NIC swap help
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I noticed my router is not getting my full bandwidth but my modem is so I decided to upgrade the nics in my pfsense box. I have 3 x 4 port pcie intel pt series nics and I decided to upgrade them to 3 x 4 port i350 nics I ordered them already and am just waiting on them to show up. My question is, will I have to reassign which port is for what or will pfsense pick up on it from my previous nics. What is the procedure for upgrading nics in pfsense? Thanks.
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What is full bandwidth suppose to be, and what are you seeing?
I doubt changing nics from intel gig to other intel gig is going to show much difference.
yes its quite possible you will have to redo your nic assignments, depending on what order the ports on the multi port card come up. You can do this via console.. Just make sure you have console access before you swap out the nic.
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I should be getting 400 down but I am getting 243.68 down. My nics are over 2 years old. Usually if this was Windows, I would have to replace them after 1 year. My guess is they burned out. Also pt nics are old technology to start with. I did however recently install pfblockerng but I doubt it is that as cpu/ram loads are not elevated.
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@techpro2004 said in NIC swap help:
I would have to replace them after 1 year.
Nonsense... Not sure where you would of come up with such an idea..
Sure hardware fails, but it doesn't fail on any sort of schedule.. I have nics that are 5+ years old easy.. 1000's of them in DC at work.. You think we change them out every couple of years?
How exactly are you testing? Do you get 400 when you take pfsense out of the equation? Just had a recent post were user wasn't seeing his full bandwidth when testing with windows, but saw it with linux. Because he had his recv window not being used per a setting in windows.
Feel free to update your nics, but its not like nics slow down over time or anything..
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Then I must have really bad luck with nics as I find the intel 1g models usually last about 1 year, realtek a few months based off experience. The 10g nics last longer when used with a 1g network. Plugged directly pc to modem I get 350-400 if i involve pfsense it drops to 150-250 range. And absolutely nics slow down and then they fail completely. I cant begin to tell you the number of computers that I have extended the life on by using a pcie nic from the start. that way I just swap a pcie card instead of a motherboard. I believe nics are designed as the most fragile part of a pc so they fail and they fail often so people buy new computers.
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@techpro2004 said in NIC swap help:
they fail and they fail often so people buy new computers.
No dude no... I have a dual port intel nic in one of my old nas, that is prob 7 years old works just fine full gig..
I have a dual port shit realtek nic currently in my pc that is got to be 3 years, working just the same as it did day one..
I am not saying nics don't fail - but over the 20+ years working with network cards.. Have never seen such a thing.. When they fail, they fail - have never seen such thing where they "slow down" Back 12 years ago or so, maintained 3 different locations with 100's of servers, and 1000's of PCs never seen such a thing.. Back then they were not all gig, but many of them were for sure.. Don't recall even once a user complaining that their network was slow - that turned out to be a bad nic.. Now had plenty of times where users said network didn't work - and sure the nic had failed.
I find it hard to believe that your nic is failing where it is the cause of your slow down to 240mbps vs 400.. It is way more likely something else is going on.. But hey if you want to swap out the nic for new one - more power too you..
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Well that's the thing about computers 2 people can have 2 completely different experiences with the same hardware. I also booted up my pfsense system into ubuntu and had the same result so I know it is not a configuration issue in pfsense. Also I find the same nic lasts longer in linux and freebsd then it does in windows. I truly believe these nics fail on purpose in partnership with microsoft just so people have to buy new computers.
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Mmm, I'm with @johnpoz on this. I've never seen a NIC 'slow down' as you're describing. Sure I have seen them fail but not on a schedule like that. I have numerous systems at least 5 years old that still pass gigabit traffic as good as the day I forst got them (when they had already seen thousands of hours
).Anyway, yes, I also would not expect replacing the NIC to help here. Try to run a test from pfSense directly. Try to determine if the throttling is on the WAN or LAN side of pfSense.
Steve
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@techpro2004 said in NIC swap help:
I also booted up my pfsense system into ubuntu and had the same result so I know it is not a configuration issue in pfsense
So your saying when you booted your router machine, connected to your modem - it sees the same 240 vs 400?
So how do you know your isp is not to blame?
A valid test would be to connect something to your isp device - does it see 400?
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@stephenw10 said in NIC swap help:
I'm with @johnpoz on this. I've never seen a NIC 'slow down' as you're describing.
+1, in my 30 years experience with thousands of client computers. My first thought is this seems more likely to be a patch cable (if moved a lot, can flex the wires which can break them and cause errors), or possibly a switch, if you've used the same switch the entire time.
Can an OS install a bad driver for a NIC? Sure, but that doesn't generally happen in a time period, and I would think drivers would tend to get better over time.
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When I booted into ubuntu, I saw the same speed as in pfsense
I have tested directly from pfsense using the py37-speedtest-cli-2.1.1 package
I have connected my modem directly to an i7 laptop (hardwired) and the speed is much higher.
I have a few 8 port switches, however I also have tested from a system plugged directly into my 12 port pfsense box with similar results.
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What hardware is your pfSense box?
Is the WAN DHCP or PPPoE?
Steve
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Specifics are needed to identify the error and enable to go further to localize it.
No, I don't think that the patch cable will decrease the bandwidth.
The whole world of informatics would be in trouble, if we exchanged NICs in every 1 - 2 years.
Although we've seen a crow on the picket.This forum is there to help each other, but we need specific professional information to help.
Can you give as a detailed test method?
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@DaddyGo said in NIC swap help:
The whole world of informatics would be in trouble, if we exchanged NICs in every 1 - 2 years.
Exactly!!! But you know MS is clearly in cahoots with the nic and computer makers to make sure they fail every year or so ;) And not just fail, where they are just bad - fail in such a manner where they get "slower"... But still function.
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@DaddyGo said in NIC swap help:
I don't think that the patch cable will decrease the bandwidth.
Not by itself, no, my thought was if it was generating enough errors to cause delays, and moving it to replace the NIC changed that. I was grasping at straws.
My favorite patch cable story was a new client brought us in to diagnose network problems another IT company couldn't. I walked in, looked down at the crushed patch cable running under the plastic chair mat, noticed I could see the spread apart individual wires (across about an inch, I think), and told them I'd found the issue. -
Currently it is a xeon dell t30 with 3 x of these nics here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P0NX3G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) I am replacing the nics with the ones here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H6NE4X2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
My wan is set up with dhcp
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@teamits said in NIC swap help:
noticed I could see the spread apart individual wires
Layer 1 is often overlooked because it normally doesn't fail... But yeah it does happen for sure..
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Patch cable hmmmmm..., well in this case the total bandwidth is lost, in the case discussed here, there is only a loss, but a significant one.
Edification: plastic chair mat and patch cables are not friends.
That's one of the rules of thumb for Layer 1.Intel 350 is a good choice, why have you used 12 ports (3x4 Intel NIC / is it part of a collection?) so far?
Another issue is that this is an OEM card....? (from Amazon)It is definitely worth paying attention to such things: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/comparison-intel-i350-t4-genuine-vs-fake.6917/
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I just swapped the nics and now I am getting 395 down. I guess the proof is in the pudding. FYI: on first boot it said my old nics were absent and it asked me to reassign them lan vs wan vs opt. It did however remember the ip address I assigned to each nic. so I guess 50% is not too bad.
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If it works it's hard to argue, it just doesn't make a lot of sense, especially if it is a recurring issue.
Brainstorming further, if there was voltage on the wire (e.g. copper run between buildings), I would think the card would be more likely to burn out not get slower over time. Plus that would be one NIC and it sounds like you have run into this in multiple computers.
pfSense assigns IPs to the interface (WAN), and the interface is assigned to a network port (em0).
