On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Volker Kuhlmann wrote: > I am looking to get more Ethernet ports into a pfsense box, and can see 2 > options.
Can I ask why you don't want to instead use VLANs? It will be cheaper and easier to manage...unless you're dealing with a bandwidth issue, in which case you're probably better just using multiple boxes. > 1: Buy a 4-port PCI card (not those which only have a hub, obviously). > They're pretty expensive compared with single cards that also just work. Can > someone recommend a cheap one which is known to work with pfsense? One of the decent 4 port PCI cards will cost you a lot more than a quality (used) VLAN-capable switch. Look up HP Procurve 4000M switches on ebay (2900 if you need gig-e). They are fantastic, I can't praise them enough. They run forever, are feature rich (including VLANs and trunking, everything you would reasonably need), they're dirt cheap, and have stood the test of time. I can't speak to any layer 3 capabilities of the HP switches (we use cisco for layer 3), but as layer 2 devices I'd put them up against anybody. For an example of how cheap, I just found one with 80 10/100 ports, "buy it now" from an apparently reputable source, for $50. One time years back, one of ours had its fan die...I was annoyed, as we bought the unit used, had no service contract, and figured I was just SOL. However, I found a website on HP that asked for a serial number and then dispatched a replacement fan...no questions asked. No credit card. No concerns about service contract, no need to talk to somebody. They wanted the serial number and address, and the new fan came a few days later. As far as I understand they have lifetime warranties. > 2: Use USB-Ethernet adapters. The freebsd compatibility list lists a few. > Should I expect any problems using these with pfsense? As the saying goes, "I encourage my competitors to do this" :) I would definitely not rely on USB-Ethernet. In fact, to go a step further, I wouldn't use ANY non-intel ethernet cards, due to the the quantifiable superiority of the quality of the hardware and driver. Andy --- Andy Dills Xecunet, Inc. www.xecu.net 301-682-9972 --- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
