On a related subject and please forgive any ignorance on my part, how would the interrupt load compare, between a multi-port NIC and the same number of ports via individual single port NICs?
For example, a firewall with one WAN port and three LAN ports. One LAN (and of course the WAN port) port would see 'heavier' use for a family's worth of surfing, another would be a DMZ (WAN -> DMZ only) and the last would be a highly restricted and far less used 'other' route into the DMZ, but only from the LAN side and NOT the WAN side. Traffic would ultimately be bottle-necked on the WAN side, with an 8Mbit/384Kbit DSL connection with a little AltQ if and when it is required. Regards, Craig On Sun, 2006-01-01 at 16:21 -0500, Daniel Ouellet wrote: > > Can anyone recommend a good multi-port NIC card e.g. 4-port, that works > > OK on OpenBSD with a good source supplier. > > > This question was debated a few times in the archive already. So, far > there isn't one great card that works very well that still available to > purchase new these days. SK based were best, but not available anymore. > Intel have the Pro 1000MT, but you need to run the bsd.mp to not get > overwhelm by interrupts even on a single processor server. That card > works, but not as well as it should really! I would just OK with bsd.mp, > but not under very heavy load, but will do what you want for lower > demanding setup as long as you DO run the bsd.mp kernel. > > So, far I haven't found one that is still available to purchase new > these days and will provide the same efficiency as older cards were able > to do! (:< Very sad but true! > > I sure hope this change soon, but that's where we are now, at a minimum, > that's where I am anyway. > > Daniel
