Gig and 10/100 NIC setup?

[Norcross]

I've got an onboard 10/100 NIC card on my machine's mobo. I recently put in a 10/100/1000 PCI card as well (yes, I know I lose speed there, but it's the only open slot I've got).

Currently, I have the 10/100 disabled, and everything on the gig NIC. Is there a way to specify certain programs or traffic (i.e. BitTorrent) to one card or another?

 

[thiggins]

No simple way that I know of. What do you think you will gain by doing this?

 

[Bart]

I don't believe this is do-able in Windows. It is in Linux though, but as Tim said: what's there to gain?

 

[jdabbs]

You could segment your network: internal and internet-connected. By assigning different subnets, traffic destined for internal hosts would be routed through the appropriate interface. There are better ways of doing this though. It's a bit like hammering nails with the heel of your shoe: once you get over the initial feeling of cleverness, you notice scuff marks on the wall. Better off doing things the right way.

 

[Norcross]

No real reason for doing it, other than I (incorrectly) assumed that it would take some stress off the NIC card by splitting out the traffic. I have a BitTorrent client that is active 24/7 (with QoS settings to lower daytime use).

A side thought. If each NIC card has an internal static IP assigned to it at the router level, and the open port is set to go to a certain IP, would that , by default, send all the traffic to that NIC?

 

[scotty]

A side thought. If each NIC card has an internal static IP assigned to it at the router level, and the open port is set to go to a certain IP, would that , by default, send all the traffic to that NIC?

Think more towards the bigger picture. Your internet connection is what, maybe 4-8mbps (20 or 30 tops for a premium connection). Even assuming you were getting top speed out of your ISP 24x7, your NIC can easily handle a few mbps of traffic. The bottleneck is certainly not your NIC. Splitting the traffic up between 2 of them isn't going to make any difference. And in Windows, this would be very hard to do.

Other suggestions like trying to segment your network are your best bets. Perhaps a bit of a better router with some basic QoS features or a more fully featured router like pfsense would be more feasible. If you're doing lots of P2P downloading, perhaps dedicate an older spare machine as a downloading server leaving the other machine for presumably more important tasks.

 

[Norcross]

Think more towards the bigger picture. Your internet connection is what, maybe 4-8mbps (20 or 30 tops for a premium connection). Even assuming you were getting top speed out of your ISP 24x7, your NIC can easily handle a few mbps of traffic. The bottleneck is certainly not your NIC. Splitting the traffic up between 2 of them isn't going to make any difference. And in Windows, this would be very hard to do.

Other suggestions like trying to segment your network are your best bets. Perhaps a bit of a better router with some basic QoS features or a more fully featured router like pfsense would be more feasible. If you're doing lots of P2P downloading, perhaps dedicate an older spare machine as a downloading server leaving the other machine for presumably more important tasks.

I've been thinking about putting together a separate box for P2P traffic, actually. I'm getting 8-10 mbps download, and 1-2mbps upload. I've got a good router with QoS set up already, and my BitTorrent client (uTorrent) also has QoS settings.

I wasn't sure if it would help, I just hate to see hardware go unused.

 

[Brandon]

I currently use uTorrent on my "Storage" server, it's handy to have it away from your actual computer. I'm one for keeping things clean, so it makes it eiser to deal with.

As for using dual ports, some of the newer chipsets (Like the nVidia 790i Ultra boards) come with software that will tell specific applications which port to use, though I'm not sure if you find a real gain over this or not.

 

[crashnburn]

I currently use uTorrent on my "Storage" server, it's handy to have it away from your actual computer. I'm one for keeping things clean, so it makes it eiser to deal with.

As for using dual ports, some of the newer chipsets (Like the nVidia 790i Ultra boards) come with software that will tell specific applications which port to use, though I'm not sure if you find a real gain over this or not.

Any triple or Quad port GigE boards?

 

[scotty]

Any triple or Quad port GigE boards?

Not that I've ever seen. I don't keep up with hardware and motherboards quite as religiously as I used to, but all of the hardcore gamer and enthusiast boards still only have 2 NICs from what I've seen, and I don't think you'll see 3 or 4 anytime soon. As brandon said, some of your higher end boards have 2 and have capability for teaming I think, but even then I would question whether it makes any difference.

You could always add more NIC's as even the onboard ones use the PCI-e bus anyhow.

 

[crashnburn]

Not that I've ever seen. I don't keep up with hardware and motherboards quite as religiously as I used to, but all of the hardcore gamer and enthusiast boards still only have 2 NICs from what I've seen, and I don't think you'll see 3 or 4 anytime soon. As brandon said, some of your higher end boards have 2 and have capability for teaming I think, but even then I would question whether it makes any difference.

You could always add more NIC's as even the onboard ones use the PCI-e bus anyhow.

Gigabyte P45-DQ6

4 GigE ports

Multiple SATA
Multiple RAIDs.

 

[zx10guy]

Here's some options for 4 port GigE NICs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2052810027+1128209698&name=4+x+RJ45