Looking for pfsense compatible 2500Mbps PCIE RJ45 NIC

stephenw10

Yeah there are a few ISPs offering 1500Mbps services where the modem link is at 2.5G.
The only solution I have seen is to use a Broadcom NIC with custom firmware and a patched driver. Or get a switch that can link at 2.5G and 10G but that's an expensive option.

From the diagram it looks like you're already planning use a Broadcom NIC for the link to the modem. Just use a 10G NIC to link to the switch. As has been said 2.5G will just give you problems and you don't need it there.

Steve

indigo88

The Intel X550 supports NBASE-T in Linux and seemingly does in BSD now, although it shows as “unknown” in the pfSense UI. I have been using the X550 with no issues since 2016, although only at 1G/10G speeds.

I started a thread here: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/146913/nbase-t-support-for-intel-x550/20 and @WanTime seemingly saw 2.5Gbps throughput even if the link speed shows as “unknown” in the UI.

I plan on getting a MB8611 or CBR750 as soon as they are available. I have the X550 going into a 10Gbps switch, and it works great. Hoping to get a little extra parallel performance since Comcast overprovisions their gigabit to 1.2Gbps.

palapaquete

@q54e3w with 2.5g I can reuse my existing wires and the NIC cards are chipper that the 10gb.

Cool_Corona

@palapaquete said in Looking for pfsense compatible 2500Mbps PCIE RJ45 NIC:

@q54e3w with 2.5g I can reuse my existing wires and the NIC cards are chipper that the 10gb.

Most Cat6E offers 10gbe speed. So unless you have very bad cabling then I dont get why 2,5gbs is worth it?

stephenw10

I think your mean CAT5e? Which is probably what @q54e3w has installed. Though it would not surprised me to find that could not pass 10GbE.

I'm not sure 2.5GbE cards are actually cheaper. Not those that actually work. Not yet at least.

Steve

bingo600

Just saw this one (Realtek though ...)

https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/06/18/odroid-h2-plus-sbc-gets-upgraded-to-celeron-j4115-processor-2-5gbe/

stephenw10

via RTL8125B chipset

I would not hold your breath on that.

kiokoman

max speed for cat5 is 100Mbs
max speed for cat5e is 1Gbs
max speed for cat6 is 10Gbs

you need cat6 to be able to go at 2,5Gbs
cable are now so cheap that there is no reason to buy cat5e instead of cat6 or cat6a on amazon

stephenw10

That's the rated speeds but in reality you can usually get Gigabit over cat5 especially on a short run.

I've never tried putting 10GbE down Cat5e but it would not surprise me if it worked in some cases. I certainly wouldn't rely on that though.

Cable is cheap indeed but replacing it when it's already run in your building is not (often).

Steve

kiokoman

i don't think it's possible, there isn't a big difference between cat5 and cat5e, only less crosstalk/noise reduction but they both perform up to 100mhz so it's possible that a cat5 can get Gigabit but for 10Gbe you need cable that can go up to at least 250Mhz, with a patch of 15cm of cat5e i was unable to connect my 10Gbps switch to my intel x550

stephenw10

Well I won't argue with a real test.

DaddyGo

I say from experience, even a 1m Cat5e patch, spoils the 10Gig
this physical design depends on high frequency behavior
(shields, spacers in the cable, etc)

palapaquete

@Cool_Corona I have cat5e trough the walls when my home was built. and I only want to connect 2 computers: the PFsence router and my main desktop. I thought that the 2.5Gb cards do work with cat5e and they are $30 dollars.

q54e3w

Just wanted to add my use case was being able to connect up some 802.11ax Wifi APs that support 2.5/5gbps connections back to my switch. 10gbps network hardware wouldn't have helped because the APs dont support 10gbps and 10gbps switch ports dont support 2.5/5. Being able to use my existing cat 5a cable up out to the 60 or 70 meters saved the hassle of having to run new cables.

stephenw10

There are no FreeBSD drivers for the RTL8125 so you will not be able to use those NICs.

The 2.5GbE options currently are to use a Broadcom NIC with modified firmware or wait for the Intel i225 as far as I know.

Steve

aivxtla

The Intel X710-T2L is one card I know works with 2.5/5 Gbps modes out of the box without tinkering on pfSense 2.4.5 and 2.4.5-P1 (For 2.4.4 & 2.5.0 you will need to compile the ixl driver for the card to be detected.) Even the GUI options show up nicely. Also unlike the X550, it actually shows “2500Base-T” and “5000Base-T” in the “Interfaces” section on the WAN side to my modem and LAN side to my AP respectively.

q54e3w

@aivxtla said in Looking for pfsense compatible 2500Mbps PCIE RJ45 NIC:

The Intel X710-T2L is one card I know works with 2.5/5 Gbps modes out of the box without tinkering on pfSense 2.4.5 and 2.4.5-P1 (For 2.4.4 & 2.5.0 you will need to compile the ixl driver for the card to be detected.) Even the GUI options show up nicely. Also unlike the X550, it actually shows “2500Base-T” and “5000Base-T” in the “Interfaces” section on the WAN side to my modem and LAN side to my AP respectively.

I have my X710-T2L connecting to my Arris S33 2.5gbps port but the pfSense interface shows media detected as 1000baseT <full-duplex>. @aivxtla Did your sync up under automatic detection, or did you have to force to 2500mbps etc?

aivxtla

@q54e3w Yes it automatically works, no issues for me.

On 2.4.5 if you updated your X710-T2L firmware to something newer than factory default then you need to compile the latest drivers from Intel’s site or you will have that issue as you are facing where it will only work at 1/10 Gbe but not at 2.5/5 Gbe. Other option is to downgrade back to 7.20 firmware.

On pFSense 2.5 even the latest firmware works fine without having to compile the drivers from Intel’s site as a relatively newer driver is used by default.

q54e3w

@aivxtla Thanks, good to know. Its running stock firmware but I noticed its manufacture date was November 2020 so maybe they've updated stock firmware now too. I'll see if I can find what it came with.

aivxtla

@q54e3w look for my other thread somewhere here titled X710-T2L. I posted a compiled version of a newer Intel ixl driver, see if that helps, assuming you are on a firmware newer than 7.20. My card was bought in April-May last year so maybe yours was updated.

Edit: Nevermind found my previous thread, driver files are in the 2nd post:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/155738/nbase-t-issues-on-2-4-5-p1-and-2-5-0/2?_=1612416565734