NIC driver question

[Wayne]

 > I wonder what would be the "best" network interface to
 > plug in (if necessary) as I don't know for now what is
 > the builtin interfaces in this machine.

A while back, I asked about "best" FreeBSD hardware in general, and 
unfortunately, got little response.

But Nathan's comments below seem identical with mine.

> As for 100mbit cards: Hands-down, Intel 'fxp'-driven cards... rock solid in terms of  performance and stability; never had a single 
unit go bad, used hundreds  of them, including dual and quad-port cards.

Yup - have the fxp cards in all our older "white box" servers.  Very 
solid.  And if 100Mb still works for you, they can be had on Ebay for < 
$5/ea.

 > On the gigabit side: I've had great luck with broadcom cards using 
the > 'bge' driver, and a few intel cards utilizing the 'em'

I have a couple newer Dells with the Broadcom / BGE controllers.  They 
seem to work fine on 6.x.

3Com used to be considered "primo" in the industry.  But I've had minor 
troubles with the '905 "xl" cards negotiating duplex on FBSD 4 & 5. 
Since then, guys on this list have bashed 3Com for their refusal to 
support and acknowledge FreeBSD... so screw 'em.

   -W