Cheap gigabit NIC for Linux/Solaris/BSD
 

I'm thinking about adding gigabit NICs to all of my servers to speed up backups to an NFS share. Does anyone have a recommendation for gigabit NICs that are compatible with most OS's (SuSE, CentOS, Solaris, FreeBSD)? Solaris compatibility is optional... this is for a home/development network, so I don't need server-class hardware.

Thanks for any advice.

I've used the Intel Pro/1000 NICs (onboard and as PCI-X cards) with some success. I've only used them with Linux but they claim FreeBSD and Solaris compatibility. If it's only a home net you can probably go with the PCI versions, which aren't too expensive (the PCI-X ones are rather pricey, unfortunately).

Thanks. I'll check out prices, but I believe I remember them being relatively high (I want to say > $50).

Jantman

I have picked up a few 3com GigE nics on ebay for sub $15 (including shipping). The cheap ones tend to be the full sized cards. So make sure that you have the space for them. I have only run them on linux and XP.

I'll check them out, probably start with a gigabit switch, 10 port or so, and two or three cards, add more as needed.

Reliability isn't a big issue, this is just going to be for a SAN for backups, so I'll have it failover to the 100 Mbps if needed.

As to space - smaller cards??? All of my machines are either full towers or rackmount servers.

jantman

Here is a link to the one I have: http://cgi.ebay.com/3Com-Gigabit-Ser...QQcmdZViewItem

The larger cards have fallen out of style with the shift to "micro" cases in many offices. Thus the surplus of these cards.

thanks. I'll keep my eye on them...

Check out www.outletpc.com and www.pcsurplusonline.com OutletPC has the shipping price lower, or offers a coupon now and again. PC Surplus Online has a shipping price for each individual item, or if YOU choose, an over $99 free shipping or similar offer at set times. Quality at both sites is excellent IMO.

Thanks. I'll check them out.

Finances have been a bit tight for new projects lately, so it may be a while before I do this, but I'll certainly keep them in mind.