# What's the point of having 2 ethernets integrated?



## blackbird307 (Aug 20, 2010)

I have a new board but it has 2 Ethernet ports. I only use one. Can I do anything with the other?


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## cadaveca (Aug 20, 2010)

blackbird307 said:


> I have a new board but it has 2 Ethernet ports. I only use one. Can I do anything with the other?



This is good for media streaming. You "TEAM" the two connections together, and one is used for up traffic, while the other is used for down.

Otherwise...completely useless, unless you wanna do some connection-sharing.


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## bretts31344 (Aug 20, 2010)

I have used to to bridge connections, saves you running a (long) wire twice. I have a Wifi adapter too, so I have even used it to connect two 360's wirelessly. Obviously your computer has to be running for it to work, but it can be handy in a few different situations.


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## Mussels (Aug 20, 2010)

teaming is designed to give you a backup or alternate connection.


for example, you could connect it up to an Xbox 360 and share the internet connection from your PC, if it was using wireless internet or something.


For most purposes, the second NIC is useless... but then again, for most purposes having 12 USB ports, 8 SATA ports and 4 firewire ports, is also useless


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## cadaveca (Aug 20, 2010)

I use all USB, only have 5 sata, and firewire gets used by my guitar. Not so useless. But I can find no use for these second ethernets.


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## AltecV1 (Aug 20, 2010)

well you just need to get yourself a second internet connection and do some good old torrent sharing while you can do your everyday things with the first one


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## fenurch (Aug 20, 2010)

AltecV1 said:


> well you just need to get yourself a second internet connection and do some good old torrent sharing while you can do your everyday things with the first one



Spoken like a true Baltic man. I see that Estonians aren't much better than us Latvians


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

with windows 7 it is possible to use 2 separate connections at once, provided they are the same type (CATV, DSL, etc)

I have 2 separate RR accounts, and can use both with a download manager.  I have had it work automatically, and i have had to force it by setting a metric on each adapter, but it is possible. this gives me 2x the download speed i would normally have.


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

digibucc said:


> with windows 7 it is possible to use 2 separate connections at once, provided they are the same type (CATV, DSL, etc)
> 
> I have 2 separate RR accounts, and can use both with a download manager.  I have had it work automatically, and i have had to force it by setting a metric on each adapter, but it is possible. this gives me 2x the download speed i would normally have.



Sounds like a good enough reason to have 2 NIC ports


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## W1zzard (Aug 20, 2010)

digibucc said:


> with windows 7 it is possible to use 2 separate connections at once, provided they are the same type (CATV, DSL, etc)
> 
> I have 2 separate RR accounts, and can use both with a download manager.  I have had it work automatically, and i have had to force it by setting a metric on each adapter, but it is possible. this gives me 2x the download speed i would normally have.



using bittorrent or normal http downloads?


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> using bittorrent or normal http downloads?



i regularly use it with usenet, i can only make it work with normal http if i use a download manager.
*it won't speed up a single connection to a server*, but if you use a manager you can split it and download 2 halves at once, each on a separate connection.

but of course it requires that the remote server ALLOW you to make multiple connections for one file.  most seem to.


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## Steevo (Aug 20, 2010)

I always used it to connect to internal network, and or hosted bootable network.


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## fenurch (Aug 20, 2010)

I don't really understand the concept of how your speed can be 2x as fast if you connect 2 Ethernet cables to your PC as opposed to having just 1 Ethernet cable connected to your PC. I just quite simply don't understand how your speed can increase provided they're from the same source.

However, I'm pretty confused as to what people are talking about in this thread.


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

fenurch said:


> I just quite simply don't understand how your speed can increase provided they're from the same source.



and you are right in that assessment.  as i said though, it is not the same source, as I have 2 separate accounts.

2 cables from one router or cable modem wouldn't do a thing.  but 2 cables from 2 different sources with windows 7 can be combined to use both connections at once.  so my personal 10MB and my work 6mb (so not actually double) , can be combined to download at 1.64Mb a sec, compared to the 1.06 or .59 I would get otherwise.


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## Mussels (Aug 20, 2010)

fenurch said:


> I don't really understand the concept of how your speed can be 2x as fast if you connect 2 Ethernet cables to your PC as opposed to having just 1 Ethernet cable connected to your PC. I just quite simply don't understand how your speed can increase provided they're from the same source.
> 
> However, I'm pretty confused as to what people are talking about in this thread.



for example, download accelerators for HTTP files split the file into chunks (2-10 usually) and download it as (2-10) seperate files. if one file is on each line, you could get twice as fast - in theory.


of course, that demands you have two equally fast internet connections available, which is unlikely.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

Im interested in this.  I tried it b4 when I got my current board and it didnt work.  Does Gigabyte/Realtek have an updated version of the software?


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

AlienIsGOD said:


> Im interested in this.  I tried it b4 when I got my current board and it didnt work.  Does Gigabyte/Realtek have an updated version of the software?



As mentioned further above in this thread to run dual integrated LAN you need to be running Win7, so you would only be able to  do this on the rig you have listed as "HERS"


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

Actually my rig is dual booting XP and 7.


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

i just looked up the specs of your "HERS" rig and it doesn't have dual LAN anyway's lol.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

your misreading the way I put it.  I used | to signify dual boot and / as separating each rig


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

AlienIsGOD said:


> your misreading the way I put it.  I used | to signify dual boot and / as separating each rig



I know what you was saying, I was still on about when I pointed out you should only be able to dual LAN on your "HERS" rig.

I didn't say anything about you not being able to use the dual LAN feature as I don't know anything about it.


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

also it doesn't always "just work" 

I noticed it because it just worked one time, but 90% of the time I have to start a download, and then change the adapter metric, and then add sections to the download.  this gets pieces connected on both adapters, and they continue using that adapter for the duration of the download (with westbyte IDA, my manager of choice).

it's still a PITA, but only in windows 7 is it even possible.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

Tech2 said:


> I know what you was saying, I was still on about when I pointed out you should only be able to dual LAN on your "HERS" rig.



actually my Gigabyte has dual lan not the asrock.  http://www.giga-byte.ca/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2839#sp


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

AlienIsGOD said:


> actually my Gigabyte has dual lan not the asrock.  http://www.giga-byte.ca/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2839#sp



I know, I looked it up and then pointed out I was wrong...




Tech2 said:


> i just looked up the specs of your "HERS" rig and it doesn't have dual LAN anyway's lol.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

Just a misunderstanding  But I think I'll just not bother as it sounds a bit of a hassle.


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## Techtu (Aug 20, 2010)

AlienIsGOD said:


> Just a misunderstanding  But I think I'll just not bother as it sounds a bit of a hassle.



Yes, just a misunderstanding, but all sorted now 

And I agree, although it may be useful for some people, I think for most regular home users they will just upgrade their broadband package.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

Alas you must be in my head, as I'm thinking of upgrading my package.  But the requirements for the cheaper package w/ higher speeds requires Vista or newer and I'm assuming that XP wouldn't be able to connect to the internet...  http://www.cogeco.ca/cable/on/en/residential/internet/hsi/explore_hsi.html Ultimate 30 package.  I have the Pro package atm.  That bothers me as I still use XP for alot of things and my other rig is XP


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

i only ever do it when i have gigs to transfer.  it seems like anything less goes fast enough at 10M that it's not worth it.

but when i do it, and see remaining time drop from something like 12 hours (on the 6MB) to 4hrs , it always feels good 

10M is the max available here, through RR.  they don't have the 15+ or anything in my area.  so if i want to get faster at a reasonable cost, combining is the only option.


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 20, 2010)

It bugs me that it's $15 dollars cheaper for 2x the speed, yet I'm forced to buy Win 7 for all my rigs in the house to be able to have them all use the internet.....


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## digibucc (Aug 20, 2010)

and even if you did you would have to manually set most all downloads to make use of the speed. otherwise the second adapter just sits there unused.

i have not yet found a cost effective, easy way to get enough speed  

my question, which i have had no ability to test yet.  is how many connections you can team with windows 7.  I only have 2 to test... but i wonder if more nics or some wireless connections can be teamed

especially if they are from the same source (ie RR) , i see no technical reason it's not _possible_ , but can't test ATM


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## fenurch (Aug 20, 2010)

Oh, now I got it. Thanks for the explanation.


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