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    Introducing Netgate Nexus: Multi-Instance Management at Your Fingertips.

    ATTO network cards/pfSense

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    • S Offline
      Shack
      last edited by

      I just got hold of an ATTO FF-NS12 card in a bundle with other hardware for a good deal. It's a 10 gig card with dual SFP ports. I notice that the date on the card is 2010 so possibly a bit dated. If it's worth using, I'll plan to swap it into my pfSense box down the road. Does anyone have experience with these cards?

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      • stephenw10S Offline
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        @Shack said in ATTO network cards/pfSense:

        ATTO FF-NS12

        I can't find much about that card. I see one thing saying it's built on 'Intel silicon' so it may just work.

        I agree 2010 is old for a 10G NIC. I'd expect it to be pretty power hungry.

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        • S Offline
          Shack @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 Thanks for the info. I only have a low profile expansion slot available on my pfSense box. I found a low profile bracket on the popular online auction site and got it for a few bucks, then I can try it once it comes in the mail. FWIW Amazon lists it as a currently available product priced at $676 (!) so there might be support for it.

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          • S Offline
            Shack @Shack
            last edited by

            Revisiting this old thread. I hope to have Google Fiber going someday since they entrenched the fiber in the 'hood some time ago. I'm trying to get 10 gigabit capable hardware ready for when the time comes. I got an Intel 540-based card with 2xRJ45 ports, but being an old card, it does 1/10 gigabit only. So I was shopping on Amazon and found these SFPs:

            https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RN7JCM6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

            They apparently claim to support 1/2.5/5/10 when plugged into a 10 gigabit SFP port. Does that sound reasonable? If so I would use those with the old ATTO card to get more than just 1/10 gigabit.

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              No it won't change the link speed to the NIC. And in fact with many 10G NICs an RJ-45-SFP adapter will only link at 10G.

              Do you actually need RJ-45 ports or can you use the fiber directly? You might try one of the QLogic QL41000 series NICs. I picked up a Fujitsu card to test a driver bug and it was very cheap. Appears to link fine at 1G, 2.5G and 10G though I havent tried passing much traffic.

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              • S Offline
                Shack @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 actually I don't know what I need since it's not available yet. I called Google to ask when and got told that a year could come and go between entrenchment and availability. So it's neither here nor there at the moment. I got the idea from reading online that their fiber converter box things have twisted pair jacks, presumably 10 gigabit.

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                • S Offline
                  Shack @Shack
                  last edited by

                  I got on Google Fiber about a week ago, the 3 gigabit tier. I used the Intel 540 card that I mentioned and it's working pretty well.

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