From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 21 18:46:49 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB0AB106566B for ; Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:46:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from asmtpout023.mac.com (asmtpout023.mac.com [17.148.16.98]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 93F508FC08 for ; Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:46:49 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Received: from cswiger1.apple.com ([17.227.140.124]) by asmtp023.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec 16 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0KWM009QP1HE2E50@asmtp023.mac.com> for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:46:27 -0800 (PST) X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0 ipscore=0 phishscore=0 bulkscore=0 adultscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx engine=5.0.0-0908210000 definitions=main-1001210157 From: Chuck Swiger In-reply-to: <20100121122034.A13042@starfire.mn.org> Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:46:26 -0800 Message-id: References: <20100121112757.A11858@starfire.mn.org> <9F075D36-72FF-4B40-B9AD-918808369D3D@mac.com> <20100121122034.A13042@starfire.mn.org> To: John X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1077) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Recommendations for NICs? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:46:49 -0000 On Jan 21, 2010, at 10:20 AM, John wrote: [ ... ] > Thanks! That's perfect. I have a chance to buy a few Intel Pro > 10/100 (fxp) cards. I guess I'll take it! If you don't need gigabit, the fxp cards are great-- very reliable and some even support interrupt mitigation in firmware (which generally wasn't around until gigabit). > Just curious, though - you don't mention 3Com cards one way or the other, > yet there's a lot of them out there. Any comment on those? The older 3com NICs used by ed/vx (including 3c5xx & NE2000 clones) tended to be flaky and had issues with buffer memory causing corrupted packet data, and they generally couldn't do bus-mastering DMA. The later 3com 9xx models used by xl are much better, but they aren't on the same level as fxp or dc-- I wouldn't bother with anything prior to a 3c905. Regards, -- -Chuck