Two Network Cards in Same tower

Heeter

Overclocked Like A Mother
Joined
8 Jul 2002
Messages
2,732
Hi Guys,

I am thinking: Can it be possible to put 2 ethernet PCI cards into one tower, then connect 2 cat5 cables from two different ports of my router into each ethernet card, then somehow bridge the PCI cards so that it transfers data from router to tower over the 2 cat5's, thereby theoretically doubling the transfer rate (or at least see a significant boost in speed).

The reason I ask is that sometimes the data that moves to and from my three "workstations" to my FileServer overwhelmes the network connections, and it then shuts down the network. I then have to go around and reboot all the machines, sometimes including the router as well, although that is a lot less frequent.

If the 2 card thing does not make sense, or cannot be attained, what can I do to "toughen up" my network connections?

Thanks in advance,

Heeter
 
It is possible but whether it is only possible with specific models I don't know.
I think its called Teaming or something like that - a few of our servers have the ability.

These days gig NICs seem to come with everything, but gig switches are still very expensive, would be nice to get one - in fact I am sat infront of one but I can't take it home :( :p
 
Interesting - this requirement usually comes for a different reason.... But you WILL find that if you search the subject had come up before and almost always been problematic. So although the problems are largely overcome you can expect the two NIC's to "fight" to be "the one" for your machine and you will have to make them strike a truce!

Then I doubt you can double the bandwidth - I guess this means you are putting the two NIC's into the fileserver. However if there is one other machine that is trouble you could in theory make a direct connection to the fielserver with a crossover from it to one NIC and use only the other NIC to go to the router. This machine would be enjoying preferential access I guess..... but this would be "hard wired" so you need to weigh up pros and cons....
 
Well you could put the two NICs on the same subnet, would be interesting :p
Wonder what would happen if you pinged by hostname etc.
 
Neat... I am gonna drop having a switch soon to be honest.
Only my PC and my Xbox are now connected with cat5/6 cable - everything else is wireless..

Will prob get a Wireless G router eventually and force everyone using B to get a decent wireless card.
 
All the latest Gigabyte motherboards come with two ethernet ports on-board. :)
 
It is not one machine by itself transferring data to the file server, it is a culmination of all machines transferring data to/from the File Server that is when everything will choke up.
Hard wireing the machines together is not a viable choice in this case, all machines are in different areas. The actual File Server is mere inches from the router, but all other machines are scattered throughout the house.

I have heard of "Bridging" connections, is this what I can do here?

Thanks for all your input so far.

Can/Would the Cat5 cable itself be the limiting factor if all hardware components gets moved up to gigabit from 10/100?

Heeter
 
While cat5 can reach gig speeds I don't know if it can sustain is very well.
Cat6 looks the same and does :)
 
Electronic Punk said:
It is possible but whether it is only possible with specific models I don't know.
I think its called Teaming or something like that - a few of our servers have the ability.

These days gig NICs seem to come with everything, but gig switches are still very expensive, would be nice to get one - in fact I am sat infront of one but I can't take it home :( :p
It is called teaming. I recently used teaming to accomplish a (approx) 57 gig move from server to server. Worked very well!
 
Teaming

Can I accomplish this with my network, working properly on a day to day basis? With the router that I have (Linksys BEFR41)? I do have extra 10/100 PCI cards around.

Heeter
 
Download X-Setup Pro and it has teh option for load balancing between multiple NIC's. I have two in my PC at home and a modem, and have no problem.

So far as the interface, mebey add the server to the HOSTS file on different PC's with teh IP-NIC you want it to pull from.

As in

192.168.1.1 Server


and

192.168.1.2 Server
 
Electronic Punk said:
It is possible but whether it is only possible with specific models I don't know.
I think its called Teaming or something like that - a few of our servers have the ability.

These days gig NICs seem to come with everything, but gig switches are still very expensive, would be nice to get one - in fact I am sat infront of one but I can't take it home :( :p

doesnt seem to expensive to me
Clicktiy Click
 
i thought of doing that once but i didn't think it would work coz each network card will have it's connection or each connection will be only focussing on one card and plus they are not the same brand
 
Steevo said:
Download X-Setup Pro and it has teh option for load balancing between multiple NIC's. I have two in my PC at home and a modem, and have no problem.

So far as the interface, mebey add the server to the HOSTS file on different PC's with teh IP-NIC you want it to pull from.

As in

192.168.1.1 Server


and

192.168.1.2 Server


I kind of lost you on the second part of your answer. How would it be able to work in a "Workgroup" home network setting like mine? By using the home network setup wizard as I did, the machine as a whole was recognized, not by it's network card.

Or at least that's how I thought it worked.

Heeter
 
If i am understanding correctly, and correct me if I am wrong, you want to use 2 nic cards to double you net speed bandwidth right?

If that is the case it wouldn't work the way your thinking due to the fact hat your max throughput of your single connection is the best your going to get from your ISP. IE: If your getting a 1.5MB down and 256mb up, no matter how many Nic cards you have the most your ISP is going to give you is 1.5MB down 256mb up. You couldn't pull say 3.0MB down because you have 2 nic cards.
 
^ I think he is referring to transfers within his network.

I'm also curious on how this could be done.
 
Maveric169 said:
If i am understanding correctly, and correct me if I am wrong, you want to use 2 nic cards to double you net speed bandwidth right?

If that is the case it wouldn't work the way your thinking due to the fact hat your max throughput of your single connection is the best your going to get from your ISP. IE: If your getting a 1.5MB down and 256mb up, no matter how many Nic cards you have the most your ISP is going to give you is 1.5MB down 256mb up. You couldn't pull say 3.0MB down because you have 2 nic cards.


Hi Maverick169,

It is actually within the network that I am looking for sustained file/data transfers without the whole system collapsing when it gets overwhelmed when the workstations are transferring files/data to the FileServer through a router. If there is someway I could strengthen the network between the FileServer and the router (ie:2 ports from router, through 2 cat5s to 2 nics in FileServer) then I can envision a very strong network connection for my setup. I am not looking at actually boosting internet speeds, I know I cannot accomplish this without outright giving more money per month to my ISP.

Heeter
 
You can use your HOSTS file on a network client to specify what IP address is assigned to what machine or NIC.

It will override ANY other setting.

So if you have two network cards in your server.
192.168.1.1 Server
192.168.1.2 Server


You can tell half the computers on your network to access 192.168.1.1 and the other half to access 192.168.1.2 through use of your hosts file. This is also useful for controlling access to files on a machine.


I can disable a PC from accessing a network machine by creating a invalid IP to name configuration.

159.61.51.207 Server (is correct) creates a name-IP connection
159.61.51.0 Server (is false) will not allow-create a connection
 

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