Hardware

Hi all,
I picked up two switches that support VLAN because I need to separate out the VoIP traffic from a couple of phones.
I set everything up, then tried to get the VLAN to connect on my m0n0wall, but I can't get it to work.

Now, a section on the m0n0.ch homepage caught my eye, the bit about "VLAN Tagging" (see http://m0n0.ch/wall/hardware.php). It lists a bunch of cryptic NIC abbreviations (any chance of putting those in clear text someplace? just a thought). What I don't find is "vr", which I would presume is the abbreviation for the VIA VT6105M NIC that is used in the ALIX 2d13 I'm using. I have read a few posts here and there that may indicate that this VIA chip doesn't support VLANs on a hardware level.

However, if you look at the manufacturer's spec sheet (see http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/networking/rhine/vt6105m) it lists "VLAN for added performance and security" as one of the features.

So which is it? Can I use VLANs with my ALIX hardware or can't I? 

Thank you!!!

Best regards,
Hans

Those cryptic abbreviations are the FreeBSD driver names for supported NICs.

You can learn more about those by looking at the FreeBSD Supported Devices page for the FreeBSD version used by your version of m0n0wall.

check out this thread for help with vlans.
http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,4552.0.html

Thanks, gus for the link. I'll study it! :-)

@Fred: I did a bit of research. First of all, M0n0wall 1.34 runs on FreeBSD 6.4 (as per Wikipedia).
So I looked here:
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.4R/hardware-i386.html#ETHERNET

This tells me, that "The vr(4) driver supports VIA Technologies Rhine I, Rhine II, and Rhine III based Fast Ethernet adapters...". The ALIX board uses the Rhine III version.

Thus it is as I thought in the first place: the abbreviation is "vr" (since this is also what it is called in the NIC assignment page of M0n0 setup). According to the m0n0.ch homepage, "vr" isn't listed under the drivers that support hardware-based VLAN tagging. According to VIA, the hardware does.

I'm right back at the beginning.

So the scenario might be that the VIA hardware _does_ support VLAN tagging, but the vr-driver doesn't?

Thank you!

Sorry, but I have no explanation as to the disconnect between the m0n0wall and VIA documentation. I have an ALIX myself but haven't had the need for VLANs and have no other experience with them either.

I did some digging on this.. The topic of vr vlan support was discussed looong ago on the mailing list and I *think* it was resolved.  I would test it but I don't think I have any hardware that uses vr.

http://m0n0.ch/wall/list/showmsg.php?id=333/94

yes it supports vlans, and should support it in hardware.

the quickest way to know without reading source code is to set it up, and if you can send full packets it's in hardware, otherwise in software.  from the man page:

The vlan driver automatically recognizes devices that natively support
     long frames for vlan use and calculates the appropriate frame MTU based
     on the capabilities of the parent interface.  Some other interfaces not
     listed above may handle long frames, but they do not advertise this abil-
     ity of theirs.  The MTU setting on vlan can be corrected manually if used
     in conjunction with such a parent interface.