Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    300MHz Geode okay for 20Mb+ internet connection?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    15 Posts 7 Posters 7.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • C
      cmb
      last edited by

      see http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=49

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        Skud
        last edited by

        I think we should also put a little note in there that the NIC makes a huge difference on throughput. For example, I had a VIA C3 550Mhz and I couldn't push more than ~17Mbps because I was maxxing out the CPU with interrupts. The onboard NIC was a VIA and the PCI NIC was a Realtek. Even with polling enabled.

        Now, I'm running all Intel NICS and see about 0.1% usage on interrupts at 20Mbps.

        Riley

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • C
          cmb
          last edited by

          That page is getting updated soon with much more info, including notes on NIC differences, pulling from content from the coming pfSense book.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            Skud
            last edited by

            Sweet!!

            Riley

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              mojo-chan
              last edited by

              How badly is the on-board Realtek NIC likely to slow things down? I have a PCI Intel NIC as the second connection.

              Which is best to use as LAN/WAN, or doesn't it make much difference?

              I will be using traffic shaping if it makes any difference.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Cry HavokC
                Cry Havok
                last edited by

                See the (many) threads on the issue, including a post from me in the last week or so.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • GruensFroeschliG
                  GruensFroeschli
                  last edited by

                  Basically if you want that it works dont use realtek's and stick to intel.

                  We do what we must, because we can.

                  Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    mojo-chan
                    last edited by

                    I got everything up and running today. Limited to 10Mb with polling off, 6.5Mb with it on. FAIL.

                    I'm going to get a dual Intel NIC off eBay and see if that fixes things. I really hope it does.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      mojo-chan
                      last edited by

                      I installed the dual NIC (Compaq, two Intel chips, fxp) and now the machine won't boot :(

                      I can see it gets as far as "Configuring WAN interface…" on the serial console. I read that DHCP time-out can be up to 20 minutes, but I waited half and hour and it still didn't work. I also tried a clean install from the original image to erase all configuration. After assigning interfaces, it hung again.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • C
                        cmb
                        last edited by

                        DHCP timeout will never be more than a minute (there was a version quite a while ago with a bug that made it wait longer, long since resolved). Something going on with your hardware not playing well together. Try the usual, BIOS update, disable PNP OS.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • M
                          mojo-chan
                          last edited by

                          I tried everything, but it just won't work. I even tried another card with different PCI controller. I guess this box just does not like having more than one PCI device :(

                          I am looking for more suitable and cheap hardware. As usual it seems to be a case of "good, fast, cheap - pick any two" :(

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • W
                            wallabybob
                            last edited by

                            Is your power supply capable of supplying the current needed by the dual NIC PCI card?

                            Maybe the box was built to a price (or size) and consequently the power supply doesn't have much margin.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • First post
                              Last post
                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.