Silcom PEG4I (82571EB Based)
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The NIC chips on your card always appear to the OS as straight Intel adapters so the drivers given at the Silicom support site are for the bypass part of the card only. Try installing those.
There is also code for FreeBSD but you'd need to compile it on a FreeBSD 8.3 machine and then transfer it to pfSense.The point of the by-pass is to maintain connectivity if the box the card is installed in fails for some reason. In the event of the box losing power or the OS crashing the by-pass relays connect the port together directly. Thus if your box is a web cache, for example, you can arrange to have the ports as the upstream and downstream connections so that although you'd loose the caching you would still have an ethernet connection to the upstream network.
In a firewall like pfSense it doesn't really make much sense to use it. You could use it for the WAN and LAN ports but that would mean you connected your LAN directly to the internet unfirewalled in the event of a failure. Not desirable! ;)Steve
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I'm not seeming to have much luck iwht this card and I'm thinking I may return it nad pay the restocking fee just to get back some of my money since I can't seem to get anywhere with it and I can't even think of an application where I would be able to use it.
What is you take on the IBM i350's? I found one that looks lie a new server pull: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Intel-I350-T4-Quad-Port-1GbE-0R1XFC-/201156971330?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item2ed5e3cb42
DO you think this will serve my desire for an Intel Gig quad NIC. I know the cpu won't be able to feed to actually saturate it but my though is if I buy a good NIC now I would use it again down the road in another pfSense build or by installing it into my ESXi box. I plan on eventually moving from my white box ESXi to a Dell r610 while hosting a range of different VM's with varying network communications so I like to go a little big and not have to worry about it next time around as I see Gb interfaces not really becoming obsolete for home/small office even with the VM's I operate.
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I have never used an I350-T4 but they are very well received by other members here. They seem to be the goto card if you want an Intel quad port. Check the forum. I'm not sure how IBM might have customised it though, again check the forum for specific reports.
Steve
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@Steven.DeZalia:
I'm not seeming to have much luck iwht this card and I'm thinking I may return it nad pay the restocking fee just to get back some of my money since I can't seem to get anywhere with it and I can't even think of an application where I would be able to use it.
If you will never have need for bypass, no reason to keep that card.
What is you take on the IBM i350's? I found one that looks lie a new server pull: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Intel-I350-T4-Quad-Port-1GbE-0R1XFC-/201156971330?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item2ed5e3cb42
That's a dell card, not an IBM card. Also, the silicom card you posted was a PCIe card, while the dell card above is clearly not PCIe (maybe PCI-x?) Appears to be a combination riser card for a server, and dell R1XFC 4-port nic daughter card.
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Well spotted I didn't actually follow the link.
Yes, you probably don't want that particular card unless you know what it fits in.Steve
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Well now that my pain meds have worn off this looks more appropriate short of having to wait 1-4 weeks for delivery.
or this one
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The only issue with those cards is they're suspiciously cheap.
I350-T4s are usually more like $300. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106127
Others have used those $100 cards from China with good results but not eveyone has been happy.
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=74158.0Steve
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I'm starting to think you like to be a buzz kill.
What would you recommend for a good quality NIC in the $100 range at least two gig ports, four preferred, Intel based, that will fit in a PCIe 4x slot?
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Sorry, I don't mean to come across that way. :)
I'm just trying to make sure you have all the info before you commit any cash. Maybe contact one of the users who had no problems in the linked thread and ask them what vendor and card they used.
From my limited experience with this (mostly what I've seen reported here) I would say the i350 really is the ideal card if you can get one. There are older Intel quad cards available second hand though and almost all Intel NICs will work well apart from maybe the VT:
@Jason:If that doesn't fix it then light the card on fire and buy a i350. The fewer VT cards that remain in this world the better.
:D
The Pro1000-PT Quad cards re-branded by HP or IBM perhaps? I've not used either though. Search the forum for positive results first. For example:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=71069.msg388884#msg388884Steve
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The NIC chips on your card always appear to the OS as straight Intel adapters so the drivers given at the Silicom support site are for the bypass part of the card only. Try installing those.
There is also code for FreeBSD but you'd need to compile it on a FreeBSD 8.3 machine and then transfer it to pfSense.I am trying a PXG6BPi (Intel chipset) on pfSense 2.3-Alpha, and it is not detected.
Downloading drivers and trying to compile them on a FreeBSD 10.2-Stable failed. I contacted the reseller and they say "it is an old device, so buy us a new one".If I install a FreeBSD 8.3 machine and compile the driver, would this compilation be portable to pfSense 2.3 (10.2-STABLE based)?
