Mac Mini Core i5 2.3 Mid 2011 Network adapter issue debug
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@NollipfSense Will a Thundebolt 2 dock work properly with pfsense? I see a OWC Thunderbolt dock that has 2 thunderbolt ports, 1 gigabit Ethernet and HDMI... which would solve a lot of my problems...
So what I'm thinking is one thunderbolt port to connect to the mini, the other one for a thunderbolt etherner adapter, the gigabit ethernet for the second network connection and the hdmi for the install process!!! But they all have to work at once... Will they?
I also see a PCIe expansion box, that has 2 thunderbolt ports and a PCIe card slot... so I could use one Thunderbolt port to connect to the mini, the other one for a thunderbolt etherner adapter and the thid on put in a Pcie Etehernte adapter and use as second network connection?
thanks!!
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You've got feedback here that the pure PCIe Thunderbolt adapters work with network cards no problem. There you are on a known quantity and can control the hardware you choose.
With the dock it depends a lot on what hardware devices they are. e.g. what chipset is the built in Ethernet port? As for the HDMI port, that's basically DisplayPort over Thunderbolt and I have no idea if FreeBSD supports that. Personally I think the dock is a risk.
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@Vollans Is it thunderbolt 2 or did you get a thunderbolt 3 and adapter? Thanks, having a lot of fun looking at ebay...
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Thunderbolt 2, my Mac Mini doesn't do Thunderbolt 3.
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@Vollans thanks again... I'm just having a hard time finding a Thunderbolt 2 dual Pcie enclosure... but on ebay apparently my vintage Qube 2 is worth more than my mini!!
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Why not a single Thunderbolt 2 enclosure, then a DisplayPort/Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter? The latter are pretty cheap.
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@rafastari said in Mac Mini Core i5 2.3 Mid 2011 Network adapter issue debug:
@Vollans thanks again... I'm just having a hard time finding a Thunderbolt 2 dual Pcie enclosure... but on ebay apparently my vintage Qube 2 is worth more than my mini!!
Here is one on eBay ... the seller has two available and had sold four; so he is sticking to his current high price and has fourteen buyers watching: https://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTiO-Thunder2-PCIe-Box-Thunderbolt-2-Enclosure-with-Power-Supply/402381280355?hash=item5dafcb1463:g:5aYAAOSwtjtfRHGp
Looking back on my eBay history, I got mine for $91.Then, you'll need one of Intel i350 NIC, either the two or four ports. Then later when you have gigabit Internet, you'll just need to upgrade the NIC.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-I350-T2-V2-Ethernet-Server-Adapter-2-port/264829329245?epid=150014070&hash=item3da90edf5d:g:JRkAAOSwcp5fNerM -
@NollipfSense I was confused! I was looking for a dual PCIe card box, did not understand it was a box for one card, and the card has two or more ethernet ports... Thanks for the info and links... ! From hanging out at ebay it seems Mac minis mid 2011 are around $150 at the low end ( 4gb RAM and 500 Gb Hard drive) and around $200 at the high end (8gb RAM and 1Tb Hard Drive) ... pretty popular since they are user upgradeable...
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Yeah, my 2014 one is going for less here than the 2011s for the same reason.
With it having 2 cores / 4 threads, and being plenty gutsy for pfsense you can easily run it in maximum power saving mode, run it really cool, and still deal with everything I can throw at it on my 100/40 connection.
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@rafastari said in Mac Mini Core i5 2.3 Mid 2011 Network adapter issue debug:
@NollipfSense I was confused! I was looking for a dual PCIe card box, did not understand it was a box for one card, and the card has two or more ethernet ports... Thanks for the info and links... ! From hanging out at ebay it seems Mac minis mid 2011 are around $150 at the low end ( 4gb RAM and 500 Gb Hard drive) and around $200 at the high end (8gb RAM and 1Tb Hard Drive) ... pretty popular since they are user upgradeable...
I went for the 2011 server with the quad core core i7 processor for $200 then upgrade it with dual 128GB SSD and 16GB RAM. I really wanted the 2012 Mac Mini server with the quad core i7 processor ... just didn't want to spend over $200 at the time, since those with 16GB RAM, and SSD was pricey for the seller upgrade.
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