From owner-freebsd-net@freebsd.org Wed Jan 3 20:28:04 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 40EA5EADCF3; Wed, 3 Jan 2018 20:28:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from johnllyon@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wm0-x233.google.com (mail-wm0-x233.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:400c:c09::233]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id BF7CA64C2B; Wed, 3 Jan 2018 20:28:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from johnllyon@gmail.com) Received: by mail-wm0-x233.google.com with SMTP id 64so4701815wme.3; Wed, 03 Jan 2018 12:28:03 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=0WkRpcdny6UWxs8fVkTGADpT/JrU3601QqC9F50SQTU=; b=PqAfmyiAQ6gKnYrC8GhgMbiQIh9fGyQiCv6MuS6+Y3/z+vooCxQJvfdBoOpmnE0IFO uPD3o8ErKvAyKheYuxTye7isxbZdrElZILgspAZHWF0Oq0LNTbfaewFg2GWZKuuQ9oKm wdU/B1R3mgXFYcHkLDecXmfj0kp89vo5s99bS+ebZdIRDFnIr5VUEM+tzxh+T77roy/b jF90LpObn0gY3OakqfTPHmmXEm5BR8kAcbAZr2NoRRh+mDBl5JyrADQW5xu+monOknpX JJ7knN1s0V+gwn5FqVD6vsSU7u3TWfkQc/V99+U3CMMnEM0XosqrppR0+PWrqL56LmTe N5Ww== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=0WkRpcdny6UWxs8fVkTGADpT/JrU3601QqC9F50SQTU=; b=Y5nGOdqaAHbCcw2NtGrgOX8VenBUX3/moROnGh3C2cKZju6ORU0VNaqZxqnlv6BbQA dFLOXOp7hhupzUgw06+gwWL0f070lsZI8Q9PDdwrjdIivhIrLENI/qD9TJEoiuJgMCf+ cupsRgak09jN6DQS+TTFqSYjhdDZt8lUIODj+3xrdXQc1nZJN7/JLtZqwA6l+0eam+Au +89tm62In1kthROew1XwM3ET65ak4wQDBhF+E951MO+/g8i57YWeswH6MhmzOi4IeZHb UKBjRFyybWJ0mk9idgIwfYEb9m8AYuMUSWJvjgs/GNnGM7Lxfn/rU55NTJPWYjzWuvtG Boag== X-Gm-Message-State: AKGB3mKW5hiTYnHaETqUm187/wRfC6fVJqrDip070LIHN802DiZsluRT gFpFwSL9O3PPSes61h5iESzDsI2LNRz8RYccbfI= X-Google-Smtp-Source: ACJfBosECe/b+p38rJlLo4DN7xXo3ZmJr/4j1ONlCKycg9dl95g+UUTCgssuDHCL3ZkvGROVdaUoLNrsl91KxNhA+Z0= X-Received: by 10.80.184.52 with SMTP id j49mr4154388ede.160.1515011282320; Wed, 03 Jan 2018 12:28:02 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.80.211.20 with HTTP; Wed, 3 Jan 2018 12:27:41 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <18959.1515010411@segfault.tristatelogic.com> References: <18959.1515010411@segfault.tristatelogic.com> From: John Lyon Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2018 15:27:41 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Recommendations for cheap PCI-E network adapter ? To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, freebsd-net@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.25 X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.25 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2018 20:28:04 -0000 To answer your first question, the better drivers might be in -CURRENT but I would never know as I run -RELEASE/STABLE. :-) However, I can think of any number of possibilities (one, some, or none of which may be true), including: - Licensing incompatibilities - Regressions for older hardware (I can confirm based on personal experience that the latest vendor drivers perform worse on my ~10 year old RealTek cards than the FreeBSD supplied drivers) - Lack of awareness (the RealTek website lists their drivers as being for FreeBSD 8.x but they are really for 11.x and RealTek just never updated their site) - Other reasons known to those more knowledgeable. For your second question, my pricing information is a few years old. When I searched, I was looking on Ebay and Amazon for used parts. I would not be surprised if there were a slight ($1-$2) price inflation between then and now. -------------------------------- John L. Lyon PGP Key Available At: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skmedtscs0tgex7/02150BFE.asc On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 3:13 PM, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: > > In message ail.com>, > John Lyon wrote: > > >What's your use case? If this is for a home box, developer box, or > >something that is not "enterprise production," then I wouldn't worry about > >RealTek cards bought in the last 5 years. Their 10/100 cards from 15 > years > >ago were crap, which is how they earned their bad reputation. However, > the > >continuing dismissiveness towards RealTek is mostly undeserved in my > >opinion. > > This is just for my home network. Not "mission critical", but I don't want > my equipment being eternally flaky, of course. And I am not enthused about > the possibility of having to frequently build and/or install a new driver > that isn't in the stock FreeBSD releases. > > >The issue currently is the state of the drivers themselves and not the > >cards. For example, the drivers themselves that FreeBSD includes have > >problems. However, you can always download the source code to the latest > >FreeBSD drivers from the RealTek website and all of the "bugs" disappear. > > Hummm... Am I being naive to ask why, if there are better drivers > available, > they do not get rolled into -CURRENT? > > >That said, if you're cost sensitive, buy your NICS used. > > Oh yes! This is for a "new" system build for which I am buying everything > as used parts. Depending on which specific motherboard I decide to go > with, > I may or may not have a good old fashioned PCI slot to work with on the > motherboard. > > If I do, then I'm good, because as I discovered last night, I have/had, > sitting > inside a box of old parts up on my top shelf, no fewer than four (4) > Realtek > cards, two (2) Intel cards, two (2) Netgear cards, one (1) HP card, and > even > one ancient 3Com 3C509B card. (I'm pretty sure that all of these are > 10/100 > cards. They are definitely all PCI.) > > The problem is that all these cards are verging on being obsolete now, > because > many newer motherboards... and even ones that are several years old now... > have > dropped the old fashioned PCI slots altogether (e.g. ASUS B85M-G). > > >Last time I checked, the going rate for > >used Intel NICS was something like $10 per port + shipping. I think used > >Broadcom NICS were similar in pricing. > > Really? Where? > > I checked on FleaBay and as far as -Intel- PCI-E cards, the best I could > find > was about $12 USD. > > I don't know how to search FleaBay for Broadcom-based cards, because I > don't > know any relevant model numbers (or even manufacturer names). > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >