cheap 4 port RJ45 10 gbe card?

[John Doe]

I need
2x rj45 10gbe single port
1x rj45 10gbe 4 port

does someone knows cheap, working nics?

considering to update the network. used parts are very welcome. any hints for european market?

 

[jgreco]

I need
2x rj45 10gbe single port
1x rj45 10gbe 4 port

does someone knows cheap, working nics?

considering to update the network. used parts are very welcome. any hints for european market?

As far as I know, nobody makes a quad port copper 10G card. Probably because doing so would be stupid. You would normally only put something like that in a server, and 10G copper for servers is generally nonsense for a bunch of reasons that I discuss in the 10G Primer thread. You certainly won't find it cheap, and probably not used.

Go instead for some inexpensive dual SFP+ cards and run some fiber. It will be amazingly cheap in comparison.

 

[Chris Moore]

You only think that is what you need to do because you didn't ask first.
What do you think you will be able to do with the four port card?

 

[jgreco]

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/10-gig-networking-primer.42/

 

[danb35]

What do you think you will be able to do with the four port card?

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering--or, put differently, @John Doe, what do you want to do with that card? Is this a matter of setting up your computer to act as a really slow software switch in order to save you a few bucks in buying a real switch?

 

[John Doe]

I thought I could use it together with pfSense.
Benefit should be to monitor traffic via acting as a switch/hub

so you think it is a bad idea?

 

[danb35]

I thought I could use it together with pfSense.

How?

Benefit should be to monitor traffic via acting as a switch/hub
so you think it is a bad idea?

If you're saying you want to use a computer as a switch, yes, it's a bad idea.

 

[Chris Moore]

acting as a switch/hub

so you think it is a bad idea?

You will need a switch if you want to interconnect multiple devices. If you want them all at 10Gb speed, you have some options.
I am not endorsing a specific item of hardware, but SFP+ 10Gb hardware is much less costly than the BASE-T (RJ-45) gear and it has lower latency. If you want a fast network, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this older hardware. It is only being sold because the place that was using it probably upgraded to something even faster. Here is an example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brocade-BR...-Switch-24x-10-Gb-SFP-Uplink-JMW/232231406925
As for the network card, I have used Chelsio 10Gb cards in my FreeNAS systems, but I recently was told that these worked well for another forum member and that is a nice price considering they come with the fiber adapters:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Solarflare...rt-10G-Ethernet-10GbE-PCIe-w-SFP/113540380624
I ordered two of them myself to do some testing with, but I have not had a chance to install them yet.
Or you can get Chelsio cards at a good price, like these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chelsio-10...30-2x-10G-SFP-Tranceivers-HIGH-F/113669593010
It might be more about personal preference, but I also understand that these Chelsio cards woul be limited to roughly 6Gb of bandwidth, so it could be better to go with a newer model.

 

[Chris Moore]

How?

I see, he has an ESXi installation in one of the systems.

EDIT:

ESXi 6.7 with FN 11.1, pfSense, Debian (nextcloud, plex), Windows 10

Sorry that I initially overlooked this.
@John Doe , that is an ESXi / FreeNAS all in one system with pfSense in another VM, so you could do a virtual switch inside ESXi to connect all the systems inside the virtual environment and connect one NIC out to the physical network, but I am not sure about the options of connecting multiple NICs to a virtual switch in ESXi or passing multiple NICs into the pfSense VM.

 

[danb35]

I see, he has an ESXi installation in one of the systems.

Ah, that could cover it. I tend to prefer running my router on its own hardware, but I guess that's a matter of preference.

 

[John Doe]

ah sorry, i should have mentioned this.

yes the purpose is to have an all in one system. all the fancy VM stuff is already connected via a vswitch.
basically I want to have fast network for the backup system and to my pc and one to the outside world. I got 10 gb symetric internet for 40 bucks per month.

so would be great to have the bottleneck in the outside world.
pfSense is having a feature (snort) to detect and block malicious behavior. In case I use a switch, it can only monitor traffic which is going through the pfSense or to the pfsense. Like someone tries to nmap the network, it would only trigger snort, when scanning pfsense.

with a 4 port card, I assume it would detect that port and just block it.

in future, when the devs update freebsd with a fast wifi driver, the intention is to install a wifi nic to get rid of the hotspot.

 

[danb35]

I got 10 gb symetric internet for 40 bucks per month.

:drool:

 

[Chris Moore]

when the devs update freebsd with a fast wifi driver, the intention is to install a wifi nic to get rid of the hotspot.

Even if FreeBSD gets better drivers for that, it is unlikely that FreeNAS will have a method for configuring WiFi. FreeNAS is an appliance that is based on FreeBSD, but the development team cherry-picks the parts of FreeBSD that they want to include and there is no way to configure a wireless network interface in FreeNAS now and because of they way the system is configured, I don't see a way to make that work, ever.

with a 4 port card, I assume it would detect that port and just block it.

I am not aware of any 4 port 10Gb cards, but you might be able to use two of the dual port cards. That is the only way I can see it working because a single 8x PCI-E 3.0 slot doesn't (as I understand it) have the bandwidth to support four ports at full bandwidth. I may be doing the math wrong on the conversion, because I don't do it often and I am doing it from memory, and in my head.

I got 10 gb symetric internet for 40 bucks per month.

What country is that in? The US is so backwards with regard to internet connectivity. The fastest I can even get locally is 300Mbps down with 10Mbps up and it has a data cap that I have to be careful to not go over because they charge extra for that, which can be quite costly.

Correction:

The fastest I can even get locally is 100MB down with 5MB up and it has a data cap that I have to be careful to not go over because they charge extra for that, which can be quite costly.

I looked at my plan and I had the numbers wrong, plus I put MB when it should be Mb (bits vs bytes)... I can make mistakes.

 

[Redcoat]

100MB down with 5MB

Mb?

 

[Chris Moore]

Mb?

I do make mistakes sometimes. AT&T claims that my service is supposed to be 150Mbps UP, but I have never seen anything close to that.

 

[Mlovelace]

I do make mistakes sometimes. AT&T claims that my service is supposed to be 150Mbps UP, but I have never seen anything close to that.

The biggest problem with non-symmetric lines the IPSs offer, is the number of packets that get thrown away by the heavy throttling. It can make UDP connections on uploads terrible (VoIP for example). I get 50Mbps up but the Quality of service is in the mid 60s.