2 nics on same computer

[lshaun]

i have a 8MB connection down 512KB up (bytes not bits) broadband and a netgear router. i have like 6 people in my house connected to my router and everythings all good nothing wrong there. i'm running windows 7 rtm build 7264. i got two nics and i was wondering if i can plug them both in and use some programs on one nic and other programs for the other? it didn't work when i had xp or when i had vista and i couldn't find information on exactly why it won't work (yes i searched all over the internet) but win 7 seems to have some new features i'm still discovering. it says its going through a switch but its not? (i'm Mad-Labs)



my original connection is 192.168.1.15 and my second nic is 192.168.1.4. also my original question was if that was possible but after checking my network connections in eset smart security 4 i realized that my program utorrent was using both of them at the same time already!




now my question is how can i set my lan 1 to use everything else and not utorrent and lan 2 to only use utorrent?

 

[Antman]

What's the point? Either port's capability exceeds the capacity of the connection.

Both ports terminate on the same loop.

 

[pparks1]

As Antman said, there is no point. Your NIC's are connected most likely at 100mbps....and your internet is only 8mbps. So, you aren't going to get any performance increases trying to spread the load across 2 NIC's. I concur 100% in his assessment and second his thoughts.

 

[lshaun]

i''m a big torrent downloader and it stays on 24/7 and whenever i'm doing some heavy downloading especially multiple torrents from hundreds of connections, my browsing and everything else that accesses the internet is slow. if i go to another computer in my house then it works fine, i'm not killing my entire internet connection's speed which is why i wanted to put it on my lan 2. if i had a spare computer then i would just use it for downloading but i don't which is why i'm trying to do it this way? i'm not trying to spread the load between two nics i'm trying to give one program its own nic. everything else can be on the other.

 

[Zidane24]

i''m a big torrent downloader and it stays on 24/7 and whenever i'm doing some heavy downloading especially multiple torrents from hundreds of connections, my browsing and everything else that accesses the internet is slow. if i go to another computer in my house then it works fine, i'm not killing my entire internet connection's speed which is why i wanted to put it on my lan 2. if i had a spare computer then i would just use it for downloading but i don't which is why i'm trying to do it this way? i'm not trying to spread the load between two nics i'm trying to give one program its own nic. everything else can be on the other.

This is probably due to your upload not being limited here...that will kill your internet speed

 

[Antman]

Load balancing is a valid alternative.

The problem you are experiencing is intensive I/O, both on the disk and the NIC. I strongly believe that if you were to assign your downloads to a folder on a second physical volume, on a separate controller, your problem will diminish greatly.

If you are going to continue such intensive disk I/O, a RAID0 volume for the downloads is prescribed.

 

[lshaun]

yeah it is my upload speed that is killing everything else which is why i'm trying to find a way around it. my downloads go to my second storage drive too. its not raid though just a regular ide. well just what is my computer doing? is it using both of them at the same time or is it switching back and forth real fast? i noticed that all of my programs start using my lan 2 connection as soon as i plug it in, i don't know why, maybe cause its not static. my lan 1 is static though. only utorrent uses both of them.

i read up some on load balancing but i don't think my cards support it cause i couldn't find out how to cut it on?

 

[Zidane24]

yeah it is my upload speed that is killing everything else which is why i'm trying to find a way around it. my downloads go to my second storage drive too. its not raid though just a regular ide. well just what is my computer doing? is it using both of them at the same time or is it switching back and forth real fast? i noticed that all of my programs start using my lan 2 connection as soon as i plug it in, i don't know why, maybe cause its not static. my lan 1 is static though. only utorrent uses both of them.

i read up some on load balancing but i don't think my cards support it cause i couldn't find out how to cut it on?

How come you can't limit your upload?

 

[lshaun]

i can limit my upload speed but thats not what i want to do. i want to utilize my extra nic card and find a way to send certain traffic through a certain nic. just like in my other post i don't have a spare computer laying around that i can use just for downloading so i'm trying to find a way around it. i mean clearly both of my cards are being used at the same time i'm just looking for a way to control what programs go to what nic.

 

[pparks1]

But if this were his upload speed, then why would using another computer through the same Internet connection be just fine? My experience is that when 1 computer is saturating the upload bandwidth on the network....then all of the other machines on the network suffer...even with bringing up basic webpages and such.

 

[Zidane24]

But if this were his upload speed, then why would using another computer through the same Internet connection be just fine? My experience is that when 1 computer is saturating the upload bandwidth on the network....then all of the other machines on the network suffer...even with bringing up basic webpages and such.

Actually thats true...might be n issue with the NICs themselves

As for the splitting traffic between the two...not possible as one connection will try to supercede the other

 

[lshaun]

i thought that too but everyones computer works fine. so Zidane24 judging on the eset screenshot i'm not really using them at the same time its just switching back and forth? lol man i was hoping that wasn't what it was doing.

 

[mckillwashere]

VMWARE

One option you may have is run vmware server(free). I am running two Nic cards one for up and one for down while i am gaming. Come to find out that doesn't work. But I did discover that it does mainly connect to my Nic 2. If you can figure out which Nic your pc mainly uses then set your Vmware to use the other one. Set a shared folder can have your torrents connect to download to that folder on your machine. It may take up a little bit more space and ram but it may help get what your looking for.

To figure out which nic your pc uses more use wire shark. It shows your inbound Ip address. When your installing Vmware when it asks for hostname set it to that ip address.

McKillWasHere

 

[Zidane24]

One option you may have is run vmware server(free). I am running two Nic cards one for up and one for down while i am gaming. Come to find out that doesn't work. But I did discover that it does mainly connect to my Nic 2. If you can figure out which Nic your pc mainly uses then set your Vmware to use the other one. Set a shared folder can have your torrents connect to download to that folder on your machine. It may take up a little bit more space and ram but it may help get what your looking for.

To figure out which nic your pc uses more use wire shark. It shows your inbound Ip address. When your installing Vmware when it asks for hostname set it to that ip address.

McKillWasHere

+1 I didn't think of getting a virtual host to handle the torrents...just only allow the host access to the card not being used

 

[mckillwashere]

vmware

I have used similar setups, just not for torrents. I'm trying t break away from them its like an addiction. It works very well for servers and vpn servers. If you set a static ip for the vm and set a specific port for the DHT, using your routers firewall you can forward that port to the vm. Then depending on your software firewall you should be able to restrict all access except for the vm to use that port (Dont hold me to this but I belive you can do that using bitdefender, but im not sure).
You can configure Utorrent to automaticly load torrents from certain folders, you can use a mapped network folder for that. Just share a file on the vm and map it on the physical pc. Then a similar setup for the downloads. Just sharred on the physical and mapped on the vm.
Vmware can be configured to run as a service and boot and take a snapshot of the running machine on shutdown. then when it boots again it loads the snapshot.
To connect to the vm you can use vm-server's web console, or your favorite remote desktop program. (I like RealVnc) but since you will be less likely to connect from any other machine just use the web console.

McKillWasHere

 

[lshaun]

thanks for all the help. i was hoping not to have to go that route. virtual pc says that my computer isn't good enough to run xp mode however vmware workstation runs fine i just haven't installed it after upgrading. i've found a program called netlimiter 2 and i'm gonna try that out after i restart my pc but if that don't work then i'll just go with vmware. is there a difference between workstation and server?

 

[mckillwashere]

vmware

Vmware Workstation costs money,
Vmware server is free.

VMware Server, Free VMware Download for Virtual Server Consolidation