Windows 7 Load Balancing

[-(Xyphox)-]

I have not played around too much with Windows 7.
But Does it have any sort of load balancing built it?
Say a motherboard with two NIC cards, 2 different internet connections
Want to set them to use both connections as one
I know this can be done with a Dual WAN router or a server, but just wanted to know if Windows 7 has anything built into it.

 

[Mabrito]

Dont believe NIC Teaming is built into Windows 7. The motherboard may have some software to use NIC Teaming though, but Windows 7, as far as I know, no.

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

Its the motherboard in my sig, i will have to check into that

 

[C7J0yc3]

I have the same series motherboard, and though NIC teaming is available for the Realtek Chipset EVGA doesn't support it (You can still get the software from ASUS though). Not to mention if you want to do teaming you need a managed switch that supports it, and furthermore, if your desktop is the only PC on the network with a 2GB link you will see no improvement what so ever.

LACP only works for servers needing a large pipe because they are feeding a bunch of clients, and also need failover so if a NIC dies the server isn't down. On a home gaming desktop it will not give you better ping, you aren't going to be able to download stuff faster, you will just have a 2GB connection that you can only use 50% of at any given time.

As far a WAN load balancing windows 7 doesn't have anything like that built in. If you were doing WAN LB your better bet would be a pfSense box. Not to mention that again you can't bond WAN connections like you think you can. For instance if you have 2 10Mb/sec internet connections, that doesn't mean you can download at 20Mb/sec, it means you can download 2 things at 10mb/sec each. WAN LB is good for companies with a bunch of employees that need bandwidth and failover, but can't get / afford fiber.

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

I have the same series motherboard, and though NIC teaming is available for the Realtek Chipset EVGA doesn't support it (You can still get the software from ASUS though). Not to mention if you want to do teaming you need a managed switch that supports it, and furthermore, if your desktop is the only PC on the network with a 2GB link you will see no improvement what so ever.

LACP only works for servers needing a large pipe because they are feeding a bunch of clients, and also need failover so if a NIC dies the server isn't down. On a home gaming desktop it will not give you better ping, you aren't going to be able to download stuff faster, you will just have a 2GB connection that you can only use 50% of at any given time.

As far a WAN load balancing windows 7 doesn't have anything like that built in. If you were doing WAN LB your better bet would be a pfSense box. Not to mention that again you can't bond WAN connections like you think you can. For instance if you have 2 10Mb/sec internet connections, that doesn't mean you can download at 20Mb/sec, it means you can download 2 things at 10mb/sec each. WAN LB is good for companies with a bunch of employees that need bandwidth and failover, but can't get / afford fiber.

Thanks for the info on Windows 7, i am going to get a Dual WAN router, i dont want to build a small server and load pfsence on it just for this. This is more of testing then anything. I am working on a project for my company. Thanks for the info though.
I ordered one of these this morning
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833373002

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

LACP only works for servers needing a large pipe because they are feeding a bunch of clients, and also need failover so if a NIC dies the server isn't down. On a home gaming desktop it will not give you better ping, you aren't going to be able to download stuff faster, you will just have a 2GB connection that you can only use 50% of at any given time.

^^^ This

You also will want to study up on how multi-WAN routers work...because for a home network...small numbers of nodes, you also will not gain anything.

Having a 6 meg DSL pipe plus a 12 meg cable pipe will NOT give you 18 meg download speeds from a single computer..or even a handful of computers. It will help a network of many many computers...they'll be able to pull..like....14 megs of traffic through it...combined...as in the whole network. But not single PCs.

You'll also find quirkiness in "session based" web sessions...as your load balancing flips which WAN port your traffic comes/goes from on this session..your public IP changes..and your session breaks.