What is a good network adapter for a server?

[ddeder]

We have been having problems with the custom built server at the office for some time now. Computers on the network seem to just randomly lose their connection to the server every few hours. A couple of computers have to logoff and logon every morning to re-establish a connection. I think it may be due to the generic $10 network adapter that was installed in the server. I'm looking to replace it with a network adapter that is specifically for servers - any suggestions?

 

[amdskip]

I believe intel nics are pretty highly reguarded and I also like 3com nics.

 

[Boscoh]

The 3 I've had the best luck with are Intel, 3com, and Broadcom.

 

[calbars]

From my experience, Intel server nics are solid. Put 2 in a server, plug them to a Cisco switch, configure Fast-Etherchannels to bond the two NICs and your network will stay up even if one NIC gets fried. Worth the extra bucks.

To paraphrase an old saying: "No one gets fired if you choose Intel NICs".

3com, broadcom and al have good reputations... but stay away of those generic Realtek nics, be it just for the quality of the drivers.

 

[sharq]

3com NIC's are the ones I like the best. Intel is just as good.

 

[Southerner]

Ditto - 3Com or Intel.

 

[buleyb]

for inexpensive, any of the above listed NICs.

For servers that I intend to punish, Alacritech (Alacritech.com) makes good NICs that offload TCP from the CPU.

 

[cmetz]

Netgear GA302T (BCM5701) is the best 32 bit / 33MHz PCI NIC that I've tested so far for gigabit, and that performance is likely to carry over very well to 100Mb/s performance on your existing network (plus it'll give you a nice upgrade path). Should cost you ca. $35 - but suddenly Newegg and ZZF are out of stock(!?). Most Dell & Compaq servers I've seen sold now use Broadcom gigabit NICs of various flavors (the differences are mostly expansion vs. LOM and what bus interface the chip has).

Broadcom's 10/100 chips like the 4401(?) are very different and not so good.

Intel Pro/1000MT is another solid choice for 32 bit / 33MHz PCI. OEM $41 shipped from Newegg. Also widely used and supported.

Intel Pro/100 Management Adapters (82559 chip) are also very good, but I expect that you can get the Pro/1000MT for basically the same price now, making it somewhat silly to buy the older one.

3Com - in my opinion - is riding their name these days. Same exact chips inside as stuff made by Linksys and/or D-Link at like a 300% price premium. Avoid.

 

[ddeder]

CMETZ,

I noticed that the Intel nics you mentioned are desktop nics. Newegg also has Intel server nics. What is the difference between a server nic and a desktop nic? With a bunch of people accessing the server at once, is a server nic going to handle the traffic better than a desktop nic? Currently we have a $7 nic with the realtek chipset and people are getting bumped off the network all the time. Is it likely the network adapter is causing the problem?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: ddeder
CMETZ,

I noticed that the Intel nics you mentioned are desktop nics. Newegg also has Intel server nics. What is the difference between a server nic and a desktop nic? With a bunch of people accessing the server at once, is a server nic going to handle the traffic better than a desktop nic? Currently we have a $7 nic with the realtek chipset and people are getting bumped off the network all the time. Is it likely the network adapter is causing the problem?

Realtek is known to be horrible.

 

[spidey07]

I'm thinking there are many other problems...the NIC being the least of them.

Check your cabling and switching gear.

but hey! for less than a hundred bucks you can eliminate the NIC as a source of trouble.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I'm thinking there are many other problems...the NIC being the least of them.

Check your cabling and switching gear.

but hey! for less than a hundred bucks you can eliminate the NIC as a source of trouble.

Cables and connections are definitely the first thing to check. Spidey always reminds me of that (whether he knows he does that or not ). I just hate RealTek

 

[cmetz]

ddeder, the Intel "server" NICs often have a 64-bit and/or 66MHz/133MHz PCI/PCI-X bus interface - basically support for a wider and/or faster bus. Other than that, I have not been able to figure out what's different between the server and desktop NICs. For a normal 32 bit 33 MHz PCI, they appear to be the same thing, just much different cost.

RealTek sucks. Definitely not something you want in a server.

What does "bumped off the network" mean? It may be deeper than just your NIC, but without details folks can only speculate.

 

[Southerner]

I believe Intel server NICs used to (still?) have some nice functionality as far as failover is concerned. It's been years though, and I'm on codeine, so this could all be wrong.

I remember being impressed when I learned some of what Intel NICs would do. Might be worth a search...

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: calbars
From my experience, Intel server nics are solid. Put 2 in a server, plug them to a Cisco switch, configure Fast-Etherchannels to bond the two NICs and your network will stay up even if one NIC gets fried. Worth the extra bucks.

To paraphrase an old saying: "No one gets fired if you choose Intel NICs".

3com, broadcom and al have good reputations... but stay away of those generic Realtek nics, be it just for the quality of the drivers.

I've done this too and you are right...it's been dead on solid :beer:

 

[cmetz]

Southerner, failover is a driver function, not a controller function, but I wouldn't put it past Intel to only enable the driver function on the more expensive "server" NIC as a differentiator. Since I don't use Intel's driver's anyway, it's a non-issue to me.