Nic upgrade question

cubix

Running standard cat5e cable and just wanted to double check if it will run the GB nics. Also anyone found well priced nics in around dublin with a well know chipset, would mail oder but only need two nics at the moment so does make sense. Not unless someone can show me a mail order nic for less including P+P .Just noticed my linksys gateway (Wrt-54g) is only 10/100 :eek: but if I stick in two GB nics and also leave in the old 10/100 nics will this cause issue?. The reason I ask is because 10/100 nics are connected through the linksys to each other so they can talk and also access the internet indepently. But I was thinking of using the GB nics to transfer large files between each other on a seperate cat5e cable,can you tell the pc which nic to use for which file?



Cheers

JoyPad

If you put two NICs in each PC, give them IPs in a different range.
i.e. If your existing NICs and WAP are in the 192.168.1.XXX network, then assign IPs manually for the GB NICs in the 192.168.2.XXX range. Don't forget to add the WAP as the default gateway for this network as well, just in case you get servers bound to this IP.

Then you can do one of two things to make sure the faster network is used when transferring files between the 2 PCs:
1. manually change the route table to add better metric for the GB network.
Create a BAT file with the appropriate commands (see 'route print', 'route add /?' in a CMD window)
2. maybe easier to do on a windows box: make sure each PC knows the appropriate IP for the other PC, by adding entries in the hosts file (located in windows\system32\drivers\etc directory).

Example:
If you assign 192.168.2.1 to PC1's GB NIC, and 192.168.2.2 to PC2's GB NIC, then, in PC1, add entry in hosts file like this:
192.168.2.2 PC2

Also, in PC2, add an entry:
192.168.2.1 PC1

Then, open a cmd on PC1 and do 'ping pc2' and you should see it pinging the 192.168.2.2 address.


Good luck,
JP

ZENER

Will there be a need to disable NetBUI or WINS on one of the cards ? Otherwise wont each computer have 2 conflicting entries in Network Neighbourhood ? What about enabling TCP/IP for the 10/100 NICS as this will be required for the internet connection to his router and WINS for the GB cards without TCP/IP ?

Just a thought!

ZEN

Capt'n Midnight

cubix wrote:

Running standard cat5e cable and just wanted to double check if it will run the GB nics.

Yes - if it's properly setup,
if it's poorly installed you may have problems.

http://www.marxcomputers.ie/ are doing no-name ones for €20 ea.
or a different no-name pair for €40

SwampThing

Cubix, this seems a very strange setup. Can you give a little more detail on the PC's, the NIC's in each. What way you have your network setup?

I've seen VERY few instances where more that one NIC is required. With proper routing configurations and cabling, one nic per machine will do 99.99% of what you need.

Only for private file transfers/backups on a corporate lan, where that kind of traffic would interfere with normal users, would two different lans per machine be considered.

If you're intent on getting Gb nic's, you're going to need a cross-over cable to get them to communicate at 1Gb because you're hub/switch in 100Mb. And you'll still need the 100Mb cards for internet access. If you splash out on a Gb switch, then you'll only need the Gb cards, if configured properly. Again, more detail please.
Gb lan on home PC's - wasteful in my opinion. In fairness, how often do you transfer such volumes of data between pc's that warrant that type of bandwidth.

What about an active/active USB2 cable which will give you 480Mb/s (if needed) for file transfers and leave the NIC's as-is for internet access. Even that's a bit wasteful, in my opinion.

SwampThing

JoyPad wrote:

If you put two NICs in each PC, give them IPs in a different range.
i.e. If your existing NICs and WAP are in the 192.168.1.XXX network, then assign IPs manually for the GB NICs in the 192.168.2.XXX range. Don't forget to add the WAP as the default gateway for this network as well, just in case you get servers bound to this IP.

JoyPad, what am I missing - what's 'the WAP' ?

Edit *** - Wireless Access Point - nearly time for bed :rolleyes:

Capt'n Midnight

SwampThing wrote:

I've seen VERY few instances where more that one NIC is required. With proper routing configurations and cabling, one nic per machine will do 99.99% of what you need.

Only for private file transfers/backups on a corporate lan, where that kind of traffic would interfere with normal users, would two different lans per machine be considered.

Using multiple IP's / Protocols on a single NIC / VPN's would be more common than using a pair of NIC's.

Multiple NIC's are usually for routing or redundancy and you can bind two NIC's together depending on the OS.

Oh one advantage of gigabit is it autosenses so you don't need a crossover cable - it figures out to use a normal cable.

If there are only two PC's and no plans ever to get a third then you could use two gigabit cards for the link. set them up with static IP on a different subnet to the linksys eg: 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 mask 255.255.255.0 and when you connect to the other pc - don't use the name instead use \\10.0.0.1\sharename so there is no confusion as to which NIC to use.

if you get a third PC then you are looking at buying a cheap gigabit switch IIRC they start around €130 or something on komplett.

SwampThing

Cap'n, do you not think gigabit is complete overkill for home PC's?
As I said, how much data can one person be continually transferring from machine to machine to warrant that bandwidth?

Didn't know that they autosensed the media as well as speed - groovy!

Cubix, keep your pennies for something else, sweets maybe, or ice-cream.

Capt'n Midnight

SwampThing wrote:

Cap'n, do you not think gigabit is complete overkill for home PC's?

€40 will get you two no-name cards and a cable - as posted above !
It's overkill but not mad money I've always wanted to setup a remote boot diskless (quiet) PC on gigabit just for the hell of it.

SwampThing

WAY too much time on your hands!

zod

instead of runing multihomed PCs (one for GB and the other for 10/100) would it not be easier to buy a GB switch plug the PCs and the router into that.

This 5 port costs €59 ( http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120785&cks=PLS)

cubix

Thanks for all the input lads very much appreciated .SwampThing I hear what you are saying regarding over kill with GB cards but there is method in my madness. I move alot of vob files around(dvd's) which I am sure you know are pretty big :eek: To save on junking my newish linksys wrt-54g (gateway/modem) I think the idea suggested here of by-passing the linksys and plugging the pc's directly into each other when I want to transfer large files. Then back into the linksys when I am finished so they can both use the net again. Which on the whole is quite a good idea as it will only set me back about €40 for the two cards. Just one last question when I was transfering a 550mb file today using 100mb nics with cat5e cable it took about 3-4mins. Have I got it totally wrong or is a 100mb nic not rated 100mb a second?

Thanks again for all your help

Capt'n Midnight

cubix wrote:

Just one last question when I was transfering a 550mb file today using 100mb nics with cat5e cable it took about 3-4mins. Have I got it totally wrong or is a 100mb nic not rated 100mb a second?

Thanks again for all your help

m = 1/1000
B=bytes
b=bits and then there is over head processing and antivirus and packet headers and ackowledgements

copy the file from a to b on the local PC to work out the HDD tx rate too.

It's rated at signaling rate (and usually in 1K=1000Hz) , not data transfer rate where 1KB = 8129 bits.