Motherboard with Dual Gigabit INTEL LAN 2.5GbE Teaming (2.0 GbE) Windows 7

[Kiriakos GR]

A year ago I did buy an older used motherboard, with Dual Gigabit INTEL.
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H this is a features rich and exceptional board for any INTEL i7 fourth gen CPU.

I did insist selecting especially the GA-Z87X-UD5H because I did predict that onboard Dual Gigabit INTEL, when used with INTEL Teaming, this will be able to take advantage of 2.5GbE LAN bandwidth in the future.

The future this is now around the corner, and now I am studying all details and options of Dual Gigabit INTEL Teaming.
Speaking of statistics, they are out few more Gigabyte motherboards, other than my GA-Z87X-UD5H, that also include dual INTEL NIC and they are also INTEL Teaming Ready.

Also there is out there several PCI-e INTEL card NIC with up to four RJ45 output, these using Quad INTEL Teaming.

The First Good News: Even latest INTEL NIC and even Realtek or Marvell .. 2.5GbE, 5GbE, 10GbE , all include driver support for Win7. 

One basic web search about in depth how-to for Dual Gigabit INTEL LAN Teaming at Win7 this will not payout because this information its hidden, and it can be found at the user manual of your motherboard.

Gigabyte this is more obligated than INTEL so to deliver details of how Teaming will work at their motherboards.
And so in my case, I did find the relative documentation at GA-Z87X-UD5H user manual ---> Chapter 5-3 Teaming ----> Page 102

The Second Good News:
For Gigabyte motherboards,  the older Intel LAN Driver 12.7.28.0 PROSet  --> Ver18.80 ---> 10-2013
This is the Best INTEL PROSet, features rich, stable, Easy to configure Teaming by the graphic user interface. 
(As is described due the Gigabyte user manual).

In a later timer, I will add benchmarks of how well Teaming works at my own motherboard when this is connected to 2.5GbE unmanaged switch.

 
 

[Kiriakos GR]

The Second Good News:
For Gigabyte motherboards,  the older Intel LAN Driver 12.7.28.0 PROSet  --> Ver18.80 ---> 10-2013
This is the Best INTEL PROSet, features rich, stable, Easy to configure Teaming by the graphic user interface. 
(As is described due the Gigabyte user manual).

I think that I have to add a correction NEW note here.
The old INTEL driver demonstrated issues at NIC teaming = unable to complete Teaming, and the Error message does not explain of why it failed.
In contrast, the latest Win 7 Final driver ( prowinx64legacy.exe ) this worked as it should.

Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
This works with any switch.

Static Ling aggregation
Double throughput due NIC Teaming, this require managed switch this supporting IEEE 802.3ad   (802.3 AD).

According to my own market research beginning of 2023, IEEE 802.3ad + 8-port 2.5G (managed) switch this is a very rare combination.
Currently there is only one very fresh product this supporting it.
And I am totally unaware if more of these will be released any time soon.

INTEL website link
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005667/ethernet-products.html

[Kiriakos GR]

Spanning Tree detected over the network ?

At the above tests I did use my ASUS GX1105B, that is a 5 ports unmanaged switch ( technology of 15/4/2008).

GX1105B documentation does not mention IEEE 802.1d = Spanning Tree = Spanning Tree Protocol = STP
And as such, the INTEL switch diagnostic software, this offered to me one undocumented information. 

••• GX1105B : 5x 10/100/1000 Mbps RJ-45 ports  ( Switching performance 10Gps) 

• Supports Auto-Negotiation for 10/100/1000Mbps
• Supports Auto-MDIX for each port
• Support Full/Half duplex transfer mode for 10 and 100Mbps
• Support Full duplex transfer mode for 1000Mbps
• Full wire speed reception and transmission
• Supports jumbo frame up to 9.6KB
• 4K entry MAC address table with auto-learning and aging function
• IEEE 802.3x flow control for full-duplex
• Back pressure flow control for half-duplex
• Support VIP port: High performance priority port for gaming and fast data connections. (Port 1)
• Smart Power Saving: Idle ports automatically power down when not in use to conserve power.

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STP this is ancient technology which filtering switch traffic due software layer algorithm.     

In 2001, the IEEE introduced Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) as 802.1w.
RSTP provides significantly faster recovery in response to network changes or failures, introducing new convergence behaviors and bridge port roles to do this.
RSTP was designed to be backwards-compatible with standard STP.
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In conclusion about this GX1105B switch, due the fact that it support VIP port, there is a minimal support of Rapid Spanning-Tree in it.
It is well know that layer-2 bridges (managed switch) this is the real thing to use, for a proper support of all protocols.

 

[Andrew-88]

Networking IT language, this is hard for me to understand.
But its good having a specialist in our circles      (Electrician + IT networks)