Best NIC for a Linux router?

I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.
Thanks for your help.

In comp.os.linux.networking Craig E. Smith <craigesmith@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
> router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
> read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.

From experience NICs with eepro (Intel) chip-set are among the
fastest, 3com is another good choice. Avoid cheapo stuff, if you
really need performance.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

"Craig E. Smith" wrote:
>
> I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
> router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
> read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.
> Thanks for your help.

I've never seen CPU utilization be a problem except at Gigabit speeds.
Unless you're creating a very high-end router or have very limited CPU
resources the bottleneck will lie elsewhere, IMHO.

I see another poster has recommended Intel NICs. I'll second that. The
e100 and e1000 drivers in the stock Linux kernel are (or at least were
originally) supplied by Intel. IMHO it's hard to beat vendor-supplied
open-source drivers in the kernel.

In comp.os.linux.networking Hactar <ebenONE@tampabay.are-are.com.unmunge> wrote:
> In article <j0mpsb.6er.ln@news.heiming.de>,
> Michael Heiming <michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> wrote:
> > In comp.os.linux.networking Craig E. Smith <craigesmith@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
> > > router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
> > > read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.
> >
> > From experience NICs with eepro (Intel) chip-set are among the
> > fastest, 3com is another good choice. Avoid cheapo stuff, if you
> > really need performance.

> But don't forget that if you're on DSL or cable modem, then 10Mbps is fast
> enough for the internet (not necessarily fast enough for your LAN, depending
> on what you're doing).

Ack, that NIC doesn't need to be a high performance one, I'm
using rtl8139 cards for that.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

In comp.os.linux.networking John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> "Craig E. Smith" wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
> > router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
> > read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.
> > Thanks for your help.

> I've never seen CPU utilization be a problem except at Gigabit speeds.
> Unless you're creating a very high-end router or have very limited CPU
> resources the bottleneck will lie elsewhere, IMHO.

On aside note, have you tried out enabling jumbo frames with GB
NICs?

> I see another poster has recommended Intel NICs. I'll second that. The
> e100 and e1000 drivers in the stock Linux kernel are (or at least were
> originally) supplied by Intel. IMHO it's hard to beat vendor-supplied
> open-source drivers in the kernel.

Unsure if that has changed but I always use the eepro100 driver
from Donald Becker, as the e100 driver from Intel isn't mii
register aware. Meaning mii-tool/mii-diag/etc don't work. For
performance I easily get >12 MB/sec using scp between machines
using those cards with the eepro100 driver.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

Michael Heiming wrote:
>
> In comp.os.linux.networking John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> > "Craig E. Smith" wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm looking for thoughts on the best NIC card to use for a Linux
> > > router implementation. I am concerned with CPU utilization. I have
> > > read that some cards support scatter/gather and interrupt mitigation.
> > > Thanks for your help.
>
> > I've never seen CPU utilization be a problem except at Gigabit speeds.
> > Unless you're creating a very high-end router or have very limited CPU
> > resources the bottleneck will lie elsewhere, IMHO.
>
> On aside note, have you tried out enabling jumbo frames with GB
> NICs?

My switch doesn't support jumbo frames. (So *that's* why an 8 port GigE
switch was so cheap!) I did try it once anyway...the network just plain
died.

[ Followup-To: comp.os.linux.networking ]

In comp.os.linux.networking John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Michael Heiming wrote:
[..]

> > On aside note, have you tried out enabling jumbo frames with GB
> > NICs?

> My switch doesn't support jumbo frames. (So *that's* why an 8 port GigE
> switch was so cheap!) I did try it once anyway...the network just plain
> died.

Sounds likely, well I'd like to make some tests, perhaps I'll put
some charts online, haven't seen any about it online? But then
don't know when I'll find the time next year.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM