GigabitEthernet1/2/8?

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Ah, that seems like a pretty big clue....

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        The 7250 doesn't have any 10GbaseT ports though so I assume that's a different Intel NIC?

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @ngr2001
                          last edited by

                          @ngr2001 said in Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question:

                          My LAN MTU is now 1460 in PF, so far no change is certain speedtests

                          Did you set MSS like I suggested though? MTU does nothing to pf.

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                            lnguyen @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 Copper 10G-BaseT SFP+ modules most likely being used

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                              ngr2001 @lnguyen
                              last edited by

                              @lnguyen

                              Yes I have SPF+ RJ45 adapters in the 7250, thus I can easily move the CAT8 from one jack to the over for this test.

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                                lnguyen @ngr2001
                                last edited by

                                @ngr2001 Can you do a show int 10GigabitEthernet1/2/8?

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                                  ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by ngr2001

                                  @stephenw10

                                  I did not, but I just corrected that. I reset the states, waited a few mins and so far there may be a small boost in performance. I seem to be averaging now 700Mpbs instead of 500Mbps on fast.com, however if I switch ports we get the full 900+. So better but not perfect.

                                  64251468-6ed7-46ed-8090-ba5a1bd08939-image.png

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                                  • N
                                    ngr2001 @lnguyen
                                    last edited by

                                    @lnguyen

                                    1/2/8 - My 10Gb uplink to PF LAN Nic.
                                    689ff83c-9756-4b10-8dcf-72af121c1c0e-image.png

                                    I just noticed that 2 of my main clients currently at 1Gb on the switch have a lot of dropped packets. However right now I am running speedtests and I am not seeing the dropped packet counter increasing, so who know under which setup all these packets were dropped.

                                    1Gb Win 11 Client
                                    f5181091-f64a-483e-9e0a-69214260fd35-image.png

                                    1Gb Win 11 Client
                                    2ffd20e3-6932-412c-9007-0460e4980f0d-image.png

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                                      ngr2001 @lnguyen
                                      last edited by

                                      @lnguyen

                                      Should I disable flow control on my WAN NIC as a long term production setup being I am on Cable Internet ?

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                                      • L
                                        lnguyen @ngr2001
                                        last edited by lnguyen

                                        @ngr2001 I am not sure you are catching what I have said a few times across the two threads. Ethernet Flow Control is done on L2, which is what you have been configuring. TCP Flow Control is done at L4 which seems to not function when pfSense WAN is connected to DOCSIS cable modem. If you want to use Ethernet Flow control, which IMO is ugly, then you should leave it enabled.

                                        With my setup, I don't use ethernet flow control.

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Mmm, try with the MTU at the default 1500 so it matches the switch and client.

                                          200k input errors is pretty significant though.

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                                            ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10

                                            Just tried, same diff, speeds quickly taper down to 5-600Mbps.

                                            I clear my stats on switch, right now at least the dropped packet count is not increasing.

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