From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 10 00:02:43 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F258BD4 for ; Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:02:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from outgoing.tristatelogic.com (segfault.tristatelogic.com [69.62.255.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EE953EB0 for ; Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:02:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from segfault-nmh-helo.tristatelogic.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by segfault.tristatelogic.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6CE7A5081A for ; Sat, 9 Feb 2013 16:02:20 -0800 (PST) To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question: Why ain't I getting gigabit speed? In-Reply-To: <20130209221107.GA32563@server.rulingia.com> Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:02:20 -0800 Message-ID: <8112.1360454540@tristatelogic.com> From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:02:43 -0000 I want to thank all of the various people who offered help, advice, and suggestings regarding this problem. It's all really appreciated. Since I first posted about this issue, I have diligently tried to isolate/debug the problem. I swapped the card into a totally different system, also running FreeBSD, and found the exact same symptoms. I used other equipment to verify that both my cables and my Linksys E2000 were not the source of the problem. Lastly, I brought up the card in the exact same system where I had originally noted the problem, but under Windows rather than FreeBSD. Anyway, after all this testing, I believe that I can now say definitively that the problem is indeed bad hardware in/on the card. The card exibits essentially the same symptoms under Windows as it does under FreeBSD, i.e. running only at 100mbs, rather than the 1gbs that it should be capable of. I confess that unless and until I had done all of the testing necessary to fully confirm this, it really isn't a result that I would have either anticipated or expected. I mean really, 99% of everything that makes a card like this do what it is supposed to do is in the chip (in this case RTL8110S-32) and I would expect that Realtek wouldn't let one of those out of their factory unless and until it had passed all normal QA tests. So I guess that somehow, some way, the folks who manufactured this card somehow managed to mess up that last 1%, i.e. the "value added" that they put into building a card around the bare chip. I would have thought that screwing that part up would have actually been rather difficult, but apparently somebody did manage to pull it off. The only notable markings on the board are a white sticker on the back with a bardcode, a serial number and what looks like a model number, FG-R8110-A4-01-BC01. Results from googling around for various permu- tations of that seem to indicate that this board was originally manu- factured by "Western PA SYBA", and indeed, it looks perfectly identical to the one pictured here: http://www.tbcart.com/product/18198352477/West+Blaster+PCI+Gigabit+Desktop+1000M+network+PCI+network+adapter (The eBay vendor who sold it to me did not list the name of the manu- facturer in the relevant eBay listing, which is why I am puzzling this out after the fact.) So anyway, just a word to the wise... These specific boards may perhaps not be of the highest quality. Regards, rfg P.S. While I appreciate all the friendly advice people here have given me, i.e. to go with a card based around some non-Realtek chip, I have to say that up until now I have always and consistantly had -zero- problems with the many other Realtek-based 10/100 cards that I have owned and used. This 10/100/1000 card is the first one I've ever had that has caused me any problems.