Cable modem problem with 2 network adapters

[uri.goldstein]

Hi,

I have a Windows XP machine with two network adapter cards installed.
My question is - how do I tell my computer to go to one (rather than
the other) to look for a given IP range?

Here's my situation: One network adapter is connected to my cable
modem, the other is connected to my D-Link wireless router. My problem
is that if both network connections are enabled the dialer program,
that should connect to my cable ISP via the modem, fails to connect. As
soon as I disable the network connection to my router the dialer works
fine.

It's as if the dialer is trying to look for whatever host it's looking
for on the wrong network connection - the one that is hooked up to my
home network router. Only when that connection is disabled does the
dialer look for the host in the correct network connection - the one
that goes to my cable modem.

Am I correct in analyzing my problem? How can I tell the dialer (or
Windows XP for that matter) that any network address other than
192.168.0.* can be found at one network connection and not the other?

Thanks!
Uri.

 

[Eric Cross [MVP]]

Hello,

I'm not sure why you would want to use two network connections the way you
described.

Why not connect the cable modem to the router? You should be able to connect
the cablem modem to your D-Link router and let Windows XP use one network
connection. By default, XP uses the higher rate speed if both connections
are enabled. You can assign a metric to a network connection. To do so,
follow these steps in the following MS KB Article.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299540

 

[urig]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your help.

The reason I do not connect my cable mode to my D-Link router is that
such a configuration degrades performance when using p2p programs with
a large number of connections. I suspect the D-Link DI-624 router that
I have has a NAT table of limited size (prob. 256 entries) and that
sets a limit on the number of connections I can have open to my
computer at any given time.

Having the cable modem hooked up to my computer is therefore important
to me. For that to work well, I need to have my dialer look for my
ISP's hosts on a specific network connection - the one where the cable
modem is connected.

The article you referred me to seems very interesting and I will try
assigning different metrics to each network connections to see whether
this gives me the control I need.

In addition, might you know how I can view my computer's routing table?
Can I edit it manually or programmatically?

Thanks again,
Uri.

 

[Eric Cross [MVP]]

You can view the routing table by opening the command prompt and typing
"route print" without quotes.

Typing "route print /?" will give you more options.

For more information, please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1201.mspx

 

[Guest]

You can view the routing table by opening the command prompt and typing
"route print" without quotes.

Typing "route print /?" will give you more options.

For more information, please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1201.mspx

 

[urig]

Hooray!

I've set a high metric (30) on my router's network connection and a low
metric (20) on the network connection that connects to my cable modem
and the problem is solved. The cable dialer program now connects to the
correct network connection and I can enjoy access both to the internet
and to my LAN.

Thanks very much Eric.

Urig.

 

[Eric Cross [MVP]]

You're very welcome! <smile>

--
Eric Cross
Microsoft MVP (Windows Networking)
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com