[Wlug] Gigabit NICs for Linux

[Brian J. Conway]

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:19:40 -0400 (EDT)
sageman at WPI.EDU wrote:

> All,
> 
> Recently, I've been looking to upgrade my current network setup and make
> the push to gigabit. At the moment, I'm looking for any suggestions on
> gigabit NICs that folks have got working under the 2.6 kernel,
> preferably without too much effort. I'm currently looking at the
> Rosewill RC-400, which supposedly uses the r8169 module. Any one happen
> to have any luck with that?
> 
> Additionally, I'm looking for a gigabit switch. Only need like 4-8 ports
> and would like it, again, to work very easily. Never used a switch, just
> hubs and routers. Right now, have a hub hooked into a router. From what
> I understand, if I replace the hub with a switch, it should *just work*.
> Basically, a switch is like a hub, but with full duplex support and
> maybe some fancy QoS features or something, right?
> 
> My plan is to plug the high bandwidth internetwork connections into the
> switch which then connects into my router and through to a cable modem.
> Basically, fast connection on the network for transferring files,
> streaming and such, but, when it comes to the internet, cable modem is
> the bottleneck, so who cares if the router supports gigabit, right? Does
> this sound reasonable to you network folks out there?
> 
> Thanks for all your help!
> 
> Carlton Stedman

I've been using Intel e1000 devices under FreeBSD and Linux (onboard and
PCI NICs), they are well-supported and pretty good/low-CPU use cards.  For
some reason I've been using D-Link switches over the years, not sure why,
I wouldn't recommend any of their other hardware, but their 100 Mbps and
Gigabit switches have always worked great.

My recent purchases for home were:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106123 (e1000 $32
retail, more coming in stock soon, I assume)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127082 ($40 after
rebate)

I've also been using the onboard Broadcom BGE cards at work, those have
worked relatively well except in cases of the very latest chips not being
supported with a given OS/kernel.  I don't think those are offered in card
form anyway, though.

Brian J. Conway