[RjBass]

I just saw that it is possible to use two NIC's in the the same PC. I have seen motherboards set up with two onboard NIC's but have not seen them in use. What I just read was about a gamer who used his two NIC's in a fashion that allowed him to have one for his upload stream and one for his download stream. He claimed that it was really fast.

How does one go about setting this configuration up?

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I guess I should have put this in the networking section. Sorry bout that.

[RjBass]

I guess I should have put this in the networking section. Sorry bout that.

[Kemasa]

The first part is easy, you just put in two network cards and setup the IP address for each one (or use DHCP). You need something to connect it to and you can set the routing for the data.

It can be done, but I suspect it would be expensive as you would need two data connections. It might be cheaper to have a higher speed connection.

[RjBass]

Ok so then how do I set up two IP address if I am on a dynamic connection? Can I get a 2Wire router to permanently assign me two internal 192 IP addresses?

When you say two data connections are you talking about two seperate DSL or Broadband connections coming into my house?

Regardless I obviously don't have a 1000mbps connection with DSL, I think the best I get is morre around 4.5mbps and none of the other systems in my home network have anything better then 100mbps, so the gigabite conection I am going to get with my new NIC will really only be good at lan events where I intend to use it.

So going back to my original question, where do I set up the data streams for each NIC?

Edited by RjBass, 05 January 2007 - 08:24 PM.

[Kemasa]

The IP address for each interface would be set by the DHCP server, so it should be automatic. Typically it would be set for each network that it is connected to. If both are connected to the same router, each should get its own IP address.

To get the maximum data rate, you would want more than one highspeed connection. It might be that the person you mentioned was using two connections to get to the high speed connection. This could avoid some bottlenecks, but I am not sure that it would be worth it.

I am not sure of the specifics of setting the routing under XP. You can go into the properties and see about setting the metrics of each connection for the gateway.

You would need to set the routes to control the flow.

[afg34]

so you can have two different IPs with two different ethernet ports on the same computer?

[Kemasa]

Yes. For each ethernet interface you can have an IP address (in some cases you can have one IP address for multiple interfaces, but that is not the case for all operating systems). Also, you can have IP aliases, which allows you to have additional IP addresses on a given interface, which is used by web hosting company for multiple domains, as well as for failover for servers.

You can connect a machine to multiple networks, which means you need an IP address on each network. Real servers, not PC based, can have numerous interfaces (not just ethernet).

[afg34]

so i can now download from rapidsare twice in an hour?? by just changing the ethernet wire to the other port

[Kemasa]

I don't know, it depends on how they keep track of things. There are many ways, such as cookies. Some might use an IP address, but then non-static IP addresses could be reset, so it is not that good, plus if you have multiple users on a system then it also would not work. In other words, I would not count on it working to allow more access.

[RjBass]

Ok, sorry it took me so long to get back to this.

I now have three network connections on my machine. One wireless, one 100mbps nic, and one 1000mbps nic. All three work together just fine, and it has seemed to increase my download and upload times by a little bit (According to Speakeasy).

But again, I need to know where and how I would go about setting the ul and dl parameters for each nic. I cant seem to find that in the network settings properties anywhere, and with the stuff i have found, i am not sure what to set.

[Kemasa]

I am not sure, so you might want to post the question under networking.

I am not sure that you will get more speed than just using the gigethernet, but it is something to try.

[dsenette]

i think the guy that you have referenced PROBABLY had two seperate internet connections...ONE internet connection (i.e. modem) dedicated to upload and one to download...putting extra NICs in your computer wont do anything to help your speed because they're both connecting to the same modem which only has one pipe in and one pipe out...so whether your computer has two, three, 17 doors in and out...those connections still only connect to the internet in one place

Edit: or the guy you're talking about was full of crap

[RjBass]

Well full of crap is def a possibility.

No he said he was using one nic for uploading and one for downloading at a lan party.

I just installed the gigabyte ethernet card for better speeds at the same lan events. But I was thinking that if I could set something up like that for better performance then cool. Otherwise its no biggie.

[Kemasa]

More interfaces can help, depending on where the bottleneck is, but in a PC platform I would be surprised if it would make a difference.

The modem connection could be faster than what the machine can communicate to it.

[dsenette]

The modem connection could be faster than what the machine can communicate to it.

of course...if the modem's got a gigabit lan port...and your internal network is just 10/100...then yeah...if you put a gigabit nic in the machine...it would help...but i dont THINK that simply putting two nics in the machine would help...

the normal reason (kemesa i know you know this so this is for the OP) for putting two nics in a machine is to connect to two dissimilarnetworks (different IP's) without a router....such that in a LAN party...IN THEORY you could have one NIC hooked to the internet connection and one NIC hooked to the lan...assuming that the Internet connection you were connecting to weren't already connect to the lan

if you have a house...and you want people to be able to get in and out of the house faster...you don't put more doors on the inside of the house...you could put more doors on the inside of the house...but that would just make it easier to get around IN the house (i.e. easier for more people to go from room to room faster if there are say 2 doors per room instead of 1) but when they all want to leave (or new ones want to come in)...if you've still only got one door to the outside (just a front door)...then they'll have to wait in line at the door untill everyone's in....if you put say...2 front doors in...then pople could get in and out faster...and if you designated one door as in and one door as out....the transition would be even faster because there would be more order to the process....it's the same with your proposed situation...if you've got two nics on the pc...UNLESS you find some method of having the modem (or subsequently the router after the modem) route traffic the proper way...as well as convincing the nics as to how you want them to behave (i.e one up and one down) then you're not going to increase your internet speed (i'd postulate that you wouldn't increase your LAN speed either...because the communication on the pipe still needs to have an ip to go to...so it would probably use only one nic to begin with) without adding another pathway to the internet