Windows 7: Networking with 2 adaptors

I read that have a network adaptor just for the virtual XP was faster. I don't use XP Mode as such but I do use virtual XP PC as a sandbox. So I got a second network card but unlike XP, 7 doesn't seem to allow you to have the adaptor enabled but the local area network disabled. If I have the adaptor enabled, then Virtual PC setting can see the adaptor and I can use use it for VPC. But Windows 7 also uses and then moans that both adaptors are on the same subnet and use the same gateway. If I disable the 2nd local area network that also disables the hardware and so VPC can't see it or use it.

How do you do this?

Hi there
you need something like a "Virtual switch" - generally you will use a second LAN adapter for a different subnet etc.

These sorts of scenarious are used when you have a number of "Virtual Servers" running on a Host machine running a Hypervisor (Vmware's ESXi or Ms's Hyper-V).

These are "bare metal machines" with a really tiny skeletal Linux system in them so maximum resources can be given to the VM. These allow multiple LAN cards to be used for different sets of VM's on different subnets controlled by a Virtual switch.

I'M sure XP mode won't allow anything like this -- you'll in the first instance need to create SEPARATE Virtual Machines, and then have some good virtual networking software to run these with.

Start by reading this -- although I think its overkill for what you need to do it's good learning material.

What is Virtual Switch (VSwitch)? A Technology Definition From Webopedia.com

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for the reply but I'm not sure you catch my drift.

What I want to do is have
1. Win 7 (prof x64) -> NIC 1 (and not NIC 1 + NIC 2)
2. Virtual XP -> NIC 2

I use VirtuaWin to have 2 desktops, one full screen XP, one full screen Windows 7. I'm trying to crank up the speed on the XP which is running a remote desktop via Citrix. I can give Virtual XP one NIC but I can't stop Windows 7 using both NICs. When I ran Virtual XP on XP I could just disable local area network 2 on main XP but leave the adaptor enabled. There doesn't seem a way to do that in Windows 7.

I've tried putting the NICs on 2 different subnets and setting the router to cover both. Windows 7 shows both NICs on my home network. The setup I've tried is:

IP 192.168.0.33 192.168.1.34
Mask 255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0

If I make the gateway different then I get 2 networks but not otherwise. It seems like anything, IP or gateway on the same subnet joins the networks into 1. And how I connect to the gateway on the wrong IP is a problem unless the router can do something on VLANs (whatever they are). But even if I split the networks that doesn't help. I want to disable the 2nd network on Windows 7 while leaving the NIC enabled so that virtual XP can use it. Windows 7's only disable seems to turn off the NIC.

FYI Citrix performs some scan on of my PC sending unrevealed data back (even MS doesn't do that!). Hence the reason to run it in an XP sandbox. Even ignoring the privacy issue I have info on this work PC for other customers which I must protect against snooping, not that I think the Citrix is snooping but since I don't know what it looks at or what it sends back....

I think I have the solution (from Dedicated networking for Virtual Machines - Virtual PC Guy's WebLog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs).

In Windows 7 change adaptor properties and remove everything except Virtual PC Filter Driver on NIC2 (and one NIC1 untick Virtual PC Filter Driver so VPC only has NIC2). Windows 7 then has the NIC2 enabled but with no connectivity. Select NIC2 in the virtual PC settings. Virtual PC connects by default with DCHP so this gives it an IP address and default gateway. Is still somehow works out that my network is 192.168.0.x and that DCHP is on 192.168.0.50. Not sure how it does that or how to make the virtual PC use a static IP. Still it seems to work to give one NIC to Windows 7 and one to virtual XP.