NIC Problems

[Tim Allender]

pauls at utdallas.edu wrote:
>
>
> --On September 16, 2006 2:04:38 AM -0400 Tim Allender 
> <freebsd-net at goldenpath.org> wrote:
>
>> Not sure if I should post this here or straight to the pfSensse list.
>> I suspect this kind of thing is a faulty NIC but since I've not seen it
>> before I'm not sure:
>>
>> vr0: receive error (81): rx buffer error
>> vr0: revieve error (0024) no buffers
>> vr0: receive error (81): rx buffer error
>> vr0: revieve error (0024) no buffers
>> vr0: receive error (81): rx buffer error
>> vr0: revieve error (0024) no buffers
>> vr0: receive error (81): rx buffer error
>> vr0: revieve error (0024) no buffers
>>
> What NIC is it?
Good question. It's the onboard NIC for a Intel® Desktop Board D850GB. 
(http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d850gb/)
You know, one of those one's from about 5 years back when RDRAM looked 
like it might be promising.
The board uses RDRAM.
It also uses one of those upgrade processor socket extensions to use 
socket 478 procs (upgraded from socket 423), so that I could put a spare 
1.7 p4 in it that I didn't want to go to waste.
I guess I've really squeezed my money's worth out of this old puppy.

Actually, though, (concerning the issue) it seems to have stopped 
happening now that I've undone most of the traffic shaping rules I had 
setup.
I did leave on "Prioritize VoIP traffic", but disabled all the other 
rules I'd thrown in for the heck of it.

Seems to be working fine now. (We'll see how the phone holds up).
Maybe it's an issue with the extent to which the NIC supports ALTQ?

I know, the one I setup at the office doesn't do traffic shaping at all.
(old p3 board, onboard NIC not supporting ALTQ, that is).
So, I wanted to try it out at home.

I really want to get the full use out of the traffic shaping, though.
It'll really come in handy at the office.

I'm going to order a few NICs, for this purpose and to have some spares 
on hand.
I'm not really sure, though, how to measure the quality of NICs beyond 
the typical 10/100/1000 rating.

Are there certain NICs recommended to get the most out of ALTQ?
>
> Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
> Adjunct Information Security Officer
> The University of Texas at Dallas
> http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/