How can I configure computer with 2 NIC for optimum use?

[nzdreamer55]

Hello everyone,

This is kind of a weird post, but I have a computer running windows 7 x64 home premium that is acting as my home media server. I don't have it configured any way special, just it has 7x3TB drives with my movies, music, pictures, and TV shows that my other computer can access. I am not using the home group function in windows.

All my computers are linked through a GB switch and have access to the internet from the switch to my router and then to my modem so traffic between my home computers is through the switch and not my router.

My server computer has an on board GB LAN port that is connected to the switch. I have a spare NIC card that I could put into my server, but am not sure if this would give me better network performance.

Questions

1) Would adding another network card to my server computer connected through a GB switch give me better network performance?
2) If I have a computer running a torrent client and seeding from my media server could I set it up so that one of the LAN connections was used specifically for this torrent client computer (and would that provide any more stability/performance to my system)?

Thanks for any help you can provide me.
-S

 

[Parman]

1.) It depends on your switch. If its a smart switch or a managed switch then yes there is a lot you can do. Example setup load balancing (giving you 2gbps to your switch), but you have to remember that your other device if it has a gigabit NIC will still only receive the data a 1gbps, and anything going out of your WAN will be limited to your WAN speeds.

2.) You could set this up on a separate subnet but without it setup correctly i could see issues occurring. Maybe If you use ICS you could accomplish this but the traffic still needs to move through your other NIC on your media server to get to the outside world.

 

[nzdreamer55]

Thanks for the reply...

1.) It depends on your switch. If its a smart switch or a managed switch then yes there is a lot you can do. Example setup load balancing (giving you 2gbps to your switch), but you have to remember that your other device if it has a gigabit NIC will still only receive the data a 1gbps, and anything going out of your WAN will be limited to your WAN speeds.

The switch is the following:
Linksys SE2800 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Amazon.com: Linksys SE2800 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch: Electronics

I was thinking of if my torrent computer is serving to the outside world, but my HTPC is also trying to get data from the media server that having 2 channels going to the same computer might improve traffic to each device from the media server.

What is ICS?

Is my switch a "smart" switch?

Thanks again

-S

 

[Parman]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/76617-internet-connection-sharing-enable.html

But after thinking about it a standard ICS setup wouldnt work correctly.

Enjoy the high performance provided by Quality of Service (QoS) traffic prioritization technology

You could look into setting up QoS on the switch. I'm not sure if it has load balancing capabilities.

 

[nzdreamer55]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/76617-internet-connection-sharing-enable.html

But after thinking about it a standard ICS setup would work correctly.

I see what you are saying. Right now, all of my computers connect to the switch and then the switch connects to my router and then my modem thus no computers need to share an internet connection. I think that is what you are saying that sharing the ICS isn't needed, which I agree.

I'll look into the Quality of Service (QoS) traffic prioritization technology and see if this can be changed.

Thanks
-S