Use RJ45 port on motherboard and pci?

[systemlayers]

Hi this is probably a stupid question but I'm wondering if it were possible to use my atom mini itx with pci + pci nic card and creating a firewall? No possible problems between using the motherboard port and a pci port?
I'd like to fool around with smoothwall or another firewall software.

 

[AMD_Gamer]

That will work fine, a lot of people probably do that.

 

[systemlayers]

For first firewall OS to tinker around with does anyone have suggestions?

 

[thefreeaccount]

Depends on the motherboard I think...some of those internal NICs are pretty slow and not very well-suited for use in a firewall. I had this problem with a realtek internal NIC.

 

[Tau]

Depending on the throughput you are expecting you may run out of bandwidth. if the integrated NIC is PCI, and you add another PCI NIC, you will be limited to ~100MB/s between the two, and probobly some nasty colissions

 

[systemlayers]

It's a realtek internal NIC gigabit and I have a trendnet cheapo pci gigabit lying around. My internet is (theoretically however rarely 100Mbps down and 5Mbps up).
I would be putting it in a sequence like this: Modem -> Firewall -> Netgear GS108T switchV1 -> Devices+ Tomato Router.
So I might not be able to reach the top speeds of my internet with this setup?

 

[systemlayers]

Bumping my own thread i know i know but I found this card, would this be a good choice? Supposedly compatible with PCI. I didn't think pci had enough bandwidth for dual gigabit?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106055