Two NICs on one PC

Atomik · 2 Feb 2007 at 19:44

Hi Guys.

I've got a network of three PCs all connected through a 100 meg switch on a broadband router. Two of these PCs have second 1 gig NICs. I want to connect those NICs directly to enable fast file swapping between those two PCs without disconnecting the other NICs that connect to the router. All three PCs need to be able to see each other and access the internet. Can this be achieved?

noxidjkram@hotm · 3 Feb 2007 at 06:38

A crossover cable between the two NICs should sort a direct connection between the two PCs without disconnecting your other connections. Unsure how Windows will deal with having those two connections available though - i don't know what its routing capabilities are...

M

shortone · 3 Feb 2007 at 08:38

Not 100% on this but I think if you use a crossover cable and then put the two Nics on a different ip range that would probably work ? Work a try anyway as a crossover cable will only cost you a few quid. You may also be able to connect them to your router using a normal patch cable, use a different ip range and it still do the same ?
i did something similar using Firewire as the link a few years ago.

Atomik · 3 Feb 2007 at 09:33

Both NICs auto-sense cable type, so I can do it with a straight-thru. Yeah, they'll talk to each other if I put them in the same range, but I have no idea how Windows is gonna deal with two routes to the same destination across two NICs. I can see it getting nasty!

rpstewart · 3 Feb 2007 at 10:38

Each NIC will have it's own IP address, the one connected to the router will get a dynamic address from the router but you'll need to put a static one on the direct connection NIC. Put the static IP in a range which is outside the range used by the router's DHCP server - use a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx number for example, the router will probably use 10.xxx.xxx.xxx. That way you can share to the 169.x.x.x on the other PC and it should go down the dedicated pipe.

Sone · 3 Feb 2007 at 18:44

just use a different ip range and make the metric of the gigabit interface lower than the 100mbit link

Atomik · 5 Feb 2007 at 08:21

Sone said:
just use a different ip range and make the metric of the gigabit interface lower than the 100mbit link

This was what I did in the end. Although it's mostly working OK, it does seem to have thrown up an odd problem whereby although I can browse network shares, I can't view workgroup computers in the network neighbourhood.

hardc0re_tid · 5 Feb 2007 at 15:15

been there done that: this will be of use

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17644270

Atomik · 8 Feb 2007 at 08:13

hardc0re_tid said:
been there done that: this will be of use

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17644270

Brilliant. This was the bit I was missing:

edit the hosts file on each machine to point the name of the two machines to the ip addresses of the network cards.

Should've thought of that myself, but I forgot you could map a local machine name. :rolleyes:

FrankJH · 8 Feb 2007 at 09:45

I am just sorting this out also (even though I have three pc's and a NAS box so invested in a gigabit switch)

I would have completely forgotten about host files also - thanks for that