Hello everyone! Just have a couple of questions that i need some help with.

I need to pick up two NIC cards for my soon to be firewall. lets begin:

1) Should I pick up two different NIC speed cards?
I mean, should I have a 100mb NIC connecting to the WAN (cable modem) and a 10mb card connecting to my internal LAN?

2) My firewall is going to be running either Slackware 8.0 or OpenBSD 3.0. Which brand if NIC would you recommend?
I'm currently looking at NetGear, Dlink and 3com.
Money is a factor.

So, if you could send me your throughts and opinions, I would be very much appreciative!

Thanks everyone!

RL

1. I say get the same type of cards maybe the same speed. 10mb should do the job but 100mb isn't bad either.

2. 3com is always good with good support. I personally use Linksys and never have any problems.

-trickykid

I appreciate the reply. I guess one problem I have is, will I Slackware 8.0 and OpenBSD 3.0 work pretty much with most NIC's?

Thanks again.

Your cable modem only operates at 1.5mbs, so even a 10mbit card is overkill, but you might as well get a 100mbit. You never know what you might use it for later.

Last question on NICS.

Ok, i've narrowed down my selection between two NICS. Just need a bit more information on them to make sure I can in fact use these NIC's on my system. (I cannot access http://lhd.datapower.com/...was bummed)

First card---Linksys LNE100TX Etherfast 10/100Mb card

Second card---D-Link DFE-550TX+ Fast Ethernet 10/100Mb

System that will be using these cards (im buying 2 of them) will be running either OpenBSD 3.0, or Slackware 8.0.

Recommendations?

Appreciate your help!

RL

I know for a fact that the Linksys card works well with Slackware, its what I use, no problems detecting the card and using the tulip module to use.
Not sure on BSD, though.. not sure but its a major card so it should work. Maybe someone else could enlighten on that one if it works specifically or not.

The d-link should work as well. not sure of the specific module or driver it uses though off top of my head.

-trickykid