Any benefit to running dual/quad port NIC?

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

So as I was experimenting with enabling my motherboard RTL8168 chipset I am coming to a conclusion that maybe a move to an Intel Pro 1000 is best.

Looking at eBay I'm finding a pile of ads for multi-port NICs. Is there an advantage to doing this on our platform? Or is this merely something useful for servers where you do run separate interfaces?

If the device driver supports this, and it would appear that it might since I was able to boot up with my 3Com and RealTek NICs both enabled and configured to be lan0 and lan1 interfaces, could I potentially set these up so that I do my download on lan0 and upload on lan1???

Could I perhaps toss my LAN communication through lan1 and all WAN stuff on lan0??? I run Privoxy on my OS/2 box and all other household devices pass through it...therefore, as you can imagine that is a LOT of traffic at times for a single NIC.

I know, maybe that's silly...no idea...just thinking out-loud...LOL...

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

Looking at eBay I'm finding a pile of ads for multi-port NICs. Is there an advantage to doing this on our platform? Or is this merely something useful for servers where you do run separate interfaces?

It does have advantages although mostly for servers or for speed reasons, but I sometimes use them to create separate subsystem either for compatibility reasons or for filtering, one computer acting as a filter for the rest of the system. it is possible to do that without a dual Ethernet, but it is a practical and psychological division of nets if you have two interface that helps with getting your head around it

They also have an advantage if you have Ethernet disks or NAS boxes that have more than one Ethernet port, your disk/NAS can be on a separate net for internal use that can be filtered from the rest of the net and still work via the other port over the internet running bittorent, email or whatever services you need. Also on the average having a separate connection for the disk/NAS is slightly faster than having it on the same net as the rest of the network even if it is only an internet connection.

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

You can bind multiple IP addresses to one network adapter. The advantage of two adapters might be increased performance and maybe easier handling with the OS' configuration dialogs.

[ivan]

Olafur,  with most small NAS boxes the second ethernet port is only usable as a failover and then only if the managed switch will allow it.

Dariusz,  On a workstation there is little use for a second ethernet port especially since OS/2 doesn't have the necessary software to make use of the failover ability.  If you intend to use your new workstation as a firewall device then there would be a use for the second port - first port input from the wan and second port output to the internal lan.  Other than that they are usually used in servers either as failover or for running different subnets.

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

Olafur,  with most small NAS boxes the second ethernet port is only usable as a failover and then only if the managed switch will allow it.

Dariusz,  On a workstation there is little use for a second ethernet port especially since OS/2 doesn't have the necessary software to make use of the failover ability.  If you intend to use your new workstation as a firewall device then there would be a use for the second port - first port input from the wan and second port output to the internal lan.  Other than that they are usually used in servers either as failover or for running different subnets.

You are buying the wrong NAS boxes ....

Other than filtering, you can use the second port for IPX network, I use this so I can keep my music computers connected to the internal network while at the same time off the net (IPX is not routable), useful also for testing DOS networks ...