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Date:      Tue, 6 Nov 2001 10:29:35 -0500 (EST)
From:      "Brandon D. Valentine" <bandix@looksharp.net>
To:        Marcel Prisi <marcel-lists@virtua.ch>
Cc:        <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: What NIC to choose ?
Message-ID:  <20011106102212.B42904-100000@turtle.looksharp.net>
In-Reply-To: <019a01c16629$4b151650$8d01a8c0@gastroleader.com>

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On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Marcel Prisi wrote:

>Hi all !
>
>After having loads of trouble with Intel Etherexpress, Netgear, and others
>NIC, what card REALLY work on FreeBSD ?

I really like the Intel EtherExpress cards using the fxp driver and have
had great success with them.  Then again, every single one I have OTOH
is builtin to the motherboard, so I've never bought one standalone.  All
of the server hardware I buy has them builtin.  As for cheap NICs to put
in desktop machines, I _really_ like my Accton EN1207D-TX NICs.  They
use the rl driver and contain the MPX5038 chip.  It's a RealTek
8129/8139 workalike that in my experience is much more reliable than the
original RealTek chip.  I see close to full wire speed on them.  I also
have had very bad luck with tulip clones.  Either get an honest-to-Bob
tulip card or stay the hell away from them.  Yes, some people use them
with success, but I have seen tulip clones deployed in beowulf compute
nodes which died at a rate of one NIC per 50 machines per month.  Since
that purchasing mistake (which occured before my arrival) only true
Intel eepros are allowed in compute nodes.

-- 
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  There might be a
law against it by that time."	-- /usr/games/fortune, 07/30/2001

Brandon D. Valentine <bandix at looksharp.net>


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