What Happens When One Machine Has Two Network Connections?

[John McGaw]

I've got two machines that came with 802.11B/G wireless communications but
neither has ever used that capacity since my home is fully wired with CAT-5.
Now I've ordered a 802.11G access point to add to my switch in the basement
so I can work outside. Then the question came to me "what happens when a
machine has two connections to the same network?" which is what will happen
when a notebook happens to be plugged in rather than working on the back
deck via RF. Increased throughput? Nothing at all? Meltdown? Will I have to
disable one or the other?
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

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[James Sefton]

Hi John,

I am no expert (although i do hold MCP certification..lol) but i have a
rough idea what will probably happen.

You will not get increased throughput.
Your computer will either use one connection or the other.
Both connections will remain connected but one of them will become the
'default' and all traffic will pass down that one most of the time.
There is a bit of an exception to this though. It is possible for an
application to bind to a specific IP address. Since you will have 2 IP
addresses on your 1 machine (ie, one for each card) an application that is
specifically bound to the non-default adaptor may send its traffic using
that adaptor.

Likewise, incoming traffic will come in to the adaptor based on which ip
address the traffic was sent to.

As far as figuring out which adaptor will be the default, i think this would
normally be done using the 'Metric' settings for the adaptor but if both
adaptors have the same metric setting (ie 1) then its anybodies guess where
the traffic will go.

Hope that makes at least some sense..

- James

 

[John McGaw]

I've got two machines that came with 802.11B/G wireless communications but
neither has ever used that capacity since my home is fully wired with CAT-5.
Now I've ordered a 802.11G access point to add to my switch in the basement
so I can work outside. Then the question came to me "what happens when a
machine has two connections to the same network?" which is what will happen
when a notebook happens to be plugged in rather than working on the back
deck via RF. Increased throughput? Nothing at all? Meltdown? Will I have to
disable one or the other?
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com

Well, the DHL driver came an hour ago bringing my access point and I rushed
to install it and answer my own question.

After a couple of false starts caused by the WAP having DHCP turned on thus
changing the default IP for accessing the setup pages I got things going
pretty quickly. First thing was to change the setup password, enable access
by MAC address, and turn on WEP and do the other minor setup stuff -- it was
all surprisingly easy to get going given the number of potential pitfalls.
As for "what happens if there are two network connections?" that was pretty
much a non event: nothing noticeable happened. When I disconnected the
ethernet cable I was notified but was able to keep browsing the web via
wireless and everything seemed perfectly normal when they were both working.
Upon getting to the rear deck I discovered that I had a bit of a deadspot
but since the whole house is already wired with CAT5 I should be able to
plug the WAP into the network in the rear bedroom or in the greatroom and
proceed as planned. This wireless stuff looks like it could be
interesting...
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com