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    Looking for pfsense compatible 2500Mbps PCIE RJ45 NIC

    Hardware
    driver pfsense setup hardware newbie newbuild
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    • Cool_CoronaC
      Cool_Corona @palapaquete
      last edited by

      @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?

      P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        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

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        • bingo600B
          bingo600
          last edited by

          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/

          If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a 👍 - "thumbs up"

          pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

          QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
          CPU  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
          LAN  : 4 x Intel 211, Disk  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            via RTL8125B chipset

            I would not hold your breath on that. 😉

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • kiokomanK
              kiokoman LAYER 8
              last edited by 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

              ̿' ̿'\̵͇̿̿\з=(◕_◕)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿
              Please do not use chat/PM to ask for help
              we must focus on silencing this @guest character. we must make up lies and alter the copyrights !
              Don't forget to Upvote with the 👍 button for any post you find to be helpful.

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                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

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • kiokomanK
                  kiokoman LAYER 8
                  last edited by

                  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

                  ̿' ̿'\̵͇̿̿\з=(◕_◕)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿
                  Please do not use chat/PM to ask for help
                  we must focus on silencing this @guest character. we must make up lies and alter the copyrights !
                  Don't forget to Upvote with the 👍 button for any post you find to be helpful.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Well I won't argue with a real test. 👍

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DaddyGoD
                      DaddyGo
                      last edited by

                      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)

                      b8f38ed9-a851-48d5-b949-2ff1d0354f44-image.png

                      Cats bury it so they can't see it!
                      (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

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                      • P
                        palapaquete @Cool_Corona
                        last edited by

                        @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.

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                        • Q
                          q54e3w
                          last edited by

                          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.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            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

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                            • A
                              aivxtla
                              last edited by 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.

                              Q 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                              • Q
                                q54e3w @aivxtla
                                last edited by

                                @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?

                                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • A
                                  aivxtla @q54e3w
                                  last edited by 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.

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                                  • Q
                                    q54e3w @aivxtla
                                    last edited by

                                    @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.

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                                    • A
                                      aivxtla @q54e3w
                                      last edited by 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

                                      Q 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • Q
                                        q54e3w @aivxtla
                                        last edited by

                                        @aivxtla thank you. Will check card firmware and update drivers etc soon as I get a window where some downtime is acceptable.

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                                        • P
                                          perlenbacher @q54e3w
                                          last edited by

                                          Real world info:
                                          I use Intel X550's over 25m of Cat5e and get 10Gbit no problem....

                                          Network: Device-1: Intel Ethernet 10G X550T driver: ixgbe v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 07:00.0
                                          IF: enp7s0f0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>

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                                          • Q
                                            q54e3w @perlenbacher
                                            last edited by

                                            @perlenbacher Thats good to know. But in this case my modem isn't 10g, it's 2.5g. 10g wouldn't help.

                                            P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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