Effects of varying NIC speeds
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Not sure if this is the right category, but I'm wondering whether it matters if the WAN interface is a slower 10/100 card and the LAN card is 10/100/1000. I'm looking to upgrade my pfSense box for faster local file transfer speeds. Since my download speed will never exceed the capacity of the 10/100 WAN interface, I was wondering if I could get away with simply upgrading the LAN interface and calling it a day. If there's relevant documentation for this, please link me. I checked Google but my keywords might have not been good enough.
Thanks and happy New Years. -
Not sure I follow… Do you have multiple devices on the LAN side of your Pfsense and are those devices connected to each other over a switch? If so, then traffic between those devices would not touch your Pfsense machine and it wouldn't matter what the LAN interface happens to be as long as it is as fast or faster than your WAN.
The only way it could matter is if you were bridging multiple interfaces (connecting multiple devices directly to your Pfsense machine.) It doesn't sound like that is what you are doing though.
Carlos
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In normal you will be right but as today it would be making more sense to have a whole line in one speed.
So if your modem has GB LAN Ports and your WAN port is also a GB LAN Port and then the LAN Ports
also will be on GB limit likes the LAN switch behind the LAN port followed by the end point devices
likes the PCs and Servers it would be the best, in my opinion.Go amazon and have a look for a refurbished Intel dual or quad GB LAN Port server adapter for
something like ~$50 - $80 this will be solving your "issues" right and fast!
the you will be have a WAN and LAN port on GB LAN basis and all is fine. -
I see no problem in your approach. If your internet connection does not saturate an 10/100 link then simply upgrade your LAN side to gigabit. You will only see improved performance internally on your local net.
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My WAN NIC is 10/100 and my LAN NIC is 10/100/1000 and I have no issues.
As others have said if your LAN traffic is going through a switch then switching the LAN NIC on your pfsense box to a 10/100/1000 won't matter. I'd be more concerned with the quality of the NIC than I would with the speed.
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Do you have multiple lan nics? Are you running vlans on this nic?
As mentioned already, if you have your lan nic plugged into a switch.. Makes little difference really if that lan is 10, 100 or gig or even 10ge if your wan is less than 10..
Now if you have multiple lan segments be it with physical interfaces or vlans on the same physical nic that routing traffic between then sure you would want that nic to be as fast as your lan speeds..
But if you have this
internet –- wan pfsense lan --- switch - pcs
Then no that speed of the pfsense lan doesn't matter as long as its as fast or faster then the wan.
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I'm looking to upgrade my pfSense box for faster local file transfer speeds.
pfsense is not involved in local traffic, unless you have multiple LAN
