Navigation

    Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Register
    • Login
    • Search
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search

    StarTech USB3 to GbE

    Hardware
    5
    6
    409
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • T
      TwistedNether last edited by

      I have an older Zotac MA320 with a single GbE port and bought a Startech USB3 to GbE (AX88179 chipset) adapter to use as a 300Mbps router. It's a Quad core A4-5000 cpu with 8GB DDR3 ram and a 60GB SSD. but for the life of me the adapter won't hit over 150-180 Mbps in pfsense. I had windows 7 installed on another drive that was in this unit and it would hit 800+Mbps on the various online speed test site. What am I missing? Yes I have Gb fiber at my house and have 300Mbps cable fail over that I have used for the speed testing on this new unit and its connected directly to the cable modem.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Grimson
        Grimson Banned last edited by

        USB ethernet adapters are crap and the box itself is likely using a Realtek NIC, so one of the worst possible combinations for pfSense. Try to update the Realtek driver if it's a Realtek NIC (hint: search the forums) and use it with a managed switch as a router on a stick, this way you may get somewhat acceptable performance from it. But don't expect too much.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • SammyWoo
          SammyWoo last edited by

          Ya… standard industrial (bad?) practice, when they say USB3, they are not guaranteeing you USB3 speed, they are simply saying this device "speak" USB3.  For full Gig, am afraid u need another box with discrete LAN ports.

          P.S.: Sometimes with these USB thingies, you won't attain full speed until you use the vendor's specific driver.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • V
            VAMike last edited by

            I use one of those on my laptop when I want something faster than wifi. It can do 1gpbs all day long under linux, no problem. The problem here is that pfsense/freebsd have limited hardware support. You have basically two options: 1) stick with pfsense and buy different hardware or 2) keep the hardware and use a different OS. What you can't do is just assume that any hardware will work with pfsense the way it does on other OS's.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • K
              kpa last edited by

              @VAMike:

              I use one of those on my laptop when I want something faster than wifi. It can do 1gpbs all day long under linux, no problem. The problem here is that pfsense/freebsd have limited hardware support. You have basically two options: 1) stick with pfsense and buy different hardware or 2) keep the hardware and use a different OS. What you can't do is just assume that any hardware will work with pfsense the way it does on other OS's.

              That's a bit of a blanket statement. For wireless and USB devices it tends to hold true but for your bread and butter wired PCI/PCIe/PCI-X hardware it doesn't really. FreeBSD/pfSense has excellent support for most common server grade wired NICs.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • V
                VAMike last edited by

                @kpa:

                @VAMike:

                I use one of those on my laptop when I want something faster than wifi. It can do 1gpbs all day long under linux, no problem. The problem here is that pfsense/freebsd have limited hardware support. You have basically two options: 1) stick with pfsense and buy different hardware or 2) keep the hardware and use a different OS. What you can't do is just assume that any hardware will work with pfsense the way it does on other OS's.

                That's a bit of a blanket statement. For wireless and USB devices it tends to hold true but for your bread and butter wired PCI/PCIe/PCI-X hardware it doesn't really. FreeBSD/pfSense has excellent support for most common server grade wired NICs.

                Sure, you can get endorsements for any intel nic you might choose. Anything else that doesn't work is at fault for not being good enough for pfsense. (When an Intel nic, on the other hand, doesn't work, it's obviously a driver problem which will be resolved soon.)

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • First post
                  Last post