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    My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX

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    • V
      vanguard
      last edited by

      I'm using this NIC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033 which appears to have an Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller.  I'm running PFSense 2.0.2 (i386) nano edition.

      I've tried connecting it to two different gigabit switches and I'm using a brand new CAT 6 3' cable.  The current gigabit switch is connecting at 1000baseT/full duplex on other ports but not for my intel NIC, which is my PFSense -> LAN adapter.

      I got a bit foolhardy and tried to look into it myself.  I noticed that in loader.conf it has this setting:

      if_em_load="NO"                 # Intel(R) PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
      

      Should I change that to yes? Will that make FreeBSD automatically use the right driver?

      Edit: Oh yeah, the device is em0 so maybe it's already using that driver and it's complied in instead of loaded at boot time? I don't know what I'm doing, somebody lend me a hand before I do something dumb.  ;D

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      • F
        fragged
        last edited by

        Have you tried a different cable? Does the LAN port work at GigE when plugged directly another PC with a gigabit NIC?

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        • V
          vanguard
          last edited by

          @fragged:

          Have you tried a different cable? Does the LAN port work at GigE when plugged directly another PC with a gigabit NIC?

          I've tried three cables, the most recent being a 3' CAT 6 cable that's brand new out of the box.  It shouldn't be the cable.

          I haven't tried it with another PC but I have tried it with two different gigabit switches.  Because I get the same issue with several cables and switches I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the PFSense setup.

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          • V
            vanguard
            last edited by

            I tried changing this to 1000baseT full duplex.

            NEVER DO THAT!  Ugh, I spent hours trying to get my NIC to work again. It's tough to figure out ifconfig when you don't have man pages or a net connection.  I eventually got it going from the command line then set it back via the web gui so it would work after a reboot.

            Does anybody have a better idea? It's not the cable and it's not the switch. Why can't I get 1000baseT?

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            • W
              wallabybob
              last edited by

              @vanguard:

              Does anybody have a better idea?

              1. If your WAN speed is less than 101Mbps use the troublesome port as the WAN interface and use one of the working GigE ports as LAN.
              2. Use a pfSense 2.1 snapshot build since it will have much more up to date device drivers than the 2.0.x builds.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                @vanguard:

                NEVER DO THAT!

                Ha!  ;) I feel your pain.

                What is the rest of your hardware?
                I note that this is the chip that recently hit the headlines as being compromised by a badly programmed eeprom. I do not expect that to be an issue on Intel's own card though.

                It should just work, I can see no reason why it wouldn't given what you have tried. Were the two switches you tried the same make/model?

                If it's easy, given your other hardware, I would try booting a live Linux distro and checking the card functions correctly under that.

                Steve

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                • V
                  vanguard
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10:

                  It should just work, I can see no reason why it wouldn't given what you have tried. Were the two switches you tried the same make/model?

                  One switch was a 5 port dlink - http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DGS-2205-5-Port-Desktop-Switch/dp/B000FIVDIA/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361633564&sr=1-9&keywords=dlink+gigabit+switch

                  The current switch is a 24 port zyxel.
                  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F4VYUG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

                  Everybody here seems to love the intel cards. Did I get the wrong intel NIC?

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Ok so you've only tried one gigabit switch, the Zyxel is only 10/100. You may have found some incompatibility between the two specific products at a hardware level. Try connecting any other gigabit device to it.

                    That Intel chip is one of the most widely used and supported NICs you could buy. The recent EEPROM issue aside I don't think anyone here would have hesitated to recommend it.

                    Steve

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                    • V
                      vanguard
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10:

                      Ok so you've only tried one gigabit switch, tha Zyxel is only 10/100.

                      Well, this is embarrassing.  Thank you for your help.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        :D
                        Easy to overlook.  ;)

                        Steve

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