two ethernet cords on one computer?

Question

i want to connect 2 ethernet cords to one computer. i would like one for send and one for recieve if there is a way. if this cannot be done is there away to get both to send and recieve at the same time to get more packets send and recived to the computer at once?

Answer 1

You can have two ethernet cards in your PC and then bridge the connections together. that will increase your throughput. Just remember that the slowest link in the chain will determine your overall speed. Getting 2 gig on the ethernet to a 2mb DSL line will only get you 2mb from the internet.

Answer 2

In order to have 2 ethernet cables, you would need to have two ethernet cards. Each ethernet card is hard coded at the factory with a MAC address (think of it is the serial number for that card). That MAC address is used by the Internet to uniquely identify your computer.



Since the two ethernet cards would have different MAC addresses, they Internet would see them as two different computers. The Internet would refuse to split packets between the two cards (as they are two different computers as far as the Internet is concerned), or to only send to one and receive with the other.



So while it is an interesting idea, the way the Internet is configured it would not work without special routers and switches that will cost you a fortune (about $3000 to start).



Even if it would work, you will hit a second problem. Usually the speed of you ethernet card is not what determines the speed of your connection. Most ethernet cards are much faster then the ISP to which you are connected. They limit the speed of your connection so they can cram more customers onto the same line as you. So even if you were able to add a second card, the ISP would still limit your speed and you would gain nothing.



Talk to your ISP. Usually for an additional monthly fee you can have them increase the bandwidth (speed) of your connection.

Answer 3

Two Ethernet Cards One Computer

Answer 4

Dewcoons is correct.

A bit more - any connection can send and receive at the same time, called full duplex mode. So sending on one ISP connection and receiving on the other does not improve performance. To overcome that you would need two Internet connections from the ISP to do any good, and you would need load balancing software at the ISP to get the advantage of two connections. You would need compatable software on the device that you connected to the two Internet connections.



Bridging allows data to go from one Ethernet connection to the other. So you could connect one computer to another to get to the second computer's Internet connection, from the first. So "theoretically" it is possible for the one ISP connection to send to the other data that was not destined to your computer. Highly improbable, unless you used two different ISP's.



It takes a very experienced person to set this up, and you will not get much help from an ISP's first or second line support. If you have problems expect long times to fix. Some of the things that you will need to understand is Multilink Trunking (MLT) or Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP).

Answer 5

So you have a router... and TWO cables? You're in business! Next step depends on operating system... You're probably better submitting another question, stating that you have a router & cables, and specifying the OS version on each computer. I suspect you'll have an answer in minutes. Else you'll have to wait for someone to find this question again... It's be a while since I set mine up - on W2K so probably not what you want... Good Luck!

Answer 6

yes you are able to do this (both methods).. however having one NIC send and one Recieve will cause your network to be not terribly efficient. (because one will be set only to recieve, the router/switch will have no way of knowing its ip address (due to its constant "listening state" and to be able to recieve on that network card the sending device will have to send a broadcast to every machine just so that your recieving NIC can get the packet.



you are able to load balance with 2 NIC cards also but you will need appropriate networking equipment which will support this function (routers/switches).



sorry i couldnt be of more help

Answer 7

An ethernet cable has one pair of wires to receive and one pair of wires to send, and I doubt you'll need more than 1Gb transfer bandwidth (that allows you to transfer 100MB/second - faster than most computers can handle).

Answer 8

Nope, I don't think it's possible.



But, my question is why would you want it faster, sorry.



It's not possible to my knowledge. Sorry.