3 NIC in one mobo, does it work ?

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game14

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My plan is to get 3 PCI NIC's for cheap and plug them into one mobo.
Install Smoothwall as OS.
Connect the onboard lan to my modem and the 3 NIC cards to 3 other PC.
Question is would that work as router/switch ???
Is there a limit on how many NIC's i can plug into one mobo ???

Mobo is Asus P4G533, CPU socket 478 Celeron
 
Should work as long as the NICs are supported and there isn't a driver or hardware bug (some crappy NICs don't share nicely on the PCI bus and that leads to really awful performance). I suggest using Intel.

Though I would recommend using a managed switch and a single tagged interface instead. What are you trying to accomplish attaching the clients directly to the smoothwall?
 
Basically i want to connect all 3 computers to the internet and sometimes copy files from one computer to another. Same as my router/switch did before they died. I had 3 of them and was not happy with any of those router/switches. So instead of wasting money for another router i thought about using some parts i got out of an old compaq for free , plug in the NIC's and be done. I can get 3 Gigabit NIC's for cheap, partout from other system's but i dont remember if those are Realtek or Marvel.
Its only for home use , nothin profesional.
 
Just buy one NIC (doesn't need to be Gigabit) and then get a normal Gigabit switch.

Modem > Smoothwall > Switch > PC's.

The Smoothwall shouldn't be doing the switching.
 
What is your aversion to using an industry standard $30 dedicated Gigabit switch for the actual switching?
 
my thinking was:
1- i can get the 3 NIC's for $10
2- if those standart switches last like the standart router/switches i had in the past :eek:
3- cut down on clutter, everything in one case, no power bricks.
thats all.
 
For one thing, you're not going to get anything close to GigE performance doing software switching (or routing) with crappy NICs on the PCI bus with old hardware. Maybe a couple hundred mbps at best. It will work, but it's kludgey, won't perform well, and will only get you a couple ports. Spending a few more dollars and getting a proper switch will net much better LAN performance and more expandability. They're pretty reliable. If you're worried about it, spend some more money and get a high quality one. Really though I think any reasonable switch will be much more reliable than a 5 year old low-end PC...even the $14.99 after MIR one that criccio linked you to, I've used these TrendNET switches, and while I've seen a couple of old 100mbit ones fail now, they're great for how cheap they are.

It's the right way to do it.
 
Well i never got any speeds close to 20mbps on routers i used , basically it was never possible to tranfer files from one pc to another and be online at the same time. Downloading and do some web browsing ... not even to think about it.
my D-link died after 2 years of headache, the other 2 (Linksys/Netgear) after less than one year. Thats why im not happy with routers.
For now im switching the cable manually all the time .. gets kinda annoying over time. Read about people who used an old pc as firewall connecting it to a switch as replacement for their routers. Thats why i thought why not just plug in 3 NIC's and im done. But havent found anything about anybody who has done that.
Well was just an idea for a maybe cheap solution.
 
I would second that trendnet switch. I got the 8 port version when it was on sale. Between my i7 rig and my NAS with a Via c7 board I can get 60 MB/s + out of it. That's with integrated nics on both machines and a single 1tb WD green drive in the nas.
I have a 5 port netgear gigabit switch I got several years ago that I can't recall having any problems with either.
 
Yea I have the one I linked to and I get consistently fast speeds. My HDD's are the only limit on bandwidth.
 
So it would be recommended to get all new hardware for the Smoothwall and a switch. No way around.
 
game14 said:
So it would be recommended to get all new hardware for the Smoothwall and a switch. No way around.
Click to expand...

You can try it, it will certainly work, it's just not a recommended setup and your performance between PCs will suck. But for just Internet access it should work fine. Spending about the same money on a GigE switch will get you much better PC->PC performance and won't affect internet access through the Smoothwall at all, so that would be the way I'd rather do it.

Keep in mind that I don't know anything about Smoothwall, but there's no reason to suspect it can't handle this.
 
I never worked with smoothwall or any other linux based programs either. So would be the first time to play around with. Thank you for your help so far , im gonna do some more thinking tonight.
 
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