@quad and even as cards they get cheap.

Intel replaced their #i210 / #i219 with #i225 and #Realtek released their #RTL8125…

@k4m1 @stman yeah, according to the #RTL8139 #datasheet this is basically a very cheap 10/100M NIC designed #embedded systems and low-end/low-cost desktops, and for a device designed and sold in 2006 it made sense, given back then #Gigabit-#Ethernet and Cat.5 cabling was considered high-end.

• And unlike contemporary / successor chips by #Intel like the famous #i210 (which is still offered as #i219 but mostly succeeded by the #i225 as a 2,5GBase-T version) is way cheaper, which pre-#RoHS - NICs being sold for like € 10 retail & brand-new....

The few issues known only affect like #Virtualization setups, a market this thing was never designed for (most likely also never tested against).

• I'd not he surprised if a lot of cheap #ThinClients and other systems used these NICs because of the simplicity of integration, being a cheap 3,3V single-chip (+auxilliary electronics) solution and propably costling less than 10¢ on a reel of 10.000.

It's the reason why to this day we see #Realtek NICs being shipped instead of fanning-out & enabling #SoC-integrated NICs with a #MAC & #PHY instead: Because the auxilliary parts for those are more expensive than just getting a PCI(e lane) somewhere and plonking it down.

• Maybe there have even been some really cheap, low-end #Routers / #Firewalls aiming at #SoHo customers back in those days, cuz back then 16MBit/s #ADSL2 was considered fast, and Realtek's NICs up until recently only delivered like 60-75% of the max. speed advertised, so by the time someone would notice, that gearvwould've been EoL'd anyway and those who did notice right-away never were the target audience to begin with.

Most modern NICs are more complex and demand more configuration / driver support...

@alterelefant @HauntedOwlbear yeah, and unless we talk >2,5 GBit/s, some €250 #prebuild / #barebone with some celeron J/N SoCs and #i225 NICs will be more than sufficient.

• I just tend to often go with more flexible options on my own, but then again I rarely have to shove stuff on a DIN Rail...

In some cases where budget is tight I'd rather only upgrade/swap parts as needed (i.e. add #ubiquiti #UniFi for seamless #WiFi inside a big house or just a #pfsense router to handle an entire /28 of public IPv4's) where applicable.

• Cuz every skiddie can throw "balls to the wall" and swipe a credit card but being able to setup something maintainable on a short lotice on a tight budget is where one can show real skills...

@pmdj me neither, but I considered them on several occasions as they proudly advertise the use of #i210 or even #i225 NICs and if I had to rebuilt my current setup I'd likely chose one of those if not a 1U version...

There are some even with 10GBit/s NICs [usually an intel #X540 2-port SFP+ card] cuz that would make sense.

Also the #i350-T4 I use has been scalped to 3x it's price when I built that system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgBaRzmOqjQ