MikroTik

Hello,

Since we have begun upgrading various routers across the network to v2.9.27 (and paying $$ for license renewals) we are starting to see odd behavior from our Intel related hardware. I know MT has made some changes to their drivers and because of this we have had some Intel NICs become no longer supported. Additionally, we are seeing irregular behavior out of some of the Intel Motherboard on-board Ethernet ports.

What is the MikroTik roadmap relating to Intel NIC support? Do we need to be looking at different hardware for future router builds or is this just a driver bug that MT intends to resolve?

In most cases the RB44 is our preferred NIC, however many times we also need Intel NICs for their GigE capability. We use Intel Pro 1000 Quad Port NICs along with a variety of Intel Pro Fiber NICs. If MT offered GigE NICs in Quad & Dual copper along with fiber NICs in SX, LX and ZX flavors we may not need Intel support. <grin> However, something tells me it might be easier if MT just did a better job supporting the Intel NICs rather than trying to re-invent the wheel and build their own GigE NICs.

Bottom line is we are becoming a bit gun-shy to pay MT for any future upgrades if we continue to render our Intel based routers inoperable or unstable! At the very minimum MikroTik needs to clearly state what NICs are no longer supported as a result of a newer OS version release.

Best,

Brad

there were and there will be problems with quad based adapters, intel or non-intel. You may remember previous big issue with quad D-Links.

If you're willing to, contact me off-list at askingquestion at yah00 dot com, please - I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. Replace 00 with oo in email address, of course.

there were and there will be problems with quad based adapters, intel or non-intel. You may remember previous big issue with quad D-Links.

If you're willing to, contact me off-list at askingquestion at yah00 dot com, please - I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. Replace 00 with oo in email address, of course.

I don't understand why MikroTik would remove support for any adapter that was previously supported. We have many, many Intel NICs in service including several Intel Quad Port GigE NICs and until we upgraded from v2.9.7 to v2.9.27 we haven't had any trouble.

So far v2.9.27 has "broken" the Intel 695314 chipset used in a few of our GigE SX Fiber NICs and apparently has also created problems for the on-board 10/100 Ethernet port of our Intel SE7210TP1-E motherboard. That shows up as a 82557/8/9(Ethernet Pro 100) driver in the MikroTik Resources. The SE7210TP1-E on-board GigE port appears to be unaffected.

We lost three GigE fiber Interfaces (all Intel 695314 chipset) on one of our core routers after upgrading. Only because we keep plenty of spare NICs on hand (that just happened to be a different chipset) were we able to get that router back up.

To think we paid MikroTik $$$ for the heartache of scrambling to replace NICs no longer supported. It really puts a bad taste in your mouth if simply upgrading to a new MikroTik OS version could render your router inoperable.

It is unacceptable, IMO, for MikroTik to REMOVE support for any previously supported adapter without notice.

Can there be any legitimate disagreement on this simple request?

Best,

Brad

my intel nic (gige) pro 1000 mt on pci-x stopped forwarding traffic altogether after upgrades to 2.9.1x

We have 2 border routers running .27, each with 2 onboard intel pci-express gigabit nics - and the famous intel pro1000 quad port pci-x nic. There are 6 interfaces on each box. No problems in 2 months now.

I feel bad because I'm the one that hassled MT into upgrading the driver to gain support for the new pci-e nics ... and now there are issues with older cards (sure?). But I guess it's not my problem in the end ; )

Actually I bought new cards and old ones except the new ones were in pci-x and the old in pci . pci-x is weird stops forwarding traffic suddenly. reboot fixes it. Then again tried 4 different cards (2 new 2 old) with 2 machines , problem persisted.

Please list all Intel cards (model number, chipset) that doesn't work using the latest version so we could test them out.

> I don't understand why MikroTik would remove support for any adapter that was previously supported.


I don't think this is fault of mikrotik. The problem could lie in very rapid changes of chipsets on manufacturers (=Intel) side. They have one driver, e1000.o, and it's used for widest range of adapters - widest in IT industry. I can't remember one manufacturer to have more products supported with one driver than intel has. And this could be conclusion.

There are several Intel gigabit families, but one driver only in mikrotik. I think this driver can't be totally universal. Four port gigabit cards are totally unique.

My intel nics which were working for over a year stopped working it was definately not the nic chipset change.

we just updated the driver. if someone has removed support for something, then it is not us but intel

Supported Adapters - Pro1000 Series

82542 PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter 700262-xxx, 717037-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 F Server Adapter 738640-xxx, A38888-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 T Server Adapter A19845-xxx, A33948-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter A51580-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter A50484-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 T Desktop Adapter A62947-xxx
82540 PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter A78408-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter A92165-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter A92111-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter A91622-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (LX) A91624-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Dual Port Server Adapter A91620-xxx

"This download does not support 82545GM, 82546GB or 82541 or later controllers."

http://www.intel.com/support/network/ad ... /e1000.htm

Supported Adapters, Pro100 SEries

82558 PRO/100+ PCI Adapter 668081-xxx, 689661-xxx
82558 PRO/100+ Management Adapter 691334-xxx, 701738-xxx, 721383-xxx
82558 PRO/100+ Dual Port Server Adapter 714303-xxx, 711269-xxx, A28276-xxx
82558 PRO/100+ PCI Server Adapter 710550-xxx
82550
82559
PRO/100 S Server Adapter 752438-xxx (82550)
A56831-xxx, A10563-xxx, A12171-xxx, A12321-xxx, A12320-xxx, A12170-xxx
748568-xxx, 748565-xxx (82559)
82550
82559
PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter 751767-xxx (82550)
748592-xxx, A12167-xxx, A12318-xxx, A12317-xxx, A12165-xxx
748569-xxx (82559)
82559 PRO/100+ Server Adapter 729757-xxx
82559 PRO/100 S Management Adapter 748566-xxx, 748564-xxx
82550 PRO/100 S Dual Port Server Adapter A56831-xxx
82551 PRO/100 M Desktop Adapter A80897-xxx
PRO/100 S Advanced Management Adapter 747842-xxx, 745171-xxx
CNR PRO/100 VE Desktop Adapter A10386-xxx, A10725-xxx, A23801-xxx, A19716-xxx
PRO/100 VM Desktop Adapter A14323-xxx, A19725-xxx, A23801-xxx, A22220
http://www.intel.com/support/network/ad ... x/e100.htm

As well as:

Known Issues
Inconsistent Driver Behavior Under Heavy Traffic Loads
Adapters based on the Intel 82543 and 82544 LAN controllers may hang (stop transmitting) under certain network conditions. If this occurs a message is logged in the system event log. In addition, the controller is automatically reset, restoring the network connection. To eliminate the potential for the hang change the RxIntDelay parameter to zero. For details on the RxIntDelay parameter see the Command Line Parameters section.

Jumbo Frames System Requirement
Memory allocation failures have been observed on Linux systems with 64 MB of RAM or less that are running Jumbo Frames. If you are using Jumbo Frames, your system may require more than the advertised minimum requirement of 64 MB of system memory.

Supported Adapters - Pro1000 Series

82542 PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter 700262-xxx, 717037-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 F Server Adapter 738640-xxx, A38888-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 T Server Adapter A19845-xxx, A33948-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter A51580-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter A50484-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 T Desktop Adapter A62947-xxx
82540 PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter A78408-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter A92165-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter A92111-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter A91622-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (LX) A91624-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Dual Port Server Adapter A91620-xxx

"This download does not support 82545GM, 82546GB or 82541 or later controllers."

I'm holding a 717037-003 in my hands right now that had to be removed after upgrading to v2.9.27. I also have two 717040-005 cards that had to be removed as well after upgrading to v2.9.27.

All three of these cards have the LSI 695314-003 chipset.

Best,

Brad

82551 PRO/100 M Desktop Adapter A80897-xxx

The Intel Pro 82551ER chipset NIC does NOT work.

2.8.28, 2.9.26, 2.9.27 tested.

NIC works fine except will NOT pass any VLAN trafic. Driver comes up as PRO10/100.

It's a pity too. I wrongly assumed that all Intel PRO 100 chips were fully supported and ordered a pile of them.

Stay with $5 realtek's! They have never failed us to date...

what kind of link to intel do you have? correct ones are:

http://support.intel.com/support/networ ... 016238.htm
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts ... 0&lang=eng


Intel® 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Intel® 82545GM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Intel® 82546EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Intel® 82546GB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

ARE SUPPORTED, your link says these are not.

my link is latest driver: e1000-7.2.7.tar.gz
Ver:7.2.7 Date:8/2/2006 Size:185 (KB) Time @56Kbps:0.43 min

I highly doubt you have something newer than 02/august/2006. This is correct driver to use and it is proven to be as universal as possible.

> Stay with $5 realtek's! They have never failed us to date...

ahhhh, you probably tried to use gigabit realteks before version 2.9.11? Please report how much successes did you have.

None. Up to v2.9.11, realtek8169 driver used was totally screwed. As soon as you transferred first bytes thru gigabit realtek, it just hanged and stopped passing traffic - it was not usable at all. This problem was corrected in v2.9.11.

I'm not mentioning terrible performance of realtek and high cpu utilization. Intel is intel, you have to remember this. Where realteks top at around 300Mbit/s, Intel does more than 900Mbit/s... with half of cpu usage. I'm sorry, I'm sold to intel. Ah, one last point : realtek does not have gigabit fiber cards, if I'm right.