Agreed! All switch/FW/routers have the ability/feature in either CLI or GUI, so I guess that I was just wondering why it wasn't part of pfS.
I agree on most point you make and there are "those" out there that have and will continue to bungle connectivity with setting S/D incorrectly, but why not make it available (wo/ editing the XML) for those of us that know how and when to use it? Every single Cisco, Juniper, Foundry engineer I know (or I've taken advanced seminars from) has stringently recommended the use of static S/D settings on edge routers and core switching. Given that I did some asking around and googling and it seems that Cisco at least has changed their view in recent years on their S/D philosophy .... ==SNIP== Recommended Port Configuration (Autonegotiation or Manual Configuration) There are many opinions on the subject of autonegotiation. Previously, many engineers advised customers not to use autonegotiation with any switch-connected device. However, improvements in the interoperation of autonegotiation and the maturity of the technology has recently changed the view of autonegotiation and its use. In addition, performance issues due to duplex mismatches, caused by the manual setting of speed and duplex on only one link partner, are more common. Because of these recent issues, the use of autonegotiation is regarded as a valid practice. ==SNIP== Source -> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00800a7af0.shtml I totally understand that it presents many, many threads of list chatter when it comes to bite someone who doesn't understand the ramifications of the settings, but none the less, I feel it is a valuable configuration setting for the great "enterprise ready" product you've all put forth, and for those among us that use this setup and know it!!!! IMHO .. as always! ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: Re: [pfSense Support] Force Speed/Duplex on NIC From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: support@pfsense.com Date: 11-06-2008 9:53 pm > On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 6:21 AM, DLStrout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > After all this is pretty industry standard/best > > practice (hard coding speed/duplex on edge > > devices/routers/firewalls). > > > > No, no, no it's *not*. That's the common misperception. > Autonegotiation is the single most misunderstood and abused thing in > networking in my experience. What ends up happening is it's done > inconsistently and creates duplex mismatches all over the place. > Virtually all network equipment made in this decade will autonegotiate > without any trouble. Every networking vendor recommends using > autonegotiate and has for years. > > The only scenario where you should force is when autonegotiate fails > when both ends are set to auto. This will happen occasionally, but is > the exception to the rule, not the rule. > > Autonegotiation got a bad name because it didn't work well in the > early days (mid 90s), with the "standard" being implemented in > different incompatible ways by different vendors. Some of that > sentiment has carried over, which is why you find some networks where > everything is forced. > > It's hidden because it was that way in m0n0wall, and we keep it that > way because otherwise people will see it there and think it should be > set, which in reality will just cause serious problems 99.999% of the > time because people don't understand it and rarely deploy it properly. > In the rare scenarios where it's needed, the config can be manually > edited. > > </rant induced by fixing way too many networks where people screw this up> > > Recommended reading: > http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0704/817-7526.pdf > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonegotiation > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Commercial support available - https://portal.pfsense.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Commercial support available - https://portal.pfsense.org
