# Just bought a Mobo with 2 ethernet Lan ports, have a server/plex streaming question)



## BrainSParker (Jul 11, 2020)

Just bought a Gigabyte x570 Aurous Master that has 2 Lan ports.. one's a 2.5 gig, the other is gig.

it's for my main comp that I do use as a sort of server and 1080p and occasional 4k streaming platform via Plex media server for my home and a just a few select friends remotely in my city.. I do transfer large files on my home network as well, depending on which comp I am working on.. (I'm a pro audio engineer that dabbles in vid editing, etc. I have hot swap bays for Sata SSD's and 7.2krpm hdd's for audio tracking.. but I'm lazy on occasion, hehe. damn steps.

so, while my internet connection isn't superfast, all my switches and the router are gig capable..

would there be any benefit to perhaps popping another lan connection from the router into that second lan port and set up up a "teaming" setup (which I am just learning about) for extra network overhead on the so-called "server" comp with the dual lan? (it's just my 24/7 on, Win10 enterprise, home studio comp that I also do some vid editing and gaming on.. it's a media streaming device and I also use it basically as a NAS)

I mean, I know since the routers and switches are all giglan, I'd be limited to that and not the 2.5.. but would the teamed dual lan set up on the server/media streaming comp show any benefit? or is gig already pretty overkill?

I mean, there could be scenarios where I am streaming a 4k movie while transferring a large file from the same computer that's serving up the streaming, while my roommate is streaming a 1080p movie (both via plex media server) and a friend is doing the same (I limit 4k to my local network)... the two streams and file transfer would be all local network traffic, and the friends streaming would be remote over my internet connection via my ISP.. (around 100Mb/s down/up both). The comp itself is a bit of a beast, and I get gig lan is way overkill mostly already for most applications...

I'm not particularly looking for faster... but less potential for bottlenecking I guess... I don't know a ton about the finer points of networking (which I'm sure is obvious) but I do have a general idea.. I've just never bought a mobo with Two lan ports on it and it just seems, redundant. tho it is a fairly mid-high end motherboard.. so I'm just looking to see if there's a way to actually put it to some potential use, rather than just sit there.. even if it's doing this setup for avoiding a slowdown on just a very rare one or twice a year scenario, lol. otherwise, I just have an extra lan port. tho I suppose there are other uses, if you didn't have a switch or multiport router instead.. but for me, it's just gonna be a spare port unless I find some sort of use for it in the above scenario..

So, any help from someone more versed in networking would be very much appreciated...

thanks!


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## newtekie1 (Jul 11, 2020)

Does your router support teaming? Does the LAN connections on the motherboard support teaming?  Most consumer Realtek chips don't support teaming, and most consumer routers don't either.


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## TheLostSwede (Jul 11, 2020)

I'd suggest reading up on how teaming works to start with.

In most scenarios, it'll do absolutely nothing to increase the transfer speed to/from your computer.
I did some testing a few years ago and that was using an enterprise level managed switch that also supported teaming.
Only if you do large file transfer with multiple clients, will you ever see any advantage of teaming and at most, I saw something like an extra 200Mbps on my test network at the time.

I highly doubt it'll make the least bit difference in the scenario you described, as those files aren't going to to clog your Gigabit connection when you stream. You'd only potentially see an improvement in throughput if you copied a lot of large file to multiple clients.

Also keep in mind that you can't team Ethernet controllers from different manufacturers. There are some workarounds for that, but it's not worth the time it takes to set up.

The only useful thing would be for fail-over, but Ethernet controllers don't really tend to fail that often so...

So in short, no, it wouldn't make sense.

Beyond that, it's a nice board, just make sure you update the UEFI to the latest version.


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## hat (Jul 11, 2020)

I agree with everyone else so far... no reason to do it. You're not gonna saturate that Gb connection very easily, let alone the 2.5Gb connection.


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## BrainSParker (Jul 11, 2020)

awesome, Thanks for the quick replies... 

yeah, before I jumped into further research, I just wanted to get an idea if I was barking up the right tree at all so I don't waste my time.. So I REALLY appreciate all the quick replies on this... 

first off, yeah, I just checked and they are two different chip manufacturers on the lans.. Realtek and Intel.. so it's a no-go either way right off the bat. end of story right there, lol. The mobo arrives on Monday, so I haven't had a chance to really go over it besides looking at the specs and research.. this board is going to outlast the upgrade cycle and it's Cpu Socket, lol, it's a bit overkill really.. about twice what I normally would spend and crazy on the features.. usually I'm a bit more frugal, but I decided to splurge for just once.. and I tend to keep older parts around as secondary and tertiary systems for more than a decade or so and end up also gifting them as basic web/media comps/nas with no longer useful parts (to my current systems) for financially struggling friends and neighbors... and this board will give me overclocking options to keep it going a long time in a secondary role at least long down the line... I've been building and playing with systems since my tweens in the early 80's.. it's sometimes tough to keep up with every facet. it's a long way since 300 baud modems and bbs's, lol.. I mean, I've kept up well enough but I'm far from expert on the latest and there are gaps of course.. thank god for the internet. 

I figured I may or may not of already had switches and routers that supported Teaming, I could have gotten lucky, tho this is sounding like a feature that is pretty job specific rather than usually bundled.. I certainly wasn't going to upgrade them just for it... I just like to put things to use, if they are there to be used really... even if it's just theoretical, lol. if I already had the capability that is... and I don't... so, point is moot... and looks like unless I was running a more small business type network office, my smaller set up just isn't going to tax anything.. I think I have a slightly clearer overview on Teaming just from this brief discussion and the few things I've read...  even with the streaming... but I wasn't worried about upping my overall speed of a single transfer.. but better load balancing to avoid bottlenecks and slowdowns in a situation of multiple simultaneous transfer requests with the streaming and as I said, large file transfers (as I'm a pro audio engineer of 25 years who also does video editing on the side). I should just make a separate dedicated media server box, but I'm semi retired at the moment due to health issues, so my home studio comp has been seeing alot more gaming and movies these days, lol.


lol. well, who knows, maybe that second lan port'll become useful down the line... 

much appreciated..


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## Disparia (Jul 11, 2020)

There's always the experience (and/or fun) gained by doing it. I often find it reason enough but others might not.

I also consider multi-homing a form of teaming, this is, having the two NICs connected with their own individual IPs. Can divvy up services such as Plex on one, FTP on another, etc; along with separate security and routing profiles. As said, you don't need this level of security or traffic shaping at home, it would just be for the knowledge


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## newtekie1 (Jul 11, 2020)

I'd look at doing two things.  First, just plug in the second LAN port anyway.  This will allow Windows Multi-threaded TCP/IP to split the TCP/IP connections between the two ports.  You'll still only get 1Gb/s on any single file transfer, but doing two _can_ result in faster speeds as Windows will use the second port for the second transfer.  I say "can" because in my experience Windows is far less than perfect in implementing this feature, I've only seen it working probably 50% of the time it should have.

The other thing you can do is get a network switch with a 2.5Gb/s or 5Gb/s port on it, and connect just that single port to the 2.5Gb/s port on your motherboard.  Just that 2.5Gb/s port will be better than two 1Gb/s ports.  Note that if you get a 2.5Gb/s or 5Gb/s switch you can't use Windows Multi-threaded TCP/IP, because Windows will see one link that is way faster than the other and completely ignore the slower port and only use the faster port.  Multi-threaded TCP/IP only works if both ports are running at the same speed.



			https://smile.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Multi-Gig-Protection/dp/B076642YPN/
		


That switch isn't terribly expensive and actually gives 2 10Gb/s ports for future expansion.  The ports will run at 1/2.5/5/10Gbps so it is a decent investment for the future.


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## king of swag187 (Jul 11, 2020)

Unless whatever youre streaming from is teamed up or connected at more than 1Gbps, no. Regardless, the ~highest bitrate you'll really ever see with 4K is 100Mbps.


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