> If all interfaces have the same name, that mapping can be changed by
> as little as reordering cards on a bus; or by changing the order in
> which the kernel probes for tehm; or (given LKM network drivers) the
> order in which they're loaded.
> 
> IMHO, that's just too fragile.  In particular, it's just *not
> acceptable* for NetBSD systems that are configured as firewalls.

That is exactly the situation you already have with scsi disks, or
with 4 `identical' PCI ethernet cards.  Being able to wire-down
a particular interface (as with scsi) would make the situation
the same as it is now, right? 
(ed0 -> lan0; de0 -> lan1; el0-> lan2; de1 -> lan3)
Normal users could just let them be wildcarded; as long
as the probe sequence is deterministic, it shouldn't be
any worse to configure than currently.

Kevin