After some frustration with stability and latency connecting my virtual pfSense router to my cable and DSL modems, I decided to switch to a physical box. I selected the Netgate RCC-VE 2440 as my hardware platform, since it's the same box that pfSense themselves use as their OEM bundle. It also checks all the boxes with a dual-core Atom CPU, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and … [Read more...] about The Ideal pfSense Platform: Netgate RCC-VE 2440
Ethernet
Review: TP-LINK TL-SG2424 Smart Gigabit Ethernet Switch for Home or Office
For the most part, inexpensive Ethernet switches are interchangeable. You buy whichever gigabit switch is cheapest and has the right number of ports for you. And they're amazingly cheap - I picked up an 8-port D-Link gigabit switch the other day for under $40! They're all the same inside anyway, and they're all merely adequate at sending packets hither and yon. But … [Read more...] about Review: TP-LINK TL-SG2424 Smart Gigabit Ethernet Switch for Home or Office
Faster Ethernet Gets Weird
Once upon a time there was Ethernet. Every half decade or so, the industry got together and worked out a faster version. Sometimes they didn't totally agree, but a standard emerged at 10x the speed of the previous version. Throw all that out the window: Faster Ethernet is coming, and it's going to be weird! Although it looks like a simple network Channel, Ethernet is … [Read more...] about Faster Ethernet Gets Weird
Adding a Second Ethernet Port to an Intel NUC via Mini PCIe
As I mentioned in my previous post about Raspberry Pi power monitoring, I recently built a VMware vSphere "datacenter" from three Intel NUC mini PC's. One limit of the NUC is that it has just one Ethernet port. But there's a Mini PCIe slot inside the fourth-generation NUC that can be used to add a second Ethernet NIC! Here's my story. A Bit About the Intel NUC … [Read more...] about Adding a Second Ethernet Port to an Intel NUC via Mini PCIe
Musing: Could We Replace Ethernet With PCIe?
Greg "EtherealMind" Ferro recently "mused" that it might be a good idea to replace PCI Express (PCIe) inside servers or rack-scale infrastructure with Ethernet. But this seems to be the exact opposite of the direction the industry is headed. Rather than replacing PCIe with Ethernet, companies like Intel seem set on replacing short-range Ethernet (in rack-scale systems) with … [Read more...] about Musing: Could We Replace Ethernet With PCIe?