Dual network cards for faster networking

[Josh Kalish]

Hi,

I have a few PC's in one room. There's a Win2000 server and a few WinXp
Pro boxes. In the other room is a LinkSys 56G wireless router connected
to my internet. Today I have wireless cards in all my PC's and they can
get on the net or see each-other's shares via the wireless network.
Everything is configured with out of the box defaults + 128 bit WEP.
The router's address is 192.168.15.1. I've got a mix of wireless
network cards, dLink, Linksys, Netgear.

Now that works well with two exceptions.
1. Acessing each-other's shares runs very slowly.
2. Sometimes one PC's shares are no longer visisble. I have to reboot
in order to become visible on the net again.

If anyone knows a way to fix these issues, that would be great, but I'm
guessing it's the nature and imaturity of Wireless networking with WEP.

So I thought, since all of these PC's are near each-other in the other
room, why not just add in a cheap wired network card so they can all
talk that way, instead of via the wireless. But, here's what I don't know:
1. What TCP/IP settings will I need? I have a feeling that they will
have a subnet conflict with the wireless.
2. Should I make the Win2000 box a DHCP server on that card only? And
use some other address range?
3. How do I steer the PC's to find each-other first on the wired link,
but then to go wireless first for internet access?

Thanks if anyone can help.

-Josh

 

[Neteng]

Josh,

WEP is not immature, it's just plain insecure. WEP is like using a screen
door to keep burglars out of your house. Your communication internally is
slow probably because of name resolution. You can keep the wireless, just
make sure each PC:

Has a correct IP, SM, DG (use DHCP for that)
Has correct WINS/DNS/HOSTS information
Each is the correct WORKGROUP/DOMAIN

I would suggest setting up one of the boxes to host a DNS server for
internal resolution or create the proper hosts file and copy that to each PC
(depends which will require less administration). The wireless router can
serve DHCP. You will get better performance from a wired network, but if
things are not configured correctly on the PC's, it will still be slow.

 

[Josh Kalish]

Your communication internally is slow probably because of name resolution.

I would suggest setting up one of the boxes to host a DNS server for
internal resolution or create the proper hosts file....

The network was really fast when everything was wired into the same hub
/ router. Is there a way to find out how long name resolution is taking?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[Neteng]

Kind of... I really doubt that it's the wireless that's causing the delay
unless there is a misconfig. We run hundreds of users with WEP and have no
issues. You could try this.

1. Ping an IP and record the time taken to reply (just check your watch), it
should be less than a second.
2. Now ping the netbios name of that PC and record how long it takes to
resolve the name
3. Now put the name in your hosts file and do step #2 again.
Post the results

Having two networks running in parallel would be a nightmare. Even if you
wanted redundancy, you would'nt want to do it this way.