I am currently in search of a 4 X 2.5G NIC.
I can see some options on alibab for 4k + delivery.
Any leads are appreciated.
Thank you.
Take a look at these comes with 3 years warranty.
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I do have the GWN7700M switch. What I am looking for is the pcie Nic.
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This one’s on Amazon, no clue how good or bad it is though.
So this one is based on Realtek. Which is generally avoided due to driver compatibility issues.
The seller does have a few nic with intel, but it’s with single port. And nothing with 4 ports and intel.
Hmm I see that’s unfortunate then. I have used Realtek NICs in the past, and it’s always kinda been a mixed bag, most worked flawlessly, but some were just a big headache.
All the other options I saw were gigabit only. There’s a few options on desertcart, but much higher prices than what you saw on Aliexpress.
Thanks for looking. I will take a punt with Aliexpress.
@aasimenator has I think, check refurbco.in or message him
4 Port Gigabit NIC for Intel I226 Gigabit Ethernet PCI-E To RJ45 Network Adapter
Ensure the NIC does not have the issues - some early Intel ones had dropouts, link speed issues etc. Check the chip version/stepping
Unfortunately, Looks like all 2.5Gb have some kind of issues and not stable as gigabit or 10g nics. And the 10g ones like x540 doesn’t fall back to 2.5g its either 10g or 1g.
i225 has some issues and i226 is recommended but it does have mixed reviews.
I guess for my use case a 2 port will also suffice. So just ordered one from alibaba with i226.
Just get the amazon realtek one, if it doesnt work for u return it. If no return option then call their customer support and give a rant, they will do return/refund… Since amazon quality dropped, no point respecting the platform, exploit it as much you want.
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Currently I have a m920q with has a gigabit ethernet. Now if I add another. 2 x 2.5g nic. Can I use all three ports at the same time. 1G as a wan and 2x 2.5G as seperate lan’s. Does that make sense.
Yes. Or you can keep the inbuilt lan for management only since it is vPro enabled.
Yes you can. If portability is not required. You can just get a switch and set-up vlan for wan, this setup will be much better and cost effective.
I recently bought dell wyse 5070 to use as dedicated openwrt router, i thought about getting m.2 e.key to gigabit/2.5gbit ethernet adapter for it. But after considering price and convenience i bought a tp-link managed gigabit switch with 8 ports, connected wan to port 1 and dell wyse to port 2. Did vlan tagging, vlan wan setup on openwrt and now everything works fine.
All the setup stays out of my sight. Everything works as expected. If you want to use it as router switch/vlan option is better if you dont move places frequently.
dell wyse 5070 =5.5k rs. tp-link switch = 1.7k rs
Total cost = 7.2k rs.
Dell wyse 6watts on avg load, tp-link switch 3 watts max. 9 watts total.
task for dell wyse is to run wireguard client and SQM QoS on wireguard interface, adblock. Still eats less than 10% cpu on full load of 200mbps line with vpn and SQM QoS/cake.. bufferbloat test 0-1ms latency increase, big win..
I didn’t even know what you did was possible. Always under the impression that you need physical ports to have 2 seperate vlans. Just learned about vlan tagging. Pretty neat setup. 
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Just need to watch 2 or 3 yt videos… I did mistake first, but did it eventually. Took me 1hour to set it up and make everything back online.
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Unless you have link speed of more than 1G combined - there is absolutely no need to go for 2.5G NICs.
+1
And if running on top of proxmox - will not have any issues at all