PFsense -14 network ports ! and freenas -please note - 2 separate machines
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What's wrong with buying from ebay? The cost of networking stuff makes it a great value for home use.
Besides less life is there a reason you would recommend not buying from ebay
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Nothing is wrong with ebay - but there is no way could get a new unit for that price point ;) I normally buy my stuff new is all. Which was the reason for asking about how much you spent on nics ;) New there is no way you would get 14 nic ports for less then the cost of a new switch, etc..
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TYVM guys for all your help
And I got most of the stuff for this build used. I got really lucky tbh.My freenas build I bought new as I wanted specific things and data integrity was high priority
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Why would you not just use a switch here? The performance of your bridge without how many interfaces in it is not going to compare to what a CHEAP switch could do.
Hmmm, I wouldn't know. Those SUN cards probably have an intel chipset.
I have a similar setup, but only with three ports. Bridge0 is the lan interface. Bridge0 contains igb1, igb2 and igb3. I would think this is more practical for a small home network. I have a free quad port card, which I might install in the pfSense box, because I do not have enough ports on my switch. -
"I would think this is more practical for a small home network."
You would be thinking wrong then.. Lets be blunt and point blank about this!! It is NEVER EVER EVER, NEVER better to bridge NIC ports to use as a "switch". Why would anyone think this ever??? When you can get a 5 port get switch for 20 freaking dollars that will out perform you nonsense bridge setup. When would this ever make sense in any home or any setup anywhere??
There are are times where a bridge can be useful.. This would not be one of them.. If you need more ports to connect devices, get another switch, update your switch to one with more ports, etc.. etc.. Bridging nics is not a switch! PERIOD!!!
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To make matter worse OpenWRT defaults to a Bridge type interface and you have to go -out of your way- to make a routed interface. I think the differences between all the router OS's make for confusion. I was there no long ago!!
I remember when i came over from Monowall it blew my mind that I was being forced to make a WAN interface at bare minimum, whereas MonoWALL required at least a LAN interface. Small differences can be tough when your used to another way.
I have used the clumped together mess of bridging for "convience" mostly due to all the bad wireless tutorials out there.
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@Phishfry:
To make matter worse OpenWRT defaults to a Bridge type interface and you have to go -out of your way- to make a routed interface. I think the differences between all the router OS's make for confusion. I was there no long ago!!
Devices that run *WRT usually have a integrated switch chip in them to provide N number of LAN ports. Those are a complete different device from a PC with multiple NIC ports.
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"I would think this is more practical for a small home network."
This was actually about having one LAN instead of seperate networks.
Bridging nics is not a switch! PERIOD!!!
Why not? What is it not capable of, and how much of a performance penalty are we talking?
More and more high-end switches seem to be some sort of soft-switch with a intel rangely chip and running linux. -
Why not? What is it not capable of, and how much of a performance penalty are we talking?
More and more high-end switches seem to be some sort of soft-switch with a intel rangely chip and running linux.They also include actual switching chips that take care of churning traffic at wire speed though switched ports.
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Earlier or later you will be coming in trouble or pain with bridged together ports.
Qualitative and good switches are often not so expensive anymore;- Cisco SG300 series
- Cisco SG200 series
- TL-SG2216
- Zyxel GS1910XT
- DGS1510-24
or for smaller networks
- Netgear GS105E
- Netgear GS108E
- Netgear GS108Tv2
All of them are better then bridging ports together, in my eyes!
- more speed
- more stability
- more ports
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any dumb switch for <$20 would be better than bridging ports if you ask me ;)
