NIC speed and network performance

charlien · Mar 25, 2012, 3:31 PM

I set up a Pfsense 2.0.1 firewall. It was intended to be a test box but it works so well I want to continue to use it in my production environment. I didn't think out the setup and have an odd mismatch of NICs and switches.

My WAN NIC is the onboard 10/100 NIC. I'm okay with this since my cable modem has a 10/100 NIC.

My LAN NIC is an Intel 10/100 connected to a gigabyte switch. I need gigabyte speed on the LAN but don't need gigabyte to the firewall or OPT1 network.

My OPT1 NIC is a Realtek 10/100/1000 NIC connected to a 10/100 switch. I don't need faster speed on this network, or inter subnet traffic to be any faster.

I need to move large video files on the LAN and want to have gigabyte speed. Traffic on the LAN to other LAN devices does not get routed through the firewall, correct?

Thanks in advance.

bohosh · Mar 25, 2012, 7:06 PM

@charlien:

I set up a Pfsense 2.0.1 firewall. It was intended to be a test box but it works so well I want to continue to use it in my production environment. I didn't think out the setup and have an odd mismatch of NICs and switches.

My WAN NIC is the onboard 10/100 NIC. I'm okay with this since my cable modem has a 10/100 NIC.

My LAN NIC is an Intel 10/100 connected to a gigabyte switch. I need gigabyte speed on the LAN but don't need gigabyte to the firewall or OPT1 network.

My OPT1 NIC is a Realtek 10/100/1000 NIC connected to a 10/100 switch. I don't need faster speed on this network, or inter subnet traffic to be any faster.

I need to move large video files on the LAN and want to have gigabyte speed. Traffic on the LAN to other LAN devices does not get routed through the firewall, correct?

Thanks in advance.

If I understand you, your lan network is connected to a gigabyte switch. And if I'm right your lan traffic doesn’t have routed.

chpalmer · Mar 25, 2012, 7:14 PM

Similar setup here… Your bottlenecks you will find are usually that computer still running IDE harddrives... Stuff like that.

charlien · Mar 25, 2012, 8:29 PM

@bohosh:

@charlien:

I set up a Pfsense 2.0.1 firewall. It was intended to be a test box but it works so well I want to continue to use it in my production environment. I didn't think out the setup and have an odd mismatch of NICs and switches.

My WAN NIC is the onboard 10/100 NIC. I'm okay with this since my cable modem has a 10/100 NIC.

My LAN NIC is an Intel 10/100 connected to a gigabyte switch. I need gigabyte speed on the LAN but don't need gigabyte to the firewall or OPT1 network.

My OPT1 NIC is a Realtek 10/100/1000 NIC connected to a 10/100 switch. I don't need faster speed on this network, or inter subnet traffic to be any faster.

I need to move large video files on the LAN and want to have gigabyte speed. Traffic on the LAN to other LAN devices does not get routed through the firewall, correct?

Thanks in advance.

If I understand you, your lan network is connected to a gigabyte switch. And if I'm right your lan traffic doesn’t have routed.

That is correct. Everything on my LAN, except my Pfsense is gigabit. I'm assuming traffic from device A on my LAN to device B on my LAN is not routed through the Pfsense interface. Is that correct?

chpalmer · Mar 25, 2012, 9:03 PM

That is correct. Everything on my LAN, except my Pfsense is gigabit. I'm assuming traffic from device A on my LAN to device B on my LAN is not routed through the Pfsense interface. Is that correct?

That is correct!