[kwlug-disc] PFSense and USB 2.0 NICs

[Paul Nijjar]

On Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 08:40:22PM -0400, Colin Mackay wrote:
> 
> I have a 1.6Ghz dual core ATOM box sitting idle in the basement, from what
> I've seen it'll be able to run pfsense without too much trouble.
> 
> The issue is that, aside from the Wireless card, it only has a single NIC.
> Has anyone out there used a USB NIC with pfsense?  It'd be used for my WAN
> connection.

I have tried using a USB 2 NIC with pfSense, and it was awful. I agree
with many of the posters in Bob's thread: chipset support on FreeBSD
is spotty, and pfSense is really picky about its network cards. 

On the other hand, I was using an ancient Xircom PCMCIA (!) network
card on a laptop running pfSense. I am not certain it worked well, but
I think it was more reliable than the USB 2 stuff. 

I would be interested if you find a USB3 adapter that works well in
your setup. 

- Paul 

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org