Two NIC's?

BattleToad · March 4th, 2005, 10:12 AM

Hey guys.

I was sifting through all the computer crap that I have in my house the otherday and found a brand new PCI NIC, and thought to myself ~ "I wonder if I can make use of this little guy somehow?" I have 4 desktop computers in my dwelling, all of them have either a NIC or onboard LAN, (my main rig having onboard GB LAN), so its not like any of my PC's need a NIC. But I was wondering if there would be any advantage to having two? I know that you can setup two computers on a little basic LAN when you have dual LAN on each one, but I have a wireless router, and a 24-port 10/100 switch, so its not like having two PC's directly connected to each other would do me any good.

In my room I have two machines, my main rig (AMD Athlon XP 3200+, ATI 9800 XT, 1 GB Kingston Hyper X, etc.) and the old Dell XPS that I have Slackware 10.0 Linux on (P100, 64 MB Ram, nVidia TNT 16MB Graphics Card) (machine is not operational right now as I'm waiting on the Video Card before I can get slackware running, but it should be here anyday).

If I did anything with the NIC it would probably be in one of the computers in my room, and I dont think it would have anyuse in my main rig, so probably in the little dell (has an extra PCI slot).

So would there be any advantages or would I be able to do anything else with the little dell if it has two NIC's? Both would be 10/100. Just curious as to the advantages.

Thanks.

**GroundZero3** · March 4th, 2005, 10:20 AM

with xp you can add in a second card and bridge the cards together. theorical its supposed to be faster but real no real world preformance increase.

ArcticFox · March 4th, 2005, 01:51 PM

If all your PC's are networked, I don't see a reason to add another network card just for kicks. It's another PCI slot that's used up, look at it that way.

Of course his is coming from a guy with three NIC's in his machine...

**GroundZero3** · March 4th, 2005, 01:52 PM

what do you do with three nics in one machine?

eth0 eth1 and DMZ?

ArcticFox · March 4th, 2005, 02:11 PM

Nope, I have two onboard (3Com and an nVidia) then I found an Intel Pro/100 in my parts bin, so in that went, then recently I scored an Intel Pro/1000 off eBay for around $25 new OEM, so that's what I use now. The two onboard are not used.

**GroundZero3** · March 4th, 2005, 02:12 PM

ahhh okay

SpaceSquad · March 4th, 2005, 08:36 PM

im guessing u go on the internet using the main rig mostly.....you can have the internet signal come in the comp in one port then exit the other (remaining signal). This will let your main comp get the strongest connection, while having the p100 taking the leftover. I was looking to do it myself....havent done it yet.

ArcticFox · March 4th, 2005, 08:52 PM

SS - true, that's the typical gateway setup if you don't have/want to use a router.

pickel · March 4th, 2005, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArcticFox

Nope, I have two onboard (3Com and an nVidia) then I found an Intel Pro/100 in my parts bin, so in that went, then recently I scored an Intel Pro/1000 off eBay for around $25 new OEM, so that's what I use now. The two onboard are not used.

I had Pro 100, nice card, til it smoked by lightning

sr71000 · March 4th, 2005, 10:34 PM

you could turn the old xps into a hardware firewall....rather than run slackware there are other shunken down os's that you can use to help keep your network secure. either that, or you can set the xps up as a vpn center and have all your computers log into it as vpn clients and that'll strengthen your wireless network security....but other than that, there's no real reason for it.