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    XG-7100 Slow WAN w/ Bell Five (LAN is okay)

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    • M
      moofone
      last edited by

      New owner of an XG-7100. This is my first pfsense device. I have Bell Five 1.5Gbps Down. 940Mbps up in Atlantic Canada.

      I configured this device with a Bell Five GPON pulled from a Whole Home 3000 and plugged into the ix0 SFP+. The LAN is plugged into eth1. Everything on the LAN is 1Gbps (no 10G yet until I know this is going to work better then the current state). The onboard speedtest on the router shows ~1.5Gbps down 750up as expected. Testing from a device on the LAN I see also an expected 9xx Mbps down.

      For now I am looking to match my Whole Home 3000's WAN speedtest results. With the same device through the pfsense it ranges from a dismal 280 - 660Mbps and less then half the upload speed. This is not good at all.

      I have verified using a simple iperf3 test from pfsense LAN to that other LAN device, I get expected results (>900Mbps).

      I've tried a bunch of things, and can't seem to improve the situation. I tried toggling the settings for:

      Hardware Large Receive Offloading
      Hardware TCP Segmentation Offloading

      Another weird thing is the interface is showing
      Unknown <rxpause,txpause>
      ^ I've read some reports this could be caused by a bug in the Intel freebsd drivers, but was apparently fixed in 2.4.. I'm on 2.4.5.

      Appreciate any other insight.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        moofone
        last edited by

        Looks like my ISP's GPON (Nokia) doesn't; work with this unit.. it requires synching at 2.5Gbps. Apparently, the Dell Broadcom 57810S Dual Port DA/SFP+ 10Gb Network Adapter can do this with some driver modifications.

        Will this nic fit properly in the 7100 with pcie expansion board?

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          The port is standard, it will fit in there. I would expect it to work but I don't think it's ever been tried so I couldn't guaranty it.

          Steve

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            moofone
            last edited by

            Thanks. I have the part(s) on order. I will follow up with my results for anyone interested

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • M
              moofone
              last edited by

              The pfsense will not boot with the Broadcom nic installed with the expansion card. I see the light on the nic, but the pfsense fans just spin loud and nothing on the console.

              If I remove the nic, it boots normally.

              If I insert the nic its detected normally on my ubuntu server.

              This is the last resort I have to get this configuration working, since the onboard Intel NIC doesn't work well with my goon.

              can anyone help?

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

                Make sure you're running the latest Coreboot version. Some updates there did allow older cards to boot. That was while ago though.
                It does sound like a low-level incompatibility, there may be nothing we can do there.

                Steve

                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  moofone @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  I installed the coreboot updat package, and did the update, but its still the same version.

                  [5/5] Installing pfSense-pkg-Netgate_Coreboot_Upgrade-0.29...
                  [5/5] Extracting pfSense-pkg-Netgate_Coreboot_Upgrade-0.29: ……… done

                  Version: ADI_PLCC-01.00.00.11
                  Release Date: Tue Jan 8 2019

                  I think I need to return this and build my own server, something that doesn't use coreboot. I purchased this netgate thinking it would "just work" since it was an "officiallly" supported device, but the experience has been pretty much the opposite of this goal and disappointing to say the least.

                  @stephenw10 said in XG-7100 Slow WAN w/ Bell Five (LAN is okay):

                  Make sure you're running the latest Coreboot version. Some updates there did allow older cards to boot. That was while ago though.
                  It does sound like a low-level incompatibility, there may be nothing we can do there.

                  Steve

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

                    Mmm, that's unfortunate. As I said though that card is (was) untested in an XG-7100.

                    The only 2.5 NIC I have seen that is reported to work with pfSense/FreeBSD is the Intel X710-T2L (https://forum.netgate.com/post/928212).
                    That Broadcom card works for some with the patched drivers and firmware.

                    I have tested an X710 based card in the XG-7100 but not that one so I couldn't guaranty that either. The only way to be sure it will work is to use an external 2.5/10G switch.

                    Steve

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                    • M
                      moofone
                      last edited by

                      I'm willing to give this a try, but we're getting past the 30d return window. Testing is slow having to order hardware, but as long as I have assurance a return is not an issue while we explore options, I will purchase an X710 nic to try.

                      Please advise

                      @stephenw10 said in XG-7100 Slow WAN w/ Bell Five (LAN is okay):

                      https://forum.netgate.com/post/928212

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

                        The Intel X710-T2L is a 10Gbase-T NIC, can you even use that in this context?

                        Does the GPON have copper out? You would need a media converter otherwise and finding one that links 2.5G could be a problem.

                        Steve

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                        • M
                          moofone
                          last edited by moofone

                          Went down the road of modifying the bxe drivers, taping the SMBus pins on the Broadcom (otherwise would not boot). It worked, but speeds were not there. The challenge is faking this to sync at 2500Mbps properly to match the gpon (which provisions at 1500Mbps down 940 up).

                          I have purchased an X710 DA2 which I dont really expect to work either, but I will be able to use it elsewhere. Some have reported success at 2500 with an older firmware, so I will explore that briefly.

                          Lastly -- today I've purchased a Ubiquiti ES-16-XL which I believe is the current and only reliable way to make this work at 2.5Gbps. My gpon will plug into this and then another SFP+ out to the pfsene which SHOULD work... at about double my intended cost... but I'm this far in already and I'd rather keep the 7100 b/c its a nice little unit and pfsense is amazing.

                          I should have results in a couple weeks.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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