Hunt for Genuine quad port NIC [PFSENSE]

[vingo]

Read carefully through OEM equivalents thread and How to identify a genuine i350 thread (Embossed delta and a few other visual cues).

Is there a sure fire way, or at least a high probability way, to buy a quad port NIC that has not been counterfitted.

Dell/HP/Supermicro for example those ones typically counterfitted or is it mainly the Intel ones that get counterfitted ?

Would be great is there was an OEM that currently sold quad port NICs for less than $200 compitable with pfsense but it is not the case.

 

[newabc]

if you run pfsense on bare metal, find the 4-port nic without supporting SR-IOV, for example, i340, it will be lesser chances to get fake ones. But if the pfSense is in hypervisor, then only SR-IOV is prefered and this trick won't work.

 

[Samir]

When I was looking for a genuine nic a few years ago, it was the Intel and Dells that were faked a lot. Now I would probably add HP to that list too as there's a lot of 'direct from china' sellers of both Dell and HP stuff so who knows what's legit and 'fell off the truck' type of goods.

Best bet is to find an obscure part number and buy used from someone reputable. If they're used, there's a better chance they're genuine since they would be pulls.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

 

[prdtabim]

When I was looking for a genuine nic a few years ago, it was the Intel and Dells that were faked a lot. Now I would probably add HP to that list too as there's a lot of 'direct from china' sellers of both Dell and HP stuff so who knows what's legit and 'fell off the truck' type of goods.

Best bet is to find an obscure part number and buy used from someone reputable. If they're used, there's a better chance they're genuine since they would be pulls.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

To avoid fakes just buy some FlexLOM quad gigabit NIC ( HP 366flr 665240-b21 ) and a PCIe adapter. I don't hear about any FlexLOM fake card.

Network Card for Intel I350-T4 4Port Ethernet 366FLR FlexibleLOM i350 665240-B21 | eBay

The item is in proper working condition when it leaves our warehouse.

www.ebay.com

PCIe X8 Riser card for HP FlexibleLOM 2Port GbE 331FLR 366FLR 544FLR 561FLR | eBay

ETA 3 to 6 Weeks. We will do our best and help you provide the solution. ※ All faulty due to improper installation or improper use will NOT be covered by the warranty.

www.ebay.com

 

[vingo]

To avoid fakes just buy some FlexLOM quad gigabit NIC ( HP 366flr 665240-b21 ) and a PCIe adapter. I don't hear about any FlexLOM fake card.

Network Card for Intel I350-T4 4Port Ethernet 366FLR FlexibleLOM i350 665240-B21 | eBay

The item is in proper working condition when it leaves our warehouse.

www.ebay.com

PCIe X8 Riser card for HP FlexibleLOM 2Port GbE 331FLR 366FLR 544FLR 561FLR | eBay

ETA 3 to 6 Weeks. We will do our best and help you provide the solution. ※ All faulty due to improper installation or improper use will NOT be covered by the warranty.

www.ebay.com

Wait what is FlexLOM? I can honestly say I have never heard of this before.

If this is a good way to help ensure a genuine i350, then wow, thank you!

But really what is FlexLOM?

 

[BlueFox]

$30 shipped (Intel i350AM4 based): Silicom - PE2G4BPI35LA-SD - Quad Port PCIe 1GB Ethernet Bypass Card | eBay

No one bothers to counterfeit Silicom products so far as I'm aware.

 

[newabc]

$30 shipped (Intel i350AM4 based): Silicom - PE2G4BPI35LA-SD - Quad Port PCIe 1GB Ethernet Bypass Card | eBay

No one bothers to counterfeit Silicom products so far as I'm aware.

This is another way to buy a NIC with genuine Intel chip, finding a NIC equipping i350-am2/am4. If the user is using non-windows OS, it should be no problem with the open source Intel drivers.

But the issue I met on the Windows workstation's NIC teaming is that the current Intel drivers for windows will only be installed for the genuine Intel NIC with Intel firmware, other than the OEMs or other brands. So both of my IBM and HP oem i340-t4 failed to install the Intel drivers from Intel website with Intel's NIC teaming software, and have to use the drivers from Microsoft Windows itself.

 

[oneplane]

While I'm aware of a lot of storage counterfeiting I never had fake network cards from any source (enterprise, retail, eBay) but perhaps that's because I never needed to look very far to find a place to get them. It's one of the few types of components that can be reliably found for a reasonable price.

Are the fake ones non-functional? Or do they work but are they simply bad binned chips from Intel/Broadcom/Mellanox?

 

[newabc]

While I'm aware of a lot of storage counterfeiting I never had fake network cards from any source (enterprise, retail, eBay) but perhaps that's because I never needed to look very far to find a place to get them. It's one of the few types of components that can be reliably found for a reasonable price.

Are the fake ones non-functional? Or do they work but are they simply bad binned chips from Intel/Broadcom/Mellanox?

Maybe there are some recycled Intel chips on the fake ones. A non-relative story from Shenzhen, the users can only find the recycled 80486 CPUs from the dealers in Shenzhen now.

 

[prdtabim]

Wait what is FlexLOM? I can honestly say I have never heard of this before.

If this is a good way to help ensure a genuine i350, then wow, thank you!

But really what is FlexLOM?

FlexLOM ( Lan on mainboard ) is a proprietary expansion slot found in HP servers.
Some people made reverse engineering to see if could use flexlom cards in PCIe slots in desktop/servers.

GitHub - KCORES/KCORES-FlexibleLOM-Adapter: KCORES FlexibleLOM to PCIe x8 adapter and baffle model

KCORES FlexibleLOM to PCIe x8 adapter and baffle model - KCORES/KCORES-FlexibleLOM-Adapter

github.com

The real advantage is the price point of the flexlom cards.
See ebay for HP cards:
366flr = 4x 1Gb/s ethernet Base-T i350
331flr = 4x 1Gb/s ethernet Base-T BCM5719
533flr = 2x 10Gb/s ethernet Base-T BCM57810
530flr = 2x 10Gb/s ethernet SFP+ BCM57810
561flr = 2x 10Gb/s ethernet Base-T x540

 

[mach3.2]

This is another way to buy a NIC with genuine Intel chip, finding a NIC equipping i350-am2/am4. If the user is using non-windows OS, it should be no problem with the open source Intel drivers.

But the issue I met on the Windows workstation's NIC teaming is that the current Intel drivers for windows will only be installed for the genuine Intel NIC with Intel firmware, other than the OEMs or other brands. So both of my IBM and HP oem i340-t4 failed to install the Intel drivers from Intel website with Intel's NIC teaming software, and have to use the drivers from Microsoft Windows itself.

My Lenovo I350-T2 have no issues using the latest Intel drivers, I even flashed the Intel option ROM on it.

For all intends and purposes it identifies as an Intel I350-T2, except it have a Lenovo subvendor code.

 

[Mithril]

This is another way to buy a NIC with genuine Intel chip, finding a NIC equipping i350-am2/am4. If the user is using non-windows OS, it should be no problem with the open source Intel drivers.

But the issue I met on the Windows workstation's NIC teaming is that the current Intel drivers for windows will only be installed for the genuine Intel NIC with Intel firmware, other than the OEMs or other brands. So both of my IBM and HP oem i340-t4 failed to install the Intel drivers from Intel website with Intel's NIC teaming software, and have to use the drivers from Microsoft Windows itself.

I feel like the bypass stuff is overkill, or is that part of what keeps it niche enough?