1 nic / usb nic

[blaize]

The ASIX adapter has proven to be rock solid. I've had issues since last May when I installed this.

Here's the write up. A number of other people have used this adapter too.

https://forums.untangle.com/hardware...it-dongle.html

In any case though, a board with 2 NICS is always a better bet IMHO.

Correnction: Should read "no issues". Gorsh.

[sky-knight]

Bandwidth constraints... at the gigabit level you have gobs of them.

The hardware I sell, is engineered to deal with many deficiencies I've found over the years. I started using PC based equipment, and evolved to provide the first set of appliances ever to support Untangle. I didn't do this lightly, I did it because it runs better.

Now, things have changed, we have two new kernels in the meantime. Untangle has added new features, and improved efficacy of others. This means the general system requirements of Untangle have actually fallen since the first appliance left the production queue.

However, if you don't understand the difference between using enterprise class network interfaces, attached to dedicated PCIe bus lanes over use of software based NICs and USB bus limitations... I really can't help you. As I said, they suck. That however doesn't mean it won't work. I've just gotten tired of arbitrary 10-20mbit limiters placed on my routers. My equipment operates at gigabit velocities, you don't get there easily, nor cheaply.

My engineering got to where it is over a ton of customer complaints, and overcoming issues. After a few hundred installs, you learn not to trust USB anything. After a thousand... well you get to where you only support what works, and you get a little gun shy about "new".

[blaize]

Care to elaborate on this with hard facts, or is this just your opinion as a hardware seller?

And yes, Realtek definitly are crap!

Skynight's right: there's difference between how USB nics work and how dedicated hardware NICs work. If this is for you home, then the USB dongle will probably do just fine and you won't have any issues.

But in a business, spend $400 and buy an appliance. Untangle sells them and they come with a license for some of the pay modules.

Personally, I like VM's. The hardware abstraction eliminates the headaches of trying to make specific devices work, and VM's migrate easily, are easily changed and rolled back, they scale nicely, among many other huge benefits. I don't think I've done a bare metal install in a business in a number of years now.

[harrymcbean]

However, if you don't understand the difference between using enterprise class network interfaces, attached to dedicated PCIe bus lanes over use of software based NICs and USB bus limitations... I really can't help you. As I said, they suck. That however doesn't mean it won't work. I've just gotten tired of arbitrary 10-20mbit limiters placed on my routers. My equipment operates at gigabit velocities, you don't get there easily, nor cheaply.

My engineering got to where it is over a ton of customer complaints, and overcoming issues. After a few hundred installs, you learn not to trust USB anything. After a thousand... well you get to where you only support what works, and you get a little gun shy about "new".

Fair enough, but this thread was about USB3 chips, which I suspect are newer than your experience above, and (i suspect) home use.
Just saying USB NICs are crap out of context doesn't do anyone any favours - especially Untangle themselves as they may loose a home licence sale.

[harrymcbean]

Skynight's right: there's difference between how USB nics work and how dedicated hardware NICs work. If this is for you home, then the USB dongle will probably do just fine and you won't have any issues.

But in a business, spend $400 and buy an appliance. Untangle sells them and they come with a license for some of the pay modules.

Personally, I like VM's. The hardware abstraction eliminates the headaches of trying to make specific devices work, and VM's migrate easily, are easily changed and rolled back, they scale nicely, among many other huge benefits. I don't think I've done a bare metal install in a business in a number of years now.

We currently have Sophos in ESXi hosts deployed as HA, so don't need appliances...

I'm just passing through here, looks like there is a shortcoming in the Untange VPN implemtation that means we won't be able to use them and will need to stay with Sophos anyway.

[sky-knight]

I love me some virtual Untangle! When its done correctly, magic happens! So many people do it poorly however... and never quite understand why Bob in graphics can take out the Internet moving around large files. Or why running Untangle with Spam Blocker on the same hard disk stacks as Exchange is a bad idea...

And I disagree that the USB NICs are ok for home use. Home users don't have the experience required to troubleshoot properly, and the performance requirements of the average home are HIGHER than the average SMB. Not to mention the stress factor when Netflix bombs... These things result in frustrated owners rebooting Untangle without further thought, and once that corrupts a database... you'll be singing a different tune! Now if you're a hobbyist and you love to tinker... GO FOR IT!

That new little toy Untangle and I both sell is wonderful for home use, not terribly expensive, and it's point click easy. I just hope the mSATA 32gb drives in the things stand the test of time! When it comes to NICs, go Intel or go home. That stance has simply never let me down. Once the box is installed, it sits there shoving packets around until the power goes out, or the hard disk fails.

[blaize]

I'm just passing through here, looks like there is a shortcoming in the Untange VPN implemtation that means we won't be able to use them and will need to stay with Sophos anyway.

What VPN shortcomings are you referring to?

[blaize]

And I disagree that the USB NICs are ok for home use. Home users don't have the experience required to troubleshoot properly, and the performance requirements of the average home are HIGHER than the average SMB. Not to mention the stress factor when Netflix bombs...

I don't know too terribly many folks that use a product like Untangle at home, and the ones that do are probably in the category of power users or hobbyist. Most others use what hardware they got from the ISP or at Best Buy. But I've never had any issues with the ASIX controller on a 50MB fiber connection with netflix or otherwise.

[sky-knight]

Of course you don't know too many folks that do that, you don't sell hardware to the world to give them an opportunity to blow up your phone!

And trust me... they do indeed blow up your phone. I try to avoid it, but it still happens.

So I stopped selling stuff that generated support calls.

[harrymcbean]

What VPN shortcomings are you referring to?

UT IPSec server listen address doesn't follow the WAN address if it changes.
It seems they are alone in this respect - I have been evaluating other UTM solutions recently and every other solution can do this fine...

I did post here, but didnt get any responses: https://forums.untangle.com/ipsec-vp...n-address.html