New mini-itx router, choose configuration
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I'm running a Jetway Atom mobo 2GB RAM with the 3 Intel add on NICS. It's in an office setting with one T1, and one VPN connection to a remote office. There are 18 users. Users have been saying to me that the internet is slow. To test I fired up an old p4, added two Intel NICS-users immediately said the "internet" was faster. I didn't do any formal testing, but the "internet" did seem faster. VPN was definately faster.
I don't think anyone is suggesting to use an Atom without first looking at the requirements and determining throughput / VPN usage etc.
Did you examine what CPU usage was going on on your Atom box when the internet was described as slow?
I'm back on the Atom as we speak. The P4 was just to test. It's an old box and didn't want to risk failure over the weekend.
I'm not down on the Atoms. Our other office has a Jetway VIA and it handles the other end of that VPN and a fios line nicely. No lag, nothing. Maybe I have a flakey nic on the Atom not sure. I suppose the I could have reinstalled PF on the Atom but for about $300 I'll be happy with something beefier.Current system overview.
CPU 7%
Memory 4% -
I'm back on the Atom as we speak. The P4 was just to test. It's an old box and didn't want to risk failure over the weekend.
I'm not down on the Atoms. Our other office has a Jetway VIA and it handles the other end of that VPN and a fios line nicely. No lag, nothing. Maybe I have a flakey nic on the Atom not sure. I suppose the I could have reinstalled PF on the Atom but for about $300 I'll be happy with something beefier.Current system overview.
CPU 7%
Memory 4%VIA processors have Padlock which offloads VPN encryption. Probably the reason why it's performing so well despite the processor being on-par or weaker than the Atom in terms of raw processing power.
Furthermore, the daugtherboard rides on PCI bus which is shared amongst the 3 NICs. If you're doing any inter-LAN or inter-VLAN routing, then the PCI bus becomes a limitation. Also, do check the PCI latency timer settings in the BIOS. Try reducing it to 32 clocks from 128 (typical defaults) to prevent a single NIC from hogging the bus. -
Thanks for the tip. I'll try it. Thought I'm still replacing the Atom with a Sandy Bridge.
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How were you able to overcome the network port driver issue in that motherboard? I know there is a driver workaround out there, but I don't think it has ever been incorporated into the main software download. ???
There is no "network port driver issue". The NICs work fine.