Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Dale]

Dale wrote:
>
> I ordered the card but I'm going to test the built in network shortly. 
> All I have to do is unplug cable from current card and plug into built
> in port.  Once I start that network, good to go.  If it works, great. 
> I'll have the card as a back up.  If it doesn't, card it is. 
>
> BTW, I found a good deal on a 8TB hard drive and bought it.  The store
> had Unix in the name so obviously I had to buy from there.  ROFL  So,
> network card and hard drive on the way. 
>
> Thanks to all for the info.  When I test the built in, I'll post back
> how well it's working.  Just for confirmation.  :-D
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>


I got the card in the other day but waited until the hard drive came in
to install them both.  I got them both in and started my process.  The
network card installed fairly easy.  I had to rebuild the kernel with
the drivers but it wasn't to bad.  The new network card works fine but I
have no way to really test its speed or anything.  The internet folks
say the fast internet should be here next spring or so but they been
ahead of schedule so far.  Still, my network should be ready and I can
see if it goes beyond 100MB/sec at least.  Still not sure what package
I'll get.  The small one is 200Mb, medium is 500Mb, large is 1Gb. 
Pretty sure the b's are lower case but may be wrong.  It scales down a
lot. 

I ran the self test on the hard drive overnight.  It took several hours
to complete on a 8TB drive.  Once it passed, I partitioned it, did the
LVM thing and tried to resize the file system.  That was when puke got
on my keyboard.  It was to big and I had to convert from 32 bit to 64
bit.  Once I found that out and how to do it, things worked much
better.  As of now, this is what things look like.


root@fireball / # pvs
  PV VG Fmt  Attr PSize    PFree 
  /dev/sda7  OS lvm2 a--  <124.46g <25.46g
  /dev/sdb1  Home2  lvm2 a--    <5.46t  0
  /dev/sdc1  Home2  lvm2 a--    <7.28t  0
  /dev/sdd1  Home2  lvm2 a--    <7.28t  0
  /dev/sde1  backup lvm2 a--   698.63g  0
root@fireball / # vgs
  VG #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize    VFree 
  Home2    3   1   0 wz--n-   20.01t  0
  OS   1   3   0 wz--n- <124.46g <25.46g
  backup   1   1   0 wz--n-  698.63g  0
root@fireball / # df -h | grep home
/dev/mapper/Home2-Home2 20T  8.3T   12T  43% /home
root@fireball / #


Only bad news, I'm out of SATA ports.  I really need to pick up a SATA
PCI* card that has 6 or 8 ports on it and is really speedy.  That's on
my to do list for later on.  Hopefully that will last a while.  Next
thing is re-figuring my external backup setup.  That 8TB external drive
I back up to is getting a little full.  I'll have to split it up or
something. 

Thanks to all for the ideas and help. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

RE: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Laurence Perkins]

>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Wol  
>Sent: Sunday, November 7, 2021 1:26 AM
>To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter
>
>Only problem was a screw-up over the router - the fibre was terminated at an 
>RJ45 in my house, but apparently needed a dedicated wan port on the router - 
>you can't plug it into a standard port - so I was without internet until they 
>sorted out a new router for me.
>> 

The *fibre* was terminated at an *RJ45*?  Sounds like somebody screwed up 
massively and said you had the wrong router so you wouldn't think they were 
idiots.  Either that or it wasn't actually an RJ45 and you needed a router with 
a fibre port.

LMP

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Wol]

On 07/11/2021 09:47, Dale wrote:

I learned my lesson on SMR a while back.  I googled and made sure it was
a CMR drive before I ordered it.  I had to pass by some SMRs to find a
good deal that was CMR tho.  I don't plan to move data just add the
drive as extra space.  Adding it to LVM should be easy enough.  Sort of
thought about switching to BTFRS (sp?) but just not sure.  LVM is
working well for me at the moment.


You know I push the raid wiki :-) Even if you're not into raid there's 
some good stuff there. I'm very ambivalent on btrfs. It has a lot of 
good features, but it's a trade-off. Do you want a jack-of-all-trades 
filesystem, or do you want separate layers doing separate things. My 
feeling is separate layers.


I've got my hard drives, then dm-integrity (so corruption triggers a 
read-failure), then mirror-raid, then lvm, and finally ext4.


I'm trying to get snapshotting to fire automatically on boot once a 
week, so when I emerge, I can always roll back easily :-) I'm not sure 
whether systemd will do it, but if I have a once-a-week timer which 
activates a fire-once-on-boot service, then that'll be perfect. The 
timer fires on Friday, the snapshot fires when I reboot Saturday morning 
... and then I try not to break my system with a messed-up emerge :-)


Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Dale]

Wol wrote:
> On 06/11/2021 00:19, Dale wrote:
>> Howdy all,
>>
>
>
>>
>> They think we should be connected in a few months.  Cables comes first
>> then they set up the control boxes etc etc.  I'm going with a package
>> that will be about 300 times faster and only cost about $10 a month more
>> than my wimpy DSL.  Oh crap.  I need to expand my hard drive space
>> again.  Glad I use LVM.  LOL  I thought I had another year to deal with
>> that too.
>
> Sounds a bit like me :-) A couple of months back my existing broadband
> deal expired, and they offered me a new deal - FTTP no less - for less
> than I was then paying! (Admittedly ADSL was giving me 17Mb realised ...)
>
> Only problem was a screw-up over the router - the fibre was terminated
> at an RJ45 in my house, but apparently needed a dedicated wan port on
> the router - you can't plug it into a standard port - so I was without
> internet until they sorted out a new router for me.
>>
>> Thoughts on that card?  Work fine?
>>
> Do you really need 1Gbit? I know you've ordered a new card, but I
> would have stuck with the onboard 1Gb, or the old 100Mb card. Or do
> you just want the latest and greatest go-faster kit :-)
>
> Likewise your disk drive. What have you ordered? CMR? If you've got an
> SMR drive be VERY careful moving stuff across, it's quite likely to
> barf under the load. Dunno how easy it is to do, but your best bet is
> to heavily throttle the throughput to give the drive the chance to do
> its housekeeping. Or google for what sort of kernel timeouts you need
> to keep the system from thinking that the drive has failed.
>
> I'd probably boot a rescue disk and just dd the partitions across. At
> least then if it barfs, you haven't lost your original.
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
>

Well, the connection I'll be getting is either 200Mb/sec or 500Mb/sec. 
It's blazingly fast.  They also offer 1Gb/sec as well but my hard drives
need room to breath.  lol  So, if I leave the 100Mb/sec card in and use
it, it will be the bottleneck for my network.  Right now, the connection
to the puter is the last upgrade I'll need to be ready to surf like
lightening. 

I learned my lesson on SMR a while back.  I googled and made sure it was
a CMR drive before I ordered it.  I had to pass by some SMRs to find a
good deal that was CMR tho.  I don't plan to move data just add the
drive as extra space.  Adding it to LVM should be easy enough.  Sort of
thought about switching to BTFRS (sp?) but just not sure.  LVM is
working well for me at the moment. 

I'm excited about this new internet deal. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Wol]

On 06/11/2021 00:19, Dale wrote:

Howdy all,






They think we should be connected in a few months.  Cables comes first
then they set up the control boxes etc etc.  I'm going with a package
that will be about 300 times faster and only cost about $10 a month more
than my wimpy DSL.  Oh crap.  I need to expand my hard drive space
again.  Glad I use LVM.  LOL  I thought I had another year to deal with
that too.


Sounds a bit like me :-) A couple of months back my existing broadband 
deal expired, and they offered me a new deal - FTTP no less - for less 
than I was then paying! (Admittedly ADSL was giving me 17Mb realised ...)


Only problem was a screw-up over the router - the fibre was terminated 
at an RJ45 in my house, but apparently needed a dedicated wan port on 
the router - you can't plug it into a standard port - so I was without 
internet until they sorted out a new router for me.


Thoughts on that card?  Work fine?

Do you really need 1Gbit? I know you've ordered a new card, but I would 
have stuck with the onboard 1Gb, or the old 100Mb card. Or do you just 
want the latest and greatest go-faster kit :-)


Likewise your disk drive. What have you ordered? CMR? If you've got an 
SMR drive be VERY careful moving stuff across, it's quite likely to barf 
under the load. Dunno how easy it is to do, but your best bet is to 
heavily throttle the throughput to give the drive the chance to do its 
housekeeping. Or google for what sort of kernel timeouts you need to 
keep the system from thinking that the drive has failed.


I'd probably boot a rescue disk and just dd the partitions across. At 
least then if it barfs, you haven't lost your original.


Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Dale]

Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
> Am Fri, Nov 05, 2021 at 08:03:32PM -0500 schrieb Dale:
>
>> I was looking at the mobo manual and noticed the built in network port
>> is a 1Gb chip as well.  It is a Realtec and the last time I tried to use
>> it, it was a bit flakey.  Sometimes it would work but sometimes I'd have
>> to restart the network to get it going again.  That was about a decade
>> ago.
> My PC is over 7 years old now and I’ve always been unsing its internal
> ethernet port. Most consumer boards use Realtek chips, and so does mine,
> because they are a little cheaper than Intel’s counterparts. Enthusiasts and
> power users like Intel more because it does more in hardware and offers more
> features, whereas the realtek driver puts some load on the CPU, AFAIK. But
> in my view, that is counting crumbs, as we say in Germany. I’ve never had
> bandwidth problems and always had the full 1 Gb to my NAS. For us normal
> home user folk, it won’t make a difference, IMHO. (Except if you are a
> purist and care about code quality; I think there were niggles with
> Realtek’s code a longer while back.)
>

With this mobo and the previous mobos, the built in network was always
messing up.  On my first rig some 20 years ago, it was horrible. 
Reminded me of a winmodem I've read about.  I think the position of Mars
had more to do with when it would work or not.  It was mostly not on the
first puter.  The one before current puter was better but I still never
knew what to expect with it.  My current system would work for several
days but then would start acting strange.  To be honest, it could be
hardware, it could be the drivers.  Point is, I couldn't depend on
either one.  So, I bought a well supported card, installed it, enabled
it in the kernel and it has been rock solid ever since.  As a matter of
fact, the card I'm currently using was in my previous puter and possibly
the one before that.  When I built this puter, I moved the card over to
this system.  That card is pretty old but I have never had problems with
it at all. 

>> I wonder, is the drivers better today than they were then?  I would have
>> used it all this time if it worked well.  Anyone have experience with this
>> in the last year or so that is showing it working really well and stable? 
>> Keep in mind, I run 24/7 here.  If that works fine, I could just use it. 
>> lspci shows this for the on board network:
>>
>> Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit
>> Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
> That’s the one veryone uses. I actually have two of those installed; one
> one-board, the other one as a PCIe card that I got from my old employer.
>
>> I have 2 PCIex1 and one PCIex 4 slots open.  The small ones are close to
>> my video card and I'm not sure I can use them.
> Sure you can. Are you a hardcore gamer? Does your card consume 100s of W all
> the time? Usually the GPU is the top-most card except for cases that hold
> the board upside-down (meaning hot air rises away).
>

I think the last time I was installing a SATA card, my video card was a
little thick.  Between the card itself and the heat sink for the chips,
it was to close for a card close to it, even if one ignores the heat
problem which shouldn't be much given my case fans and the whimpy video
card.  ;-)  I have a Cooler Master HAF-932 case with those large fans.

>> Can I plug these types of cards into the larger slots?
> Yes. Speeds are downward-compatible. One PCIe 2.0 lane is fast enough for 1
> Gb.
>
>> I think I read once that can be done.  It's been ages tho. My old network
>> card appears to be in a old PCI plain slot.  It's a really old card, works
>> faithfully tho. 
> If you change the filter in the link I gave you at the top, you can also
> look for PCI-based cards (unselect PCIe first). It’s possible that PCIe,
> though a faster interface, may be more frugal these days. When PCI was
> invented, power saving was not an issue.
>
>> This may require some rearranging.  Or using the on board network one. 
>> I'd really prefer the card tho.  They just tend to work better.
> Why should they? A hunch? The only real benefit is you can easliy swap them
> in case of failure. But as long as you have it and it works – why not give
> it a try with what you have before you spend more for something you may not
> even need?
>


I ordered the card but I'm going to test the built in network shortly. 
All I have to do is unplug cable from current card and plug into built
in port.  Once I start that network, good to go.  If it works, great. 
I'll have the card as a back up.  If it doesn't, card it is. 

BTW, I found a good deal on a 8TB hard drive and bought it.  The store
had Unix in the name so obviously I had to buy from there.  ROFL  So,
network card and hard drive on the way. 

Thanks to all for the info.  When I test the built in, I'll post back
how well it's working.  Just for confirmation.  :-D

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[William Kenworthy]

In reality, today there seems to be little to choose from between
ethernet cards for the average user - wasn't always the case though.  I
have a number of usb-<->ethernet plugins and pcicards.  Some are bonded
(mix of usb and pci) and are mostly realtek though there is an intel or
two.  I am using a usb2->ethernet to the fibre based internet (1Gb AU
NBN) without any speed problems.  Note there is a linux kernel driver
bug in an odd combination of realtek and usb2 for some versions which
cuts throughput by ~1/3 unless patched - the dongles themselves are
fine.  Currently, with the covid supply chain issues its more a problem
just getting "something" :)

BillK

1000/50 over usb2 realtek

~17.44pm - at other times its usually a little better.

moriah ~ # speedtest
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from iiNet Limited (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Internode (Perth) [1.07 km]: 2.796 ms
Testing download
speed
Download: 929.99 Mbit/s
Testing upload
speed..
Upload: 45.82 Mbit/s
moriah ~ #

On 6/11/21 4:13 pm, Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
> Am Fri, Nov 05, 2021 at 08:03:32PM -0500 schrieb Dale:
>> Manuel McLure wrote:
>>> I highly recommend getting an Intel card. Back in the day the e1000
>>> cards were the ones to get,
>>> nowadays https://www.newegg.com/intel-expi9301ctblk/p/N82E16833106033
>>> should be a good option for a single port card. Intel cards have been
>>> well supported in Linux for a long time.
> I have no idea how you came across that one first. Network cards are a
> commodity and start in the single-Euro (so probably also dollar) range these
> days. Intel cards start in the 20–30 range:
> https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nwpcie=p=14063_Intel%7E14065_LAN-Adapter%7E14066_PCIe-Karte
>
>> I was looking at the mobo manual and noticed the built in network port
>> is a 1Gb chip as well.  It is a Realtec and the last time I tried to use
>> it, it was a bit flakey.  Sometimes it would work but sometimes I'd have
>> to restart the network to get it going again.  That was about a decade
>> ago.
> My PC is over 7 years old now and I’ve always been unsing its internal
> ethernet port. Most consumer boards use Realtek chips, and so does mine,
> because they are a little cheaper than Intel’s counterparts. Enthusiasts and
> power users like Intel more because it does more in hardware and offers more
> features, whereas the realtek driver puts some load on the CPU, AFAIK. But
> in my view, that is counting crumbs, as we say in Germany. I’ve never had
> bandwidth problems and always had the full 1 Gb to my NAS. For us normal
> home user folk, it won’t make a difference, IMHO. (Except if you are a
> purist and care about code quality; I think there were niggles with
> Realtek’s code a longer while back.)
>
>> I wonder, is the drivers better today than they were then?  I would have
>> used it all this time if it worked well.  Anyone have experience with this
>> in the last year or so that is showing it working really well and stable? 
>> Keep in mind, I run 24/7 here.  If that works fine, I could just use it. 
>> lspci shows this for the on board network:
>>
>> Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit
>> Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
> That’s the one veryone uses. I actually have two of those installed; one
> one-board, the other one as a PCIe card that I got from my old employer.
>
>> I have 2 PCIex1 and one PCIex 4 slots open.  The small ones are close to
>> my video card and I'm not sure I can use them.
> Sure you can. Are you a hardcore gamer? Does your card consume 100s of W all
> the time? Usually the GPU is the top-most card except for cases that hold
> the board upside-down (meaning hot air rises away).
>
>> Can I plug these types of cards into the larger slots?
> Yes. Speeds are downward-compatible. One PCIe 2.0 lane is fast enough for 1
> Gb.
>
>> I think I read once that can be done.  It's been ages tho. My old network
>> card appears to be in a old PCI plain slot.  It's a really old card, works
>> faithfully tho. 
> If you change the filter in the link I gave you at the top, you can also
> look for PCI-based cards (unselect PCIe first). It’s possible that PCIe,
> though a faster interface, may be more frugal these days. When PCI was
> invented, power saving was not an issue.
>
>> This may require some rearranging.  Or using the on board network one. 
>> I'd really prefer the card tho.  They just tend to work better.
> Why should they? A hunch? The only real benefit is you can easliy swap them
> in case of failure. But as long as you have it and it works – why not give
> it a try with what you have before you spend more for something you may not
> even need?
>

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Frank Steinmetzger]

Am Fri, Nov 05, 2021 at 08:03:32PM -0500 schrieb Dale:
> Manuel McLure wrote:
> > I highly recommend getting an Intel card. Back in the day the e1000
> > cards were the ones to get,
> > nowadays https://www.newegg.com/intel-expi9301ctblk/p/N82E16833106033
> > should be a good option for a single port card. Intel cards have been
> > well supported in Linux for a long time.

I have no idea how you came across that one first. Network cards are a
commodity and start in the single-Euro (so probably also dollar) range these
days. Intel cards start in the 20–30 range:
https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nwpcie=p=14063_Intel%7E14065_LAN-Adapter%7E14066_PCIe-Karte

> I was looking at the mobo manual and noticed the built in network port
> is a 1Gb chip as well.  It is a Realtec and the last time I tried to use
> it, it was a bit flakey.  Sometimes it would work but sometimes I'd have
> to restart the network to get it going again.  That was about a decade
> ago.

My PC is over 7 years old now and I’ve always been unsing its internal
ethernet port. Most consumer boards use Realtek chips, and so does mine,
because they are a little cheaper than Intel’s counterparts. Enthusiasts and
power users like Intel more because it does more in hardware and offers more
features, whereas the realtek driver puts some load on the CPU, AFAIK. But
in my view, that is counting crumbs, as we say in Germany. I’ve never had
bandwidth problems and always had the full 1 Gb to my NAS. For us normal
home user folk, it won’t make a difference, IMHO. (Except if you are a
purist and care about code quality; I think there were niggles with
Realtek’s code a longer while back.)

> I wonder, is the drivers better today than they were then?  I would have
> used it all this time if it worked well.  Anyone have experience with this
> in the last year or so that is showing it working really well and stable? 
> Keep in mind, I run 24/7 here.  If that works fine, I could just use it. 
> lspci shows this for the on board network:
>
> Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit
> Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

That’s the one veryone uses. I actually have two of those installed; one
one-board, the other one as a PCIe card that I got from my old employer.

> I have 2 PCIex1 and one PCIex 4 slots open.  The small ones are close to
> my video card and I'm not sure I can use them.

Sure you can. Are you a hardcore gamer? Does your card consume 100s of W all
the time? Usually the GPU is the top-most card except for cases that hold
the board upside-down (meaning hot air rises away).

> Can I plug these types of cards into the larger slots?

Yes. Speeds are downward-compatible. One PCIe 2.0 lane is fast enough for 1
Gb.

> I think I read once that can be done.  It's been ages tho. My old network
> card appears to be in a old PCI plain slot.  It's a really old card, works
> faithfully tho. 

If you change the filter in the link I gave you at the top, you can also
look for PCI-based cards (unselect PCIe first). It’s possible that PCIe,
though a faster interface, may be more frugal these days. When PCI was
invented, power saving was not an issue.

> This may require some rearranging.  Or using the on board network one. 
> I'd really prefer the card tho.  They just tend to work better.

Why should they? A hunch? The only real benefit is you can easliy swap them
in case of failure. But as long as you have it and it works – why not give
it a try with what you have before you spend more for something you may not
even need?

-- 
Grüße | Greetings | Qapla’
Please do not share anything from, with or about me on any social network.

Veni, vermini, vomui.
I came, I got ratted, I threw up.


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Description: PGP signature

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Dale]

Manuel McLure wrote:
> I highly recommend getting an Intel card. Back in the day the e1000
> cards were the ones to get,
> nowadays https://www.newegg.com/intel-expi9301ctblk/p/N82E16833106033
> should be a good option for a single port card. Intel cards have been
> well supported in Linux for a long time.
>

That card is a little cheaper too.  I did some research a while back and
it seems the Intel i350 is well supported in Linux.  Intel makes them
but so does Dell and others.  From my understanding, they all work the
same since they have the same chipset tho.  But, the one you linked to
is cheaper and I found one on ebay even cheaper.  Really nifty.  :-D

I was looking at the mobo manual and noticed the built in network port
is a 1Gb chip as well.  It is a Realtec and the last time I tried to use
it, it was a bit flakey.  Sometimes it would work but sometimes I'd have
to restart the network to get it going again.  That was about a decade
ago.  I wonder, is the drivers better today than they were then?  I
would have used it all this time if it worked well.  Anyone have
experience with this in the last year or so that is showing it working
really well and stable?  Keep in mind, I run 24/7 here.  If that works
fine, I could just use it.  lspci shows this for the on board network:

Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit
Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

I have 2 PCIex1 and one PCIex 4 slots open.  The small ones are close to
my video card and I'm not sure I can use them.  Can I plug these types
of cards into the larger slots?  I think I read once that can be done. 
It's been ages tho. My old network card appears to be in a old PCI plain
slot.  It's a really old card, works faithfully tho. 

This may require some rearranging.  Or using the on board network one. 
I'd really prefer the card tho.  They just tend to work better.

Thoughts??

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Manuel McLure]

I highly recommend getting an Intel card. Back in the day the e1000 cards
were the ones to get, nowadays
https://www.newegg.com/intel-expi9301ctblk/p/N82E16833106033 should be a
good option for a single port card. Intel cards have been well supported in
Linux for a long time.

On Fri, Nov 5, 2021 at 5:20 PM Dale  wrote:

> Howdy all,
>
> I saw the guys running fiber optic cable today, in front of MY house.
> It wasn't supposed to be here until next year.  I almost fainted from
> the excitement.  I got a router a while back that is 1Gb ready.  They
> supply the modem.  I still have a old 100Mb network card in my puter
> tho.  So, it needs updating, after all these years of faithful service.
> I found one and this is the model number and such for it, description
> too.  "Dell V5XVT-FH Intel I350-T2 DP 1GB PCIe Ethernet Network Card"
>
> I don't really care about brand as long as it is a reliable product.
> That one is Dell,  I'm fine with any brands as long as they aren't bad
> to blow smoke on the 2nd or 3rd power up.  :/  I'm almost certain I have
> PCIe ports available.  I think that's what the current card is in
> actually.  Thing is, this has two ports and so does about all I see,
> except for those with 4 ports.  Will having 2 ports cause any problems?
> Most likely, one won't be connected at all.  I just want to be sure that
> it won't cause any issues or that using both is required for some reason
> I never heard of.
>
> They think we should be connected in a few months.  Cables comes first
> then they set up the control boxes etc etc.  I'm going with a package
> that will be about 300 times faster and only cost about $10 a month more
> than my wimpy DSL.  Oh crap.  I need to expand my hard drive space
> again.  Glad I use LVM.  LOL  I thought I had another year to deal with
> that too.
>
> Thoughts on that card?  Work fine?
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>
>

-- 
Manuel A. McLure WW1FA  
...for in Ulthar, according to an ancient and significant law,
no man may kill a cat.   -- H.P. Lovecraft

[gentoo-user] Ethernet card for puter

[Dale]

Howdy all,

I saw the guys running fiber optic cable today, in front of MY house. 
It wasn't supposed to be here until next year.  I almost fainted from
the excitement.  I got a router a while back that is 1Gb ready.  They
supply the modem.  I still have a old 100Mb network card in my puter
tho.  So, it needs updating, after all these years of faithful service. 
I found one and this is the model number and such for it, description
too.  "Dell V5XVT-FH Intel I350-T2 DP 1GB PCIe Ethernet Network Card" 

I don't really care about brand as long as it is a reliable product. 
That one is Dell,  I'm fine with any brands as long as they aren't bad
to blow smoke on the 2nd or 3rd power up.  :/  I'm almost certain I have
PCIe ports available.  I think that's what the current card is in
actually.  Thing is, this has two ports and so does about all I see,
except for those with 4 ports.  Will having 2 ports cause any problems? 
Most likely, one won't be connected at all.  I just want to be sure that
it won't cause any issues or that using both is required for some reason
I never heard of. 

They think we should be connected in a few months.  Cables comes first
then they set up the control boxes etc etc.  I'm going with a package
that will be about 300 times faster and only cost about $10 a month more
than my wimpy DSL.  Oh crap.  I need to expand my hard drive space
again.  Glad I use LVM.  LOL  I thought I had another year to deal with
that too.

Thoughts on that card?  Work fine? 

Dale

:-)  :-)