# Why is it impossible to assign a nic to a program?



## digibucc (Nov 27, 2011)

once again i'm trying to figure out how to make use of my second internet connection. i try about once a year and fail,and i actually find that kind of ridiculous.

i'd like to simply have a download manager assigned to one connection, and then have my browsers use the other by default, by assigned metric. the only answer i can read anywhere is it is impossible. no more.

i don't see why it would be, but even if so - does anyone know why? why is it "impossible" to assign a program to use a specific connection. you can set a connection metric, why can't you make a specific program use a specific metric? this makes no sense to me.

in the past i have wanted to team the connections in order to get more bandwidth from a single download/stream. they are both the same speed, residential account, with the same provider. i have accepted this will not happen though it still bothers me - when i installed windows vista rc it worked out of the box. any download i started used both nics every single time, and that worked until i installed the real release, and i could never get it back.

thanks anyone who read, and maybe has an answer? any other ideas on how to do what i want?


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## Frick (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm not sure if it would help anyway. You're still limited by your connection with the ISP no matter how you switch the connections around. Combining two NIC's will not do anything either as I'm pretty sure you do not max out a gigabit NIC anyway (at least not from web sources).

Unless I completely missunderstood you.


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## digibucc (Nov 28, 2011)

i've got *two *10Mb roadrunner connections, and two nics on my pc. If i mess around with the metrics i can get it to use both at once in certain programs, but it's a real pain, and only works with a very few, download managers basically.
so... yeah, it will help. i know  if i could assign steam or my download manager to one nic/rr account, i can then stream netflix or youtube on the other, and have full quality and speed on both!


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## Frick (Nov 28, 2011)

Ahh. I completely missed that part. 

If you put routers/switches between the connections and the computer, can't you use port forwarding to assign certain ports to the NIC's IP adress? I'm just throwing balls here, I don't know if that would work mind you. ^^


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## Deleted member 3 (Nov 28, 2011)

VMware/Hyper-V is a workaround if downloading is the whole point.


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## N-Gen (Nov 28, 2011)

You can assign different devices to Internet Download Manager and I believe Azureus/Vuze does this as well. I tried Wingate to combine them to a single connection and that was messy.


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## digibucc (Nov 28, 2011)

i currently use IDA, and love it - but if IDM can do that it's a feature worth switching for. taking a look now - thank you  edit: i'm not seeing how to do that, any more info?

@Dan & Frick, both sound like potential work-arounds, but tbh both are more complicated than i want to get for this. remember i can change out the metrics to make a program use a connection if i want, it's just a pain - those both sound like more of a pain. still, thank you for suggestions and i'll take any more people have 

to clarify, basically it's two things i want this for: a, i have a second connection that otherwise gets wasted, and i will have it either way, so i might as well try to use it. and b, i have a netflix account and am often streaming video, i'd like to be able to surf and download while doing that, and not be working with ~30% bandwidth. and since i already have the second connection, and it's not going anywhere, why not?


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## N-Gen (Nov 28, 2011)

Come to think of it you might need to assign IPs in the proxy tab for the device, not entirely sure but I believe I went around it that way, I'm sure there's some info around. You might need something additional, WinGate did it but I wouldn't recommend it as stated previously.


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## mcloughj (Nov 28, 2011)

get yourself a kvm and a second computer maybe? that'd certainly work!


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## digibucc (Nov 28, 2011)

mcloughj said:


> get yourself a kvm and a second computer maybe? that'd certainly work!


yeah i have that too, no need for kvm - there are software kvms(synergy) and i also have a vnc connection set up, but it's just not what i'm looking for. i didn't mean to make it sound like it goes totally to waste, as i have my htpc,server, and consoles on it, but i'd like my main pc to share in the action 

just fyi, it goes:

connection 1(from modem 1):-->router--> gigabit switch -> server, consoles, htpc, main pc
connection 2(from modem 2):-->main pc

my main pc gets all shares and can access the network on connection 1, but uses connection 2 as it's internet based on my metric settings.


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## Steevo (Nov 28, 2011)

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ws-7-nlb/ffd5cb00-7330-452c-8f72-bb05fef7dbc5


Network load balancing.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 28, 2011)

like dan said, use a virtual machine. setup your host to use eth0 and the virtual machine to use eth1.


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## digibucc (Nov 28, 2011)

how is a virtual machine better than vnc to an actual machine? both require me to use a separate os, even if i can do it all from one physical machine. i know i'm being pretty specific, but it's a specific functionality i am looking for.

if i want to force a download on the other nic, i can disable mine or switch metrics, start the download in a manager, and re-enable or switch back. then if i open a browser or another program, start another download - it will start on the one i originally disabled, and so two will be used on one machine at one time. it just shouldn't be that complicated.

i can also vnc/rdc into my server/htpc, and just start one there. so a virtual machine really offers no benefit, unless i am missing something.



Steevo said:


> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ws-7-nlb/ffd5cb00-7330-452c-8f72-bb05fef7dbc5
> Network load balancing.


lol thanks, but that't *my *microsoft answers thread, from january of 2010. told ya i've been looking for a long time. the answers were no good. random isn't what i want, bridge doesn't work - that was it i think.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 28, 2011)

no, you are not missing anything. i guess i didn't completely understand your specific needs.


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## Completely Bonkers (Nov 29, 2011)

digibucc, i would do it differently.

just use one nic

connection 1(from modem 1):-->router A (192.168.0.1) --> gigabit switch -> server, consoles, htpc, main pc
connection 2(from modem 2):-->router B (192.168.0.2) --> gigabit switch 

note: 2 routers!

only router A runs DHCP, set from 192.168.0.100 onwards. Router A does DNS resolution for your network.

Now use some *port forwarding software* on your main pc
Set port 80 (http) to 192.168.0.1 (ie 192.168.0.1 is the gateway for http)
Set port 21 (ftp) to 192.168.0.2 (ie 192.168.0.2 is the gateway for the ftp)
If "downloads" means using torrents, then specify which ports you want to use, and forward to 192.168.0.2

Now your "downloads" will go though Router B. It won't catch http downloads clicked on a web page though.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Down...work__2-List_of_Common_TCPIP_port_numbers.pdf


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## digibucc (Nov 29, 2011)

Completely Bonkers said:


> digibucc, i would do it differently.
> 
> just use one nic
> 
> ...


i thought about that, but it is just a regular http download manager(and steam), and so will use the same ports as youtube/netflix, and so won't do what i want.

it's not something i constantly deal with, which is the reason i've looked for solutions off and on for 2 years.


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## v12dock (Nov 29, 2011)

Setup a pfSense box connect the two connections and configure pfSense to do a round robin network selection method.

Simply use a download accelerator to open multiple connections and enjoy "twice" the download speeds. I have used 5 connections at once with such method.


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## digibucc (Nov 29, 2011)

v12dock said:


> Setup a pfSense box connect the two connections and configure pfSense to do a round robin network selection method.
> 
> Simply use a download accelerator to open multiple connections and enjoy "twice" the download speeds. I have used 5 connections at once with such method.



that was something i originally tried but was unable to get the configuration working. to be honest i'd like not to have another pc in the mix but that may be worth trying again. 
any guides or tips on configuring it though? from what i remember it was a bunch of shell commands and although i'm familiar with shell, with no real guide it was difficult.
thank you


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## v12dock (Nov 29, 2011)

digibucc said:


> that was something i originally tried but was unable to get the configuration working. to be honest i'd like not to have another pc in the mix but that may be worth trying again.
> any guides or tips on configuring it though? from what i remember it was a bunch of shell commands and although i'm familiar with shell, with no real guide it was difficult.
> thank you



I can contact someone who would be able to answer that question of yours. But I thought there was a GUI, maybe I will setup a box myself and see what I can do


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## digibucc (Nov 29, 2011)

v12dock said:


> I can contact someone who would be able to answer that question of yours. But I thought there was a GUI, maybe I will setup a box myself and see what I can do



well judging by the site it's come quite a ways since i looked. any help you can get would be great but i imagine i'll have better luck this go round.

still: if anyone has any ideas that don't require another box in the mix, i'm all ears


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## v12dock (Nov 29, 2011)

Maybe this will help

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Multi_WAN_/_Load_Balancing


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## Completely Bonkers (Nov 29, 2011)

Want to install Chrome? My preferred browser BTW.

Look, nice PROXY PROFILE SWITCHER in Chrome

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/caehdcpeofiiigpdhbabniblemipncjj

With this you can quickly switch between which proxy (or gateway) Chrome is using.

I think you should be happy with that! Let me know how it goes!

PS. I think I'm going to play with it... but only one internet connection here... so it will be some time before I can really test it properly!


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## digibucc (Nov 29, 2011)

that's not perfect but certainly the best yet. 2 clicks to guarantee my browser stays on connection 2 - except, i can't just put my gateway in there right? how would i configure this do you know? i'll update when i learn more too  thanks...


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