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    Could anyone explain why I get so slow DL/UL speeds?

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    • D
      Damned
      last edited by

      Yeah suppose I will give it all a try now that I know abit more how Vmware actually works.
      Thanks for your help :)

      One thing though, I live in the sweet country of sweden, a 100/100 connection is 20$ ;) I'm still poor:D

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      • Y
        YoMarK
        last edited by

        Just edit your .vmx file(with notepad!) and change the network devices to e1000: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7396.0.html
        (Never seen a VM disappear, but I can imagine it will if you corrupt the .vmx).

        Turn the VM off(maybe better to close Vmware), and change the ethernet0.virtualDev en ethernet1.virtualDev to:
        ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
        ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"

        Power on Vmware and start pfSense.
        After this pfSense should detect 2 Intel Gigabit nics.  This also requires reconfiguration of the LAN en WAN interface using the Pfsense console.

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        • P
          Pootle
          last edited by

          @Damned:

          I live in the sweet country of sweden, a 100/100 connection is 20$ ;) I'm still poor:D

          AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHH!

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          • D
            Damned
            last edited by

            @YoMarK:

            Just edit your .vmx file(with notepad!) and change the network devices to e1000: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7396.0.html
            (Never seen a VM disappear, but I can imagine it will if you corrupt the .vmx).

            Turn the VM off(maybe better to close Vmware), and change the ethernet0.virtualDev en ethernet1.virtualDev to:
            ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
            ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"

            Power on Vmware and start pfSense.
            After this pfSense should detect 2 Intel Gigabit nics.  This also requires reconfiguration of the LAN en WAN interface using the Pfsense console.

            How can I tell if I got it right?

            First of all, I didn't have any line with "ethernet0.virtualDev" So I simply added it for ethernet0 and 1.
            When I start and reassign I still get to choose between "le0" and "le1"

            I also tried to do the vmxnet drivers as in the guide as well, and still when i reassign I still only get to choose from "le0" and "le1".

            I have reinstalled it all with Vmware server instead, tried the RC3 but got an error message during installaton process to hdd that something somewhere coulnd't be found. Tried the 1.01 version of pfsense and that solved that issue.

            When executing the command "pkg_add vmware-guestd-6.0.2.59824.tbz" - Should I get any kind of "completed" message? Because when ive gotten that far it simply brings me back to shell so i can type a new command, however it jumped one line, so it looks like my last command was nothing. Hope i'm making sense =)

            did edit loader.conf though through pfsense and all, so those bits went good, same with editing the .vmx file.

            EDIT: Been doing some new speedtests, still only 40-50Mbps and the CPU usage on 90-100% :/

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            • Y
              YoMarK
              last edited by

              First of all, you don't have to install the vmware tools to use e1000.
              standard pfSense 1.2 should detect Intel gigabit NIC, is this case em0 and em1.

              Tested it(just for you ;) ), and works great, using 1.2 RC on Vmware workstation 5.5.
              Just create a new VM, choose "custom", choose "New" Virtual Machine format, Choose Other–> FreeBSD as Operating system, correct path, One processor, 192MB RAM minimum, bridged networking(in my case), LSI logic SCSI, New virtual Disk for example 1 GB(I always use SCSI for Vmware ESX compatibility), Complete.
              Close Vmware workstation now.

              The above results in an .vmx file. Open this file with notepad , and remove all enties starting with "ethernet", and put the following at the bottom of the file:

              ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

              Start Vmware Workstation, Edit Pfsense VM, connect the pfsense1.2.iso to the cdrom(use iso image), ok.
              Power the pfSense Vm on.
              It WILL detect 2 Intel gigabit nics. If it doesnt, you did something wrong or using the wrong version of pfSense or Vmware Workstation(i'm using 5.5, and pfSense 1.2).

              My complete .vmx file:

              config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "4"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
memsize = "192"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.fileName = "FreeBSD.vmdk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "X:\software\Pfsense\pfSense.iso"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
floppy0.fileName = "A:"
usb.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
displayName = "pfSense"
guestOS = "freebsd"
nvram = "FreeBSD.nvram"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

uuid.location = "56 4d 4d 5d f8 16 58 d5-a2 5e 93 c4 3e e0 82 bb"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 4d 5d f8 16 58 d5-a2 5e 93 c4 3e e0 82 bb"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:e0:82:bb"
ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:e0:82:c5"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

              Don't add the last 4 lines manually, Vmware does this automatically. Only use the lines at the beginning of this post

              –Mark

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              • Y
                YoMarK
                last edited by

                If you want maximum performance, you must use the vmxnet driver.
                First follow this guide how to install vmware Tools and vmxnet driver: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7271.0.html

                The following lines will make sure that Vmware presents the correct NIC-type to pfSense:

                ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
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                • D
                  Damned
                  last edited by

                  @YoMarK:

                  If you want maximum performance, you must use the vmxnet driver.
                  First follow this guide how to install vmware Tools and vmxnet driver: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7271.0.html

                  The following lines will make sure that Vmware presents the correct NIC-type to pfSense:

                  ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

                  Yeah you'r right, I didnt use the correct .vmx :D haha

                  Anyway, amnaged to get the e1000 to work, however without any major improvements, maybe 5Mpbs. I know get 55Mbps with a CPU load of 100%

                  As for the vmxnet drivers I still think I do the pkg_add part wrong (although I do as the guide says, lette for letter), because I dont get any confirmation that it actually did anything … And when i boot up pfsense again, it doesnt detect any interfaces at all :D

                  However, I'm gonna try with anoher intel pro card, so I have 2 of them, see if itll work better.

                  Thanks alot for helping me! ^^

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                  • P
                    Pootle
                    last edited by

                    When you convert the NIC to VMXnet, pfSense will loose them, although the VM still has them, they have different names that pfSense won't be hooked up to, you need to rerun the interfaces setup through the console to pick them up again - take care you get them the right way around :)

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                    • Y
                      YoMarK
                      last edited by

                      Just run

                      fetch -v -o /boot/kernel/ http://www.pfsense.com/mirrors/packages/All/vmxnet.ko

                      Also, please make sure, that the line

                      vmxnet_load="YES"

                      exists in /boot/loader.conf
                      So your complete /boot/loader.conf should look like:

                      
autoboot_delay="1"
hint.apic.0.disabled=1
kern.hz=100
vmxnet_load="YES"

                      pkg_add the vmware tools is not necessary for the operation of the vmxnet driver(and it does not return "Installation Successful" or something like that. So no error: it installed correctly).

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                      • D
                        Damned
                        last edited by

                        @Pootle:

                        When you convert the NIC to VMXnet, pfSense will loose them, although the VM still has them, they have different names that pfSense won't be hooked up to, you need to rerun the interfaces setup through the console to pick them up again - take care you get them the right way around :)

                        I really did that, and it really wasn't any interfaces for me to assign :(
                        Im gonna make a dedicated partition just to see how the performance will differ, if it differs too much I suppose Ill have to run FreeBSD with FAT or something … Just that I see a billion complications for me Vista < -- > FreeBSD ... :D

                        for now however, I have 2 sweet weeks of work ahead of me, hopefully Ill find my time =)

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                        • Y
                          YoMarK
                          last edited by

                          pfSense is not disk I/O intensive, so making a dedicated partition will not improve anything.

                          Throughput is your problem, and the vmxnet driver provides the fastest throughputs in Vmware.
                          All the information on how to get vmxnet working is provides in this thread, and is 2 minutes work, so good luck ;)

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