Purpose of two ethernet ports?

[Eos]

Originally posted by: Skotty
I can't imagine more than 1 in 1000 people finding it useful.

Honestly, the main reason I think they put an extra ethernet port on some of the high end consumer boards is just for marketing coolness factor and not because it's actually useful somehow, which it rarely ever is.

< 1 in a thousand.

The g/f and I have separate internet connections (I need a backup for working at home) and dual NICs. We share data on the second NIC. Works very well. A little slow when moving more than a couple gb, but it is better than pulling hard drives.

 

[Rubycon]

Gigabit capable ethernet ports do not require a crossover cable.

I've never had to use two ports on a workstation. I disable one in the BIOS and shove an RJ45 connector into the unused one so nobody tries patch into a disabled adapter then complain about no network. :roll:

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
I don't like having my pc behind a router so I use one nic to connected to the cable modem and the other goes to the router.

I'm tired so maybe I'm missing something...but why would you connect the router at all if you connect your PC directly to the modem

LAN?

But what would the router be doing?
Implying an ISP -> Cable Modem -> PC -> Router -> LAN configuration?
That would make little to no sense.
If the PC was in fact the router for a LAN, then I'd understand, I just don't see what that router is doing there at all

 

[NiKeFiDO]

to be honest the only time I've found two useful was when my IP got banned from a school network (way back when living in a dorm) for having a "virus". Instead of spending days (literally) doing the tech service thing to get my comp back on the net, i just used the 2nd adapter

 

[cbuchach]

Originally posted by: Skotty
I can't imagine more than 1 in 1000 people finding it useful. I would guess using a PC as a router and/or firewall would be the most common use. Linux geeks like to do that. However, with firewall and router capabilities built directly into DSL and cable modems these days, and aftermarket firewall/routers being relatively inexpensive, that's hardly worth it either.

Load balancing and/or fault tolerance seem rather pointless unless it's a mission critical server environment.

Honestly, the main reason I think they put an extra ethernet port on some of the high end consumer boards is just for marketing coolness factor and not because it's actually useful somehow, which it rarely ever is.

I completely agree. I have a P5W DH with dual onboard LAN adapters and can't say that I even ever considered using both.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: cbuchach

Originally posted by: Skotty
I can't imagine more than 1 in 1000 people finding it useful. I would guess using a PC as a router and/or firewall would be the most common use. Linux geeks like to do that. However, with firewall and router capabilities built directly into DSL and cable modems these days, and aftermarket firewall/routers being relatively inexpensive, that's hardly worth it either.

Load balancing and/or fault tolerance seem rather pointless unless it's a mission critical server environment.

Honestly, the main reason I think they put an extra ethernet port on some of the high end consumer boards is just for marketing coolness factor and not because it's actually useful somehow, which it rarely ever is.

I completely agree. I have a P5W DH with dual onboard LAN adapters and can't say that I even ever considered using both.

I feel like chopped liver and all of my posts get ignored...

Sharing between dual NIC's while having separate internet connections was the first thing I thought of when we needed to get the second ISP.

 

[ForumMaster]

i know that the current Nvidia chipset (series 5 and 6 i belive) can combine two ethernet ports to create one 2Gpbs link. also, having two NIC's lets you use the computer to give more then one computer access to the net without buying a router i suppose.

 

[Synomenon]

I use the second ethernet port for my XBox 360. I don't have another long ethernet cable to go from my router to my 360, but I do have one that can reach my 360 from my PC's second ethernet port.