Intel 4 Port NIC only 100 Mb?
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Greetings all!
I have a 4 port Intel NIC installed in an old PC that I am running PfSense on. 1 port is configured as LAN. If I go to "interfaces", it shows as only 100 Mb, but it has 2 green lights. The other 3 ports are configured as OPT, and the one that I'm using has a green light and a solid orange/red light that shows in "interfaces" as 1000 Gib.
Later, I changed the cable on the OPT interface, and it changed to 100 Mb.
All cables are CAT 5E.
This doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how I can fix it?
Any help is appreciated!
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@duvel
What is that port connected to? Switch? Modem? -
The LAN port is connected to a router/switch.
The OPT is connected to a laptop. -
@duvel First, are you sure it's a genuine "Intel NIC"? There are lots of fakes out there...
And then, are these home made network cables, or are they pre-made (by the factory) network cables, with the nice ends and stuff?
Jeff
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I looked at the NIC in Windows Device Manager, and it was identified as an Intel NIC. The MAC addresses check-out as Intel also. Is there a better way to verify it's genuine? Is there an equivalent to the device manager in Pfsense?
The cables are retail, not homemade.
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@duvel said in Intel 4 Port NIC only 100 Mb?:
Is there a better way to verify it's genuine?
You have to check the chips of the card itself. If it's an Intel i350-T4, here's a write up about knock offs:
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/comparison-intel-i350-t4-genuine-vs-fake.6917/
Hope that helps.
Jeff
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I can't tell if it's real or not. It has some of the good and bad from that link you posted. I can tell you I only paid $44.00 for it off NewEgg.
I'm not sure what a solid orange light means on a Intel NIC, but it only happens when I get gig speed.
Also some of the laptops I'm using don't have gig cards in them, (I should have seen that). Although one has Gig in its title, it doesn't perform that way.
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@duvel
I'd probably just try juggling ports and substituting cables to see if you can nail down the bad part.Which model or chipset is the card? IIRC, the part numbers on the genuine chipsets are cast/engraved in where knockoffs are printed. May not apply to all chipsets, though.
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@duvel said in Intel 4 Port NIC only 100 Mb?:
I'm not sure what a solid orange light means on a Intel NIC
If your not sure what the colours means then we, here one the forum, are even less sure.
As we don't have the device in front of us, so we can check out the chip number PCB print out, and other details that might help to identify the NIC.I do't think there is a law or something like that that states that green = 100 Mbits (half duplex ? full duplex ?) and red or orange 1 Bits/sec.
Normally, it is, true.What now follows might be fake / not true / doesn't proof :
What about hooking up one cable to a port (like LAN) and hook up the other end of that same cable to another port on the same NIC.: do the same leds light up on both ports ? do they say 1Gbit/sec or 100 Mbit/sec ? Full ? half ?
@duvel said in Intel 4 Port NIC only 100 Mb?:
and the one that I'm using has a green light and a solid orange/red light that shows in "interfaces" as 1000 Gib
That port - and the port on the other end of the cable managed to negotiate a "1000 Gib" connection. Great. Grats.
Call Guinness book of records and have that connection certified.
Your good for world record
Without even looking it up, a less then 50 $ card that does is that is a real champion. -
Yup, linking two ports is a hood test here.
It's not hard to see what speed the ports are running at, just look in Status > Interfaces. Or run
ifconfig -aat the CLI. That will confirm the LED indication.Steve
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It's a Intel EXPI9404PTL.
I tried linking 2 ports with the same cable, and switching them around.
It was getting 1000Gib every time, with the solid orange light.
Strange thing is now, the WAN connection, which is the on-board NIC, completely separate from the Intel card, is only getting 100Mb.
I suspect it might be a combination of bad cables, the NIC card, and devices that don't do Gig, like the laptops.
That really sucks because the Intel quad cards that I see are in the $200 range. I could use an external switch, but I've been trying to keep this as compact as possible.
Not sure if it matters, but I'm going cable modem->Pfsense->LAN
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@duvel said in Intel 4 Port NIC only 100 Mb?:
Intel EXPI9404PTL
That's a card that's built on a 15 year old chipset.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/50494/intel-pro-1000-pt-dual-port-server-adapter.htmlWhat cable modem to you have and does it have a Gb interface? If not, it would negotiate 100Mb.
An alternative card (still technically obsolete, but less so) would be an i340-T4. I got mine from EBay for about $25. No affiliation, but this is what I use.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-49Y4242-Intel-I340-T4-Quad-Port-Ethernet-Gigabit-PCI-Network-Adapter/324465561701Another would be an i350-T4.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-UCSC-PCIE-IRJ45-Intel-I350-Quad-Port-1GB-Network-Adapter-Full-74-10521-01/193658434902Another good link from ServeTheHome.com, showing cards and their OEM equivalents.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/list-of-nics-and-their-equivalent-oem-parts.20974/Good luck.
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Thanks for all the great info everyone.
What a mess.
I think for now I'm just going to focus on the software unless you have any suggestions.
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