Running two network cards with XP?

[Tomer]

So here?s the deal.

I have a small 10/100 network connecting 6 PC's. I would prefer to not have to buy a Gigabit switch just yet.

Is it possible to run two network cards in an XP machine, a 10/100 and a gigabit?

I would like to have two of the PC's still hooked to the existing 10/100 network, but would also like to have them directly connected via Gigabit for transferring files between the machines.

Think it will work?

My Gigabit cards should be here soon. Like a moron I ordered them from Buy.Com to save a little cash instead of my standard NewEgg, in which case I would have had them last week.

Really sucks how Buy.Com has went to the dogs, they used to be great. :-(




T

 

[JackMDS]

It can be done but the Giga Network has to be independent from the 100 Internet network.

Link to: Setting a Home Giga network.

:sun:

 

[owensdj]

Tomer, you'll probably experience problems having two computers connected by both a 10/100 NIC and a Gigabit NIC. You need to "bite the bullet" and get a Gigabit switch. You could look for a switch that has 2 Gigabit ports and the rest 10/100Mbps, or you could connect a 4-port Gigabit switch to a 10/100Mbps switch.

 

[Tomer]

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen.

I know the correct way is to run a gig switch and no doubt I will do that sooner than I think. ;-)

 

[statik213]

Don't see why having two cards would be a problem. FYI each of your cards would have a seperare ip.
to make sure that your transfering via Gigabit between the machines is to edit your hosts file on each machine and add the add a line refering the machine to the gigabit ip....
makes sense?

 

[Tomer]

Not that I had any extra to begin with, but now all my hair is pulled out.

I have carefully read over Jack's link, searched and read on the Net for 8 hours and still no joy.

I have gotten the cards installed and hooked together via a crossover cable. Setup each card with a static IP.

I can ping the cards and even transfer *some* files back and forth. Small files seem to go fine. Even 20 or so 2Mb files transfer great (and very fast), but when I try to pull over a large (say 1G file) the transfer starts fast then seems to stop, then says "The network name is no longer available"

Very frustrating indeed.

If I watch the traffic between the Giga cards it is very "spikey". Looks like a bunch of pyramids before it croaks.

 

[newbs]

you can do teaming of network cards also known as bridgeing to speed things up sorta like loadbalanceing. My file server is setup with 2 giga cards teamed together but it shows up as one connection and makes for great speed.

 

[dnoyeb]

Make sure your drivers are good and configured properly. You will have to make sure your routing table on the windows box takes the fast path to the certain computer.

I didnt know cross over cables would give full bandwidth. I thought you could only do 1/2 duplex with a crossover!?

 

[Tomer]

Update: Replaced the crossover cable with a standard cable. Apparently the new Gig cards can auto-sense and adjust, thus eliminating the need for using a crossover cable for directly connecting computers. Cool.

Unfortunately I get the same results as above. I can get groups of small files to transfer fine, but when I go to transfer a large file (multi-megabyte) it always dumps the transfer after awhile and says "The network name is no longer available"

I wonder if there is some application or log generated somewhere that would give me a clue to the cause of the failure?

Oh well, I need a break. Maybe I'll go look for a cheap Gig Router. They are probably on the shelf right next to the Truthful Cellphone Contracts and the Straightforward Insurance Policies.

 

[Devistater]

There are cheap gigabit switches availible. Newegg has a decent selection of inexpensive equipment. I bought my gigabit stuff at compusa when it was on sale. Two cards and a switch. I think you can get gigabit switches for under $50 now.

If you do a switch, you can even mix your computers with 100 mbit equipment with the gigabit stuff and alll use the same switch. Then you only need 1 network card in your XP machine. I've got 2 switches myself, a small gigabit, and a 100mbit one. I have all the 100mbits on one switch, then a cable going from the 100 to the gigabit to keep them linked together. Then my gigabit computers on the gigabit switch. That way they can all talk together and transfer files, share printers, etc.

But you do know that most desktops wont even be able to saturate gigabit equipment, not even with Raptor hdds right?