Win2K with two NICs

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
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Is there anyway to control which NIC port/IP address that gets used by any "network-using" application? I know there are CPU affinity options for SMP systems, so I'm looking for something that is a network equivalent. Does such a thing exist?

I'm ultimately trying to get two "networked" applications to run on the same PC ... just using two separate IP addresses/network ports.

Any clues?

-SUO
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Static routes, if one of the apps is specifically accessing certain IPs or networks. That's the only thing I can think of. If you had both IPv6 and IPv4 running you could bind one to each adapter and make one app use that I guess...
 

Palek

Senior member
Jun 20, 2001
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You could try to use some virtual PC software, run some verion of your OS on it with only one of the NIC's enabled for that virtual PC, run the second instance of the software from that Virtual PC, and hook them up that way. I have no idea if it would work, though.
 

NogginBoink

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Feb 17, 2002
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You have to get the application to bind only to the IP address(es) you want.

That's something that the application author has to write into the code.
 

Lord Evermore

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Oct 10, 1999
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I assumed that the apps didn't have that capability, so we were going on the assumption of looking for an alternative. Obviously is the app has a setting available that says "use connection X", then that could be done.

I'd have to be pretty desperate before I'd run a second instance of an OS just to get an app to use a second NIC. :)
 

pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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you could use the port forwarding in your router to forward all the applications that come through an specific port number to one of the nics.
 

Palek

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Jun 20, 2001
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I'd have to be pretty desperate before I'd run a second instance of an OS just to get an app to use a second NIC. :)
Well, I just cannot imagine how else two instances of the same application could run on the same OS and select different interfaces. If you're dealing with a Win32 app that uses the registry to store settings, it is pretty much impossible with one OS. Not to mention that I imagine most net apps (apart from browsers and maybe some ftp clients) would not allow multiple instances to run. So I just cooked up a crazy idea that MIGHT actually work. :D He did specifically mention he wanted to use one machine...
 

Lord Evermore

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Oct 10, 1999
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I didn't say it wouldn't work, I just said I'd never want to do that. Computers are slow enough as it is. :)

pitupepito2000: this is two NICs in one computer, no router is involved. A router would also have to have two external interfaces to be able to use two connections. If you mean just letting a router handle incoming packets, that won't work, because the response from his machine will still be routed out through whichever NIC is considered primary, it doesn't matter which one the traffic comes IN on.
 

SUOrangeman

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Oct 12, 1999
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Thanks for soe insights, guys. The tricky part is that I really want the two "networked" apps to talk to each other. The original configuration was shipped on two Win2K PCs and required the network to interface between the two applications. I'd like to replace both systems (P3-650 and P3-933) with a shiny, new P4-2.4C+P4P800 monster in all of its hyperthreaded goodness. The new system is built; I just haven't tried to install both apps yet.

I'm trying to cheat at the moment by using two NICs in the system. For all I know, the two apps may even wok together by recognizing that they are on the same system. I figure that I will at least give it a try. :)

-SUO
 

Lord Evermore

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Oct 10, 1999
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I'd hope they're not so badly programmed that they can't at least use the localhost to talk to each other. :)
 

SUOrangeman

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Oct 12, 1999
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Although I never thought about it, I have to try making use of 127.0.0.1 with the system as well. If that works, I won't even need the second NIC.

-SUO