From owner-freebsd-isp Sun Jan 11 09:56:12 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id JAA18271 for isp-outgoing; Sun, 11 Jan 1998 09:56:12 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-isp) Received: from emu.sourcee.com (emu.sourcee.com [199.201.159.173]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA18260 for ; Sun, 11 Jan 1998 09:56:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from nrice@emu.sourcee.com) Received: (from nrice@localhost) by emu.sourcee.com (8.8.8/8.8.3) id MAA16989; Sun, 11 Jan 1998 12:54:41 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <19980111125441.35963@emu.sourcee.com> Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 12:54:41 -0500 From: Norman C Rice To: Martin Bokaemper Cc: alex@comsys.com, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: multi-port Ethernet cards ?? Anyone have them or want to develop them? References: <34B86D45.643D@comsys.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88 In-Reply-To: ; from Martin Bokaemper on Sun, Jan 11, 1998 at 01:39:51PM +0100 Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sun, Jan 11, 1998 at 01:39:51PM +0100, Martin Bokaemper wrote: > Hi. > > > We're again looking at the requirements for a ISP box that > > has 8 Ethernet ports. We'd like to run FreeBSD in the box, prefer > > Intel or Digital 10/100 Mbit Ethernet controllers - 4 per board > > would be good. Priced around $300 each. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If this is a per port price, then the Znyx and Adaptec four port PCI cards will meet your needs. However, if this is the per board price, then I believe developing a card (or finding a real sweet deal) may be your only alternative. > > > > If there's someone interested in developing such a card we'd can > > participate. Please contact me directly. > > > > If there's something out there already that fits the bill, > > we'd buy rather than build. > > There are 4-port Ethernet Controllers available. We have one in use > from Cogent (now: Adaptec). They have a family of 4 port PCI-cards > that all use the DECchip controllers. > We use the 4x BNC (10Mbps) model but you can get up to > 4x 100Mbps fullduplex. The card currently runs in a linux box > but I had it on FreeBSD too and it works fine. I don't know > current prices. Look at > > > Potential Problems: > - The board uses a PCI Bridge. Older BIOS versions often do not initialize > these chips properly. > - Two cards _should_ be no problem, but you can only be sure about that > after a test (another field for BIOS or PCI-Driver bugs). > - The controllers are longer than typical PCI-Boards - many Mainboards have > the CPU or SIMMs in the back of the PCI-Slots so you can't plug > in two long cards. > > ciao, > Martin. > -- -- Regards, Norman C. Rice, Jr.