IOCREST Intel NIC and other brands from Aliexpress (I225/6-v)

[FCMpex]

Hello,

 

During one of the recent clips, there is a recommendation of an IOCREST M.2 10G adapter (NCIX logo computer build -

 

It might be a long shot, but I'm wondering if someone that knows this brand could help me with a driver issue.

 

I have bought two ultra cheap intel 2.5G NICs from Aliexpress and I'm facing a driver issues where the latest Intel wired version (28.3) throws a error saying the "certificate of signature" has expired.

 

Using an older driver, even the one from their website shows a less specific error, like "Code 10".

 

I have dug a bit and these seems like some kind of non WHQL certified NICs, and there is a process by which you can create a certificate and sign the driver yourself (https://woshub.com/how-to-sign-an-unsigned-driver-for-windows-7-x64/)

 

Which would work on Windows 7.

 

However, it doesn't work on Windows 10 due to more restrictive policies.

 

The only way I managed to get it to start and work is to actually disable "driver signature verification" and put Windows 10 in testing mode.

 

The cards work fine, I had to force them to negotiate the link at 2.5G but otherwise work perfectly well.

 

So, if someone knows more about this topic, please let me know what's the deal with this hardware (out of curiosity, is this some kind of reverse engineered / repurposed chip like other weird aliexpress motherboards)? And if there is a workaround for the driver, other than "disable signature verification". Is it a clash with my integrated NIC which is also from intel (X570 Taichi)

 

There are random posts I've found, but no actual solution (https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/intel-ethernet-controller-i226-v/m-p/1565234)

 

Thanks!

 

PS: This is the card, looks exactly the same: https://www.amazon.com/IO-CREST-Ethernet-Interface-SY-PEX24076/dp/B09SSD3HMB?th=1

PS2: My hardware: X570Taichi with intel I211 + AX200 integrate nics (works perfectly well), 5800X3D

PS3: Cards seem to work perfectly fine in Ubuntu 22.04, one of them shows "igc" networking driver; one shows to be Intel I226-v, the other I225-v rev b3.

PS4: One attachment shows it working with a more recent driver I signed myself

PS5: Added ubuntu screenshot

[FCMpex]

Here is a test where one nic is in my desktop computer and the other one is in a nas via a hasivo 2.5GB switch.

 

Copying from the windows machine onto a smb share of a ZFS array, speed is steady and very little hiccups.

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 hours ago, FCMpex said:

Using an older driver, even the one from their website shows a less specific error, like "Code 10".

 

I have dug a bit and these seems like some kind of non WHQL certified NICs, and there is a process by which you can create a certificate and sign the driver yourself (https://woshub.com/how-to-sign-an-unsigned-driver-for-windows-7-x64/)

Can't say I've seen this.  I was using an i225 B3 M.2 adapter from Ali for a while on my Windows 11 box in an PCIe to M.2 adapter and it worked fine. (I just happened to have these two things knocking around from a previous project so it made more sense as a temporary solution than buying a new NIC)

 

Driver signing AFAIK should have zero impact from the NIC itself, if the NIC matches the right IDs in the driver INF file then it should "just work".  Not very helpful I know.

[FCMpex]

Damn, no one has this issue?

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 hours ago, FCMpex said:

Damn, no one has this issue?

Its a weird one, as Ubuntu proves it should "just work".