<![CDATA[My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX]]>I'm using this NIC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033 which appears to have an Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller.  I'm running PFSense 2.0.2 (i386) nano edition.

I've tried connecting it to two different gigabit switches and I'm using a brand new CAT 6 3' cable.  The current gigabit switch is connecting at 1000baseT/full duplex on other ports but not for my intel NIC, which is my PFSense -> LAN adapter.

I got a bit foolhardy and tried to look into it myself.  I noticed that in loader.conf it has this setting:

if_em_load="NO"                 # Intel(R) PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

Should I change that to yes? Will that make FreeBSD automatically use the right driver?

Edit: Oh yeah, the device is em0 so maybe it's already using that driver and it's complied in instead of loaded at boot time? I don't know what I'm doing, somebody lend me a hand before I do something dumb.  ;D

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/topic/53428/my-intel-nic-only-gets-100basetxRSS for NodeFri, 17 Apr 2026 12:59:58 GMTFri, 22 Feb 2013 16:51:06 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:04:05 GMT]]>:D
Easy to overlook.  ;)

Steve

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/381078https://forum.netgate.com/post/381078Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:04:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 03:23:33 GMT]]>@stephenw10:

Ok so you've only tried one gigabit switch, tha Zyxel is only 10/100.

Well, this is embarrassing.  Thank you for your help.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/381024https://forum.netgate.com/post/381024Sun, 24 Feb 2013 03:23:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:04:40 GMT]]>Ok so you've only tried one gigabit switch, the Zyxel is only 10/100. You may have found some incompatibility between the two specific products at a hardware level. Try connecting any other gigabit device to it.

That Intel chip is one of the most widely used and supported NICs you could buy. The recent EEPROM issue aside I don't think anyone here would have hesitated to recommend it.

Steve

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380960https://forum.netgate.com/post/380960Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:04:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:27:52 GMT]]>@stephenw10:

It should just work, I can see no reason why it wouldn't given what you have tried. Were the two switches you tried the same make/model?

One switch was a 5 port dlink - http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DGS-2205-5-Port-Desktop-Switch/dp/B000FIVDIA/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361633564&sr=1-9&keywords=dlink+gigabit+switch

The current switch is a 24 port zyxel.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F4VYUG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Everybody here seems to love the intel cards. Did I get the wrong intel NIC?

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380949https://forum.netgate.com/post/380949Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:27:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 11:29:58 GMT]]>@vanguard:

NEVER DO THAT!

Ha!  ;) I feel your pain.

What is the rest of your hardware?
I note that this is the chip that recently hit the headlines as being compromised by a badly programmed eeprom. I do not expect that to be an issue on Intel's own card though.

It should just work, I can see no reason why it wouldn't given what you have tried. Were the two switches you tried the same make/model?

If it's easy, given your other hardware, I would try booting a live Linux distro and checking the card functions correctly under that.

Steve

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380918https://forum.netgate.com/post/380918Sat, 23 Feb 2013 11:29:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:57:29 GMT]]>@vanguard:

Does anybody have a better idea?

1. If your WAN speed is less than 101Mbps use the troublesome port as the WAN interface and use one of the working GigE ports as LAN.
2. Use a pfSense 2.1 snapshot build since it will have much more up to date device drivers than the 2.0.x builds.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380878https://forum.netgate.com/post/380878Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:57:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:37:41 GMT]]>I tried changing this to 1000baseT full duplex.

NEVER DO THAT!  Ugh, I spent hours trying to get my NIC to work again. It's tough to figure out ifconfig when you don't have man pages or a net connection.  I eventually got it going from the command line then set it back via the web gui so it would work after a reboot.

Does anybody have a better idea? It's not the cable and it's not the switch. Why can't I get 1000baseT?

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380869https://forum.netgate.com/post/380869Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:37:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:07:10 GMT]]>@fragged:

Have you tried a different cable? Does the LAN port work at GigE when plugged directly another PC with a gigabit NIC?

I've tried three cables, the most recent being a 3' CAT 6 cable that's brand new out of the box.  It shouldn't be the cable.

I haven't tried it with another PC but I have tried it with two different gigabit switches.  Because I get the same issue with several cables and switches I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the PFSense setup.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380790https://forum.netgate.com/post/380790Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:07:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to My Intel NIC only gets 100baseTX on Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:57:24 GMT]]>Have you tried a different cable? Does the LAN port work at GigE when plugged directly another PC with a gigabit NIC?

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/380777https://forum.netgate.com/post/380777Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:57:24 GMT