Non-Intel NICs: Ok for <1000Mbits?
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With the current version of pfSense and the amount of (stable) drivers it has, is it ok to use non-Intel NICs for less than Gigabit WAN?
Or is it better to stick to Intel NICs like last time?
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Depends on the other hardware, but you should be fine. Even the modern Realtek NICs work great with pfSense, and unless you have a very high speed connection and a slow CPU, they won't hold you back in any meaningful way.
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If "modern" means any onboard Gigabit Realtek NIC from the last few years, I think I will be fine. The model I am looking at is the Realtek 8111C/D
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If "modern" means any onboard Gigabit Realtek NIC from the last few years, I think I will be fine. The model I am looking at is the Realtek 8111C/D
Yes, that's what I mean. Even my 1Gbps Realtek NICs on motherboards as old as 10 years are capable of hitting line speed, at least near enough that it doesn't matter.
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Thanks! This certainly makes my planning a bit easier. And can even cut a bit of costs here ;D
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I should clarify my statement a bit… The 10 year old motherboards I'm referring to are now running Linux, not FreeBSD. But I have run many Realtek NICs (and some Marvell and VIA NICs) with pfSense over the years and haven't had any stability problems.
When I say "near line speed," I'm referring to iperf 2 with default settings. Usually tests at ~950Mbps or so under Linux or Windows. I can't get near those speeds with pfSense as the server or client even with server class NICs (have tried both Intel and Broadcom). But then again I haven't really tried tweaking settings.
YMMV. Out of curiosity, what kind of WAN connection do you have? And what does the rest of your hardware look like?
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I should clarify my statement a bit… The 10 year old motherboards I'm referring to are now running Linux, not FreeBSD. But I have run many Realtek NICs (and some Marvell and VIA NICs) with pfSense over the years and haven't had any stability problems.
When I say "near line speed," I'm referring to iperf 2 with default settings. Usually tests at ~950Mbps or so under Linux or Windows. I can't get near those speeds with pfSense as the server or client even with server class NICs (have tried both Intel and Broadcom). But then again I haven't really tried tweaking settings.
YMMV. Out of curiosity, what kind of WAN connection do you have? And what does the rest of your hardware look like?
Hmm looks like I should learn how to iperf seeing that it may be needed to test NASes too.
Meanwhile, I am on a dual broadband plan: a 1Gbps fiber broadband and a 100Mbps cable broadband plan (this is why I needed a dual WAN setup all these while).
My setup is this:
Q6600
GA-EG41MF-US2H (onboard Realtek: cable broadband)
4GB DDR2 RAM
Dual NIC Intel Card (Fiber broadband + LAN) -
I'm confused, then. Sounds like what you have works fine, no? Are you planning a new build?
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I'm confused, then. Sounds like what you have works fine, no? Are you planning a new build?
I will need a new build eventually as all these hardware are on loan; I will have to eventually return them. I asked mainly out of curiosity of the state of drivers in pfSense and also, to see if I need to order more Intel NICs seeing that I have only one dual-port and another single port card (that I may want to deploy to a NAS instead)
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I will need a new build eventually as all these hardware are on loan; I will have to eventually return them. I asked mainly out of curiosity of the state of drivers in pfSense and also, to see if I need to order more Intel NICs seeing that I have only one dual-port and another single port card (that I may want to deploy to a NAS instead)
Got it. If buying new hardware and not looking for embedded, I wouldn't be afraid of a motherboard with an onboard Realtek, especially if you plan to use it for your slower connection. Then again, there's always hardware like the HP NC364T at around $40 on Amazon right now. 4 1Gbps Intel NICs on a single card, and cheaper than anything except the bottom of the barrel cards you can find at Fry's or some place like that.
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I will need a new build eventually as all these hardware are on loan; I will have to eventually return them. I asked mainly out of curiosity of the state of drivers in pfSense and also, to see if I need to order more Intel NICs seeing that I have only one dual-port and another single port card (that I may want to deploy to a NAS instead)
Got it. If buying new hardware and not looking for embedded, I wouldn't be afraid of a motherboard with an onboard Realtek, especially if you plan to use it for your slower connection. Then again, there's always hardware like the HP NC364T at around $40 on Amazon right now. 4 1Gbps Intel NICs on a single card, and cheaper than anything except the bottom of the barrel cards you can find at Fry's or some place like that.
I am trying to use what I have first before ordering more stuff from Amazon due to shipping and currency issues adding to the costs, but that's really tempting! Depending on what hardware I can get, I may need more single NICs that are PCIe 1x though