Misleading hardware and partial standard support!

[WSkinny]

Hi there,

 

I have a nifty home network setup on my Studio, based around a Atomic PI running OpenWRT working as a WiFi ISP client router so I do not overload my landlords wifi and have everything on my end on a somewhat isolated network running all on Ethernet once we're past my router (yeah overkill solution for a router, but the Proxy and Ad filtering on it are just some of the reasons why).

 

I have so far been running my network on a Gigabit infrastructure around a Fully Managed Gigabit Switch, but have started to look for ways to upgrade this to at least 2.5Gbps or 5Gbps and even posited the possibility of having my NAS replace the Switch by having it run two OSs, the NAS and another that would basically be a Virtual Switch Linux solution linked to real hardware ports. This led me to start looking for 2.5Gbps multi-port network adapters which is where things got funny.

 

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/304268569839?hash=item46d7d1ecef:g:4D8AAOSwjV1hvKSU

 

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/304268571478?hash=item46d7d1f356:g:YtEAAOSwollhvKUc

 

(REALTEK RTL8125 based devices, the datasheet is quite interesting)

 

The network adapters above claims to be a 4 port 2.5Gbps Ethernet cards, but unless I got this wrong from the datasheet, each port is limited to 1Gbps (link next)

 

https://www.realtek.com/en/products/communications-network-ics/item/rtl8125bg-s-cg

 

Can you run some tests on this type of cards? 

 

On that matter, can you advise on cheap 2.5Gbps and faster network cards (preferably including some multi-port cards as I have yet to decide on the switching approach I'll take) and some fully managed switches with a minumum of 16 ports at the same speeds?

[Rysters Tech]

https://www.amazon.com/NICGIGA-Network-Adapter-RTL8125B-Ethernet/dp/B09HGRK5XB/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=realtek+2.5g+network+adapter&qid=1649614527&sr=8-3

heres is a single port solution that is based on a realtek controller. i do not have any experience with multi-port cards so i cant help you. but what i can tell you is a friend of mine who does networking has told me that using multi-ports cards as switches can become complicated and wierd things tend to happen, plus it can start to overload the ethernet controller and pcie bus. use an external switch. heres one i found on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-SG108-M2-Multi-Gigabit-Wall-Mount-Protection/dp/B08ZHZL5Q7/ref=sr_1_6?crid=211VQKLMC8B8T&keywords=2.5+gigabit+switch&qid=1649614799&sprefix=2.5+gigabit+switch%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-6

i personally cannot believe the cost of this thing but i guess thats normal for 2.5gig equipment.