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    Thinkpad T43 throughput limited to 8mbps

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    • Z
      zephxiii
      last edited by

      Thanks, I'm going to give the Startech ECS1000S a try since i can get it on Prime and I found reports that the chipset works fine.

      It turns out that I couldn't use the VLAN method as the 3COM NIC doesn't support tagging.

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      • ?
        Guest
        last edited by

        @zephxiii:

        Thanks, I'm going to give the Startech ECS1000S a try since i can get it on Prime and I found reports that the chipset works fine.

        It turns out that I couldn't use the VLAN method as the 3COM NIC doesn't support tagging.

        StarTech also makes a model with two gigabit ports on one express card module, so if you need an additional non-3Com port, that might be useful.

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        • Z
          zephxiii
          last edited by

          @johnkeates:

          @zephxiii:

          Thanks, I'm going to give the Startech ECS1000S a try since i can get it on Prime and I found reports that the chipset works fine.

          It turns out that I couldn't use the VLAN method as the 3COM NIC doesn't support tagging.

          StarTech also makes a model with two gigabit ports on one express card module, so if you need an additional non-3Com port, that might be useful.

          Yeah, i was looking at that but I found a post about someone not being able to use the 2nd port due to a driver issue in pfsense. I'm not sure if that has been resolved or not.

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          • D
            DeLorean
            last edited by

            @johnkeates:

            StarTech also makes a model with two gigabit ports on one express card module, so if you need an additional non-3Com port, that might be useful.

            If i'm not wrong, the Thinkpad T43 uses a PCMCIA or Cardbus slot.
            PCMCIA or cardbus has wider dimensions then a express card.
            Also, the PCMCIA or Cardbus can't provide the bandwith thats needed for true Gigabit speed,
            the only Dual LAN cards for the wide PCMCIA slot are only 2x 100Mbps.

            A another option is to use USB to LAN adapters, if you have 2 USB ports available,
            but don't expect very high throughput speeds.

            Grtz
            DeLorean

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            • ?
              Guest
              last edited by

              @DeLorean:

              @johnkeates:

              StarTech also makes a model with two gigabit ports on one express card module, so if you need an additional non-3Com port, that might be useful.

              If i'm not wrong, the Thinkpad T43 uses a PCMCIA or Cardbus slot.
              PCMCIA or cardbus has wider dimensions then a express card.
              Also, the PCMCIA or Cardbus can't provide the bandwith thats needed for true Gigabit speed,
              the only Dual LAN cards for the wide PCMCIA slot are only 2x 100Mbps.

              A another option is to use USB to LAN adapters, if you have 2 USB ports available,
              but don't expect very high throughput speeds.

              Grtz
              DeLorean

              It has dual slots: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43 and it's one of the larger ExpressCard/54 types too.

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              • Z
                zephxiii
                last edited by

                Well i tried out the Startech ECS1000S in the T43 and it ran like total shit, even worse actually as it seemed to top out at 5mbit/s and cause more lag in the system etc.

                SO I figure alright, might be time to retire the T43 from pfsense duties…and move to a Thinkpad T410 I have which is the first model with Core i5/i7 architecture (meets AES-NI requirement). Luckily these can be had for pretty cheap, I think I paid right at 100 for this one.

                After moving the Startech to the T410, swapped out the SSD i had in it to spinny drive for testing, swiftly got pfsense 2.4.1 installed and results are:

                It rocks it out. Full download speed, CPU load was 4% during test DL, web configurator super responsive. General web browsing seems snappier as well. I guess I'll just stick with this then.

                The other major advantage of T410 is that it does have Power On after AC attach option in BIOS which the T43 does not have. I discovered this last night only because I had a series of power outages in a row which forced me manually startup the T43 each time as its battery was completely shot. I was about to order a new one too but I held off to see how the Startech worked.

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                • ?
                  Guest
                  last edited by

                  So the StarTech works well in the newer T-series. Maybe it's the chipset PCIe revision or something. Anyway, good to know it works now!

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                  • B
                    belt9
                    last edited by

                    I've always thought the t series with Intel NICs were an excellent choice for sub gigabit WAN pfSense.

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                    • B
                      Balanga
                      last edited by

                      Having just come across this thread, I'd be interested to know how exactly I should set up a ThinkPad as a pfSense box… and would a T42 suffice?

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                      • B
                        belt9
                        last edited by

                        You use VLANs on a switch.

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                        • B
                          Balanga
                          last edited by

                          @belt9:

                          You use VLANs on a switch.

                          Is there any guidance on doing this?

                          I've never figured out how to use a VLAN…

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                          • Z
                            zephxiii
                            last edited by

                            @Balanga:

                            Having just come across this thread, I'd be interested to know how exactly I should set up a ThinkPad as a pfSense box… and would a T42 suffice?

                            If you have one already you can try it out. What kind of bandwidth?

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