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<!doctype html><html lang=en data-theme=dark><head><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><link rel=preload as=font type=font/woff2 href=/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-400.woff2 crossorigin=anonymous><link rel=preload as=font type=font/woff2 href=/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-700.woff2 crossorigin=anonymous><link rel=preload as=font type=font/woff2 href=/fonts/fira-code-latin-300.woff2 crossorigin=anonymous><link rel=preload as=font type=font/woff2 href=/fonts/fira-code-latin-400.woff2 crossorigin=anonymous><link rel=preload as=font type=font/woff2 href=/fonts/fira-code-latin-700.woff2 crossorigin=anonymous><meta name=robots content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"><title>Using a Realtek NIC with OPNsense</title>
<meta name=description content="For the past few years, I&amp;rsquo;ve been running pfSense (and more recently OPNsense) in a virtual machine within Proxmox. This has been running fine with a single onboard Intel NIC. A few months ago, I upgraded to a machine that has a CPU that supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, has more SATA ports, and has more PCI slots for future expansion. With the goal of having a dedicated NIC for WAN, I bought an inexpensive 1Gbps PCIe NIC (TG-3468) despite reading about some of the concerns around Realtek NICs (sluggish performance, driver instability, and in some cases system crashes).
I&amp;rsquo;ve been running a Realtek NICs reliably on Linux and Windows desktops, so I figured I could make it work without too much effort, but it turns out Realtek NICs really can be problematic when it comes to FreeBSD-based routers, and commonly documented workarounds did not solve my problems.
"><link rel=canonical href=/blog/using-a-realtek-nic-with-opnsense/><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta name=twitter:title content="Using a Realtek NIC with OPNsense"><meta name=twitter:description content="For the past few years, I&rsquo;ve been running pfSense (and more recently OPNsense) in a virtual machine within Proxmox. This has been running fine with a single onboard Intel NIC. A few months ago, I upgraded to a machine that has a CPU that supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, has more SATA ports, and has more PCI slots for future expansion. With the goal of having a dedicated NIC for WAN, I bought an inexpensive 1Gbps PCIe NIC (TG-3468) despite reading about some of the concerns around Realtek NICs (sluggish performance, driver instability, and in some cases system crashes).
I&rsquo;ve been running a Realtek NICs reliably on Linux and Windows desktops, so I figured I could make it work without too much effort, but it turns out Realtek NICs really can be problematic when it comes to FreeBSD-based routers, and commonly documented workarounds did not solve my problems."><meta property="og:title" content="Using a Realtek NIC with OPNsense"><meta property="og:description" content="For the past few years, I&rsquo;ve been running pfSense (and more recently OPNsense) in a virtual machine within Proxmox. This has been running fine with a single onboard Intel NIC. A few months ago, I upgraded to a machine that has a CPU that supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, has more SATA ports, and has more PCI slots for future expansion. With the goal of having a dedicated NIC for WAN, I bought an inexpensive 1Gbps PCIe NIC (TG-3468) despite reading about some of the concerns around Realtek NICs (sluggish performance, driver instability, and in some cases system crashes).
I&rsquo;ve been running a Realtek NICs reliably on Linux and Windows desktops, so I figured I could make it work without too much effort, but it turns out Realtek NICs really can be problematic when it comes to FreeBSD-based routers, and commonly documented workarounds did not solve my problems."><meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:url" content="/blog/using-a-realtek-nic-with-opnsense/"><meta property="article:section" content="blog"><meta property="article:published_time" content="2025-04-21T17:17:46-04:00"><meta property="article:modified_time" content="2025-04-26T18:06:19-04:00"><meta itemprop=name content="Using a Realtek NIC with OPNsense"><meta itemprop=description content="For the past few years, I&rsquo;ve been running pfSense (and more recently OPNsense) in a virtual machine within Proxmox. This has been running fine with a single onboard Intel NIC. A few months ago, I upgraded to a machine that has a CPU that supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, has more SATA ports, and has more PCI slots for future expansion. With the goal of having a dedicated NIC for WAN, I bought an inexpensive 1Gbps PCIe NIC (TG-3468) despite reading about some of the concerns around Realtek NICs (sluggish performance, driver instability, and in some cases system crashes).
I&rsquo;ve been running a Realtek NICs reliably on Linux and Windows desktops, so I figured I could make it work without too much effort, but it turns out Realtek NICs really can be problematic when it comes to FreeBSD-based routers, and commonly documented workarounds did not solve my problems."><meta itemprop=datePublished content="2025-04-21T17:17:46-04:00"><meta itemprop=dateModified content="2025-04-26T18:06:19-04:00"><meta itemprop=wordCount content="639"><meta itemprop=keywords content="linux,freebsd,opnsense,pfsense,proxmox,realtek,nic,"><style>@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:100;src:local("Roboto Slab Thin "),local("Roboto Slab-Thin"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-100.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-100.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:200;src:local("Roboto Slab Extra Light "),local("Roboto Slab-Extra Light"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-200.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-200.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:300;src:local("Roboto Slab Light "),local("Roboto Slab-Light"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-300.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-300.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;src:local("Roboto Slab Regular "),local("Roboto Slab-Regular"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-400.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-400.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:500;src:local("Roboto Slab Medium "),local("Roboto Slab-Medium"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-500.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-500.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;src:local("Roboto Slab SemiBold "),local("Roboto Slab-SemiBold"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-600.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-600.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:700;src:local("Roboto Slab Bold "),local("Roboto Slab-Bold"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-700.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-700.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:800;src:local("Roboto Slab ExtraBold "),local("Roboto Slab-ExtraBold"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-800.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-800.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Roboto Slab;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;src:local("Roboto Slab Black "),local("Roboto Slab-Black"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-900.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/roboto-slab-latin-900.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Fira Code;font-style:normal;font-weight:300;src:local("Fira Code Light "),local("Fira Code-Light"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-300.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-300.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Fira Code;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;src:local("Fira Code Regular "),local("Fira Code-Regular"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-400.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-400.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Fira Code;font-style:normal;font-weight:500;src:local("Fira Code Medium "),local("Fira Code-Medium"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-500.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-500.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Fira Code;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;src:local("Fira Code SemiBold "),local("Fira Code-SemiBold"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-600.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-600.woff) format("woff")}@font-face{font-display:swap;font-family:Fira Code;font-style:normal;font-weight:700;src:local("Fira Code Bold "),local("Fira Code-Bold"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-700.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/fonts/fira-code-latin-700.woff) format("woff")}
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class="icon icon-tabler icon-tabler-menu-2" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentcolor" fill="none" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M4 6h16"/><path d="M4 12h16"/><path d="M4 18h16"/></svg><ul class=menu--vertical><li><a class=menu__item href=/>Home</a></li><li><a class=menu__item href=/blog>Blog</a></li></ul></div></nav></header><main><div class=content><article class=post><div class=post-header><h1>Using a Realtek NIC with OPNsense</h1><div class=post-meta><span>2025-04-21</span></div></div><div class=post-content><p>For the past few years, I&rsquo;ve been running pfSense (and more recently OPNsense) in a virtual machine within Proxmox. This has been running fine with a single onboard Intel NIC. A few months ago, I upgraded to a machine that has a CPU that supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, has more SATA ports, and has more PCI slots for future expansion. With the goal of having a dedicated NIC for WAN, I bought an inexpensive 1Gbps PCIe NIC (TG-3468) despite reading about some of the concerns around Realtek NICs (sluggish performance, driver instability, and in some cases system crashes).</p><p>I&rsquo;ve been running a Realtek NICs reliably on Linux and Windows desktops, so I figured I could make it work without too much effort, but it turns out Realtek NICs really can be problematic when it comes to FreeBSD-based routers, and commonly documented workarounds did not solve my problems.</p><h2 id=environment>Environment<a href=#environment class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h2><p>My environment consists of:</p><ul><li>Proxmox 8.4</li><li>OPNsense 25.1 (QEMU VM)</li><li>Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (5) I219-LM</li><li>Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)</li></ul><h1 id=goal>Goal<a href=#goal class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h1><p>The goal is to upgrade the OPNsense router from a single NIC to two NICs. The NICs are responsible for:</p><ol><li><strong>LAN</strong>: the internal network for computers, phones, cameras, printers, etc (NIC 1)</li><li><strong>WAN</strong>: the connection from the ISP (NIC 2)</li></ol><p>Having two separate physical interfaces for LAN and WAN creates clear, physical separation between the trusted internal network and the untrusted external network at the hardware level. This also should improve performance and throughput since the same physical connection is no longer shared between LAN and WAN.</p><h2 id=device-passthrough>Device Passthrough<a href=#device-passthrough class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h2><p>For maximum performance and reduced hypervisor overhead, passing through a physical NIC for WAN directly to the VM seemed to make the most sense, so I passed it through to the OPNsense VM.</p><p><img src=./opnsense-device-passthrough.png alt=passthrough></p><p><img src=./opnsense-device-passthrough-add-pci.png alt=passthrough-add-pci></p><p>I added the PCI device and restarted the OPNsense VM and re-configured the WAN in OPNsense to use this device.</p><p>I received the WAN IP and everything appeared to be working. I ran a few speed tests and noticed that the download speeds were much lower than normal from all of my devices. I checked my instance of <a href=https://docs.speedtest-tracker.dev class=link--external target=_blank rel=noreferrer>speedtest-tracker</a> noticed that the download speeds were significantly slower than historical records:</p><p><img src=./speedtest-tracker.png alt=speedtest-tracker></p><p>These speeds tests were going through Mullvad, which occasionally is inconsistent, but the results remained consistently lower than the previous configuration.</p><p>I reverted the WAN back to the original NIC, and the download speeds returned to more average results immediately so it became obvious that something was not right with this setup.</p><h3 id=realtek-drivers>Realtek drivers<a href=#realtek-drivers class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h3><p>I did some web searching / LLM prompting and discovered that some people have had improved results after installing the OPNsense plugin <strong>os-realtek-re</strong>.</p><p>After installing the plugin and ensuring the kernel module was loaded at boot by following the post-install instructions, the throughput was still signicantly slower than before adding a second NIC.</p><p>I was starting to think that there might be a problem with the hardware and began the process to return it to the vendor.</p><h2 id=virtualized-nic-with-a-linux-bridge>Virtualized NIC with a Linux bridge<a href=#virtualized-nic-with-a-linux-bridge class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h2><p>As one last shot, I created Linux Bridge in the Proxmox GUI with the Realtek NIC and passed it through to the OPNsense VM:</p><p><img src=./linux-bridge.png alt=linux-bridge></p><p><img src=./linux-bridge-add-network-device.png alt=linux-bridge-add-network-device></p><p>I re-configured the WAN interface in OPNsense to use the newly added network device, and the download and upload speeds returned to the typical speeds. Another added benefit to this setup is that it bypasses the need for installing Realtek FreeBSD drivers on the OPNsense VM, since the network device is virtual and managed on the Proxmox host (debian-based).</p><h2 id=conclusion>Conclusion<a href=#conclusion class=post-heading__anchor aria-hidden=true>#</a></h2><p>Although I am not sure why passing through a Realtek NIC to an OPNsense VM causes so much degradation in throughput, I am glad that there is a workaround. If I get ahold of another NIC, I would be interested in trying to reproduce the issue.</p></div><script type=text/javascript src=https://storage.ko-fi.com/cdn/widget/Widget_2.js></script><script type=text/javascript>kofiwidget2.init("Buy me a coffee","#32344a","F1F2S4LWI"),kofiwidget2.draw()</script><br><br><section id=comments class=comments><div class='container sep-before'><div class=comments><script>let theme="dark-blue",script=document.createElement("script");script.src="https://utteranc.es/client.js",script.setAttribute("repo","davegallant/site"),script.setAttribute("issue-term","pathname"),script.setAttribute("theme",theme),script.setAttribute("crossorigin","anonymous"),script.setAttribute("async",""),document.querySelector("div.comments").innerHTML="",document.querySelector("div.comments").appendChild(script)</script></div></div></section></article></div><div class=sidebar></div></main><footer><div class=copyright>Dave Gallant</div></footer><script src=/js/main.c26c1b7b76f4923d8125720886ede9ca08bfe20b924683914ba4c1c35d53667c6c2d764f5482d3860d36b9e58a50255bc22a03ff145555979852c5ec74f15e51.js></script><script src=/js/flexsearch.d6270d7508c402a6bbcd4bb19216ce2f2d7cfda08b4056a7dd0a2afedf1ca63bf3857d98a837c741587ec6e83a7aa91e1041f16036aabad04afa4cdbd9e44266.js></script><script defer src=https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js data-cf-beacon='{"token": "b96799f53f9940dca6f660e6052ba009"}'></script></div></body></html>
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