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I got a response from Protectli:

#1 my VP4650 shouldn't have this problem.

#2 they offered another document regarding ASPM for the older devices:
https://kb.protectli.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2026/02/TSB-2025-001_VP2440-ASPM-Network-Interface-Performance-Issue-v2_0.pdf

Hopefully they watch this thread to see the outcome and distill it back into another KB document.

I think it is more simple for the Intel cards, I think you can just set all interface options and it works.

But the mod you mention I think is the SMBus or I2c bus, I've seen that with a few other cards in main boards that don't fully support those protocols.

Uggg... I just received a brand new VP4650 with 6x i226 ports to replace my old recycled OPNsense server. I'm also on Business so fixes might be a while.

I guess I wait and maybe burn it in on my lab?

I'll be watching this. And before I bought this the sales person spoke to Protectli, and I spoke to Protectli about using this with OPNsense, the only thing they said was that I probably want to run Coreboot, but can switch back and forth at any time.

Considering the difficulty of people in the USA for getting Deciso based hardware, Protectli is about the best choice. And they were on government contract which helped me buy it for work. Seems like there might be a spot for more of a partnership between Protectli and Deciso/OPNsense.

[edit] I sent an email to the sales contact I made a few months ago, linked this thread. Maybe we can get Protecli on this to help out. The OPNsense hardware wasn't really an option for me here in the USA, which is why I ended up with a Protectli device.

There are ways to unlock the cards, Serve The Home has a few in the forums and generally all you need are the Intel provided tools. That's for another day, I really need to teach myself about this process because you never know what you are going to get when buying used equipment like so many of us have to do for our labs.

We mostly do not need any of the SASE features

I'll disagree, lab is where you want to fool with these features the most, then decide what and how much to put into production.

I'll have to look into the SASE starter for my lab, just getting a new to me hardware set up and would really like to look into options for production going forward.

The x710 has been good with most DAC and mulitmode optical, but when you need 1g copper, you need 1g copper. Addon was the brand that works, not even all of the FS were working. I even have some "real" Cisco GLC-T, and newer "off brand" that work in my Mikrotik 10g switches that allows going down to 100m for one device that still only has 100m.

I did update the firmware, but I'm having problems looking deeper on BSD, no ethtool in the OPNsense OS, and no indications of problems in the INTEL tools under Win10. I'll have to boot up a linux live and see if I can make heads or tails out of ethtool and see why these cards are so picky.

These Addon SFP were from ebay, I need to look for a few more. I think I paid $2-$3 each for them (shipped). And they were bought to try and get that 100m device connected (Clockwork Pi uConsole with ethernet card).

IPPT (IP passthrough) seems to work fine, and you can keep the wifi going as normal which has been handy with grandkids in the car.

Since this is still CGNAT, the only thing this really gives is one less NAT layer, but it worked immediately with no messing around on the ethernet connection. Haven't tried with the USB connection yet, and probably wont bother since this is working.

Now if I can ever get my lab put back together and get the new firewall in place, a new to me HP T740 with very picky x710-da4 card. Had a difficult time finding SFP gigabit modules that would work, I only have about 6 different brands and compatibility firmwares.

4 to 5 bars signal and 140/70 from fast dot com. That will work nicely for my lab. Going to be a couple weeks until I get back to this, hoping the construction in my office will be in a better place then so I can start setting things back up and really test this. The IPPT is kind of on my mind right now, want to test it and see what I can see. Removes one layer of NAT so that has to help.

Speeds are interesting, getting 3 bars of 5g and between 150-200mbps down, but only 5-6mbps up. Considering my lab use case, I hope the up gets a little higher, would like to see it least 10mbps, 5-6 with netbird on an RDP or even http remote is a bit tough. Have to try it at the lab tomorrow to see what I can see.

Supposed to arrive today. I've been reading and it looks like the IPPT (ip passthrough) on the ethernet port is what I want. I'll have to pick up another 12v 2a POE power splitter to power this thing when it gets to my lab, then figure out how I'm going to connect everything. Probably going to need a POE injector to go with this.

It does say you can do IPPT with USB tethering, so that might be an answer too, I have a few active extenders and my plan tops out at about 100mbps anyway. There will be much messing around before I find the final solution. Need to go back to the OPNsense docs and see what kind of options I can set for WAN and backup WAN with USB.

In general, flow control is your friend, even for audio/video over ethernet we run this.

Glad I always seem to be behind by a lot of days.

That said, today I was pulling assets that go with a book for Adobe Premiere at almost the full interface speed, across ZA. That almost never happens, even grabbing things from Microslop which is pretty much all blessed.

I need my lab back running so I can mess with this stuff and transfer back to production, this construction is killing me.

This device says it can offer IPPT (IP passthrough) so I think that would be as close to bridge as possible. But it might also be restricted by the carrier, should know more soon. There seem to be a lot of business oriented features in the OS, I'm guessing this is a pretty common thing to use for backup or other remote office.

I wish it had Netbird built in, there are some more common vpn choices, but didn't see anything I'm currently able to use.

Would also be nice if this could be POE powered, but I didn't see that in the manual either. Would just make my lab system easier to handle. It does have a battery that can be removed for in place uses like business backup wan. It also has a battery saver mode for constant power connection that keeps charge between 70 and 80 percent, might end up using this feature.

Bought the 100GB plan, that will probably be plenty as I look at what I actually use in a month at home and this will get less use.

I've only used single port a+e slot i226v cards and no problems so far. The dual cards are interesting for a few reasons, would like to know how this was fixed in case I ever need to go 6 ports in one of my T740.