Multiple NICs, multiple networks in Windows XP

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BillLeeLee

[H]F Junkie
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Hi everyone,

I've searched, found some similar threads, except those amounted to "yes, you can do this" but ending at that.

The problem: I have a machine with two physical network devices, an onboard NIC and a WLAN adapter. The onboard NIC is connected directly to another machine and has a static IP address set on the interface (192.168.100.101, subnet 255.255.255.0). The WLAN will be connected to another network and gets all its settings from DHCP.

The problem I'm having is that I run into the problem with Windows XP giving priority to the last enabled device, so if I configured the onboard LAN with the 192.168.100.101 address and disable/re-enable the interface, the WLAN adapter connection isn't used, and vice versa.

I want to be able to use the onboard LAN to connect to 192.168.100.100, but also use the WLAN to connect to the external network.

Do I have to update my routing table?

If any clarification is needed, let me know. Thanks in advance.
 
Is the WLAN just for internet access? Or another network that you need to browse?
You can juggle the priority in the advanced section of network properties.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Is the WLAN just for internet access? Or another network that you need to browse?
You can juggle the priority in the advanced section of network properties.
Click to expand...

The WLAN is for the company network/internet, the onboard NIC is just for crossover connections to the other machine. I'll take a look at the advanced section when I'm back in the office.

Thanks.
 
You want to give the WLAN connection a lower metric ( or rather, bump the metric on the NIC going to the other system ). The, reboot and see if the routes got assigned correctly.

In theory that should work.
 
XOR != OR said:
You want to give the WLAN connection a lower metric ( or rather, bump the metric on the NIC going to the other system ). The, reboot and see if the routes got assigned correctly.

In theory that should work.
Click to expand...

All right, I'll give that a shot.

jtg1993 said:
Get a router it will solve all your problems.
Click to expand...

It probably would, but this is actually for testing. The people I am assisting are trying to test a process that customers of our product will have to perform, so they want to test the real procedure. The crossover connection is used to configure the box via direct connection, and the people testing it need to use the WLAN connection to do a recording of the user attempting to perform this procedure.
 
Some more choices:

1. Don't put the two NICs on the same subnet, use different subnets.

2. Configure static route statements. Add one that tells Windows that the path to 192.168.100.100 goes through the onboard NIC.

Oh, in both cases, this is also correct:

Just don't put a default gateway on the NIC, that should take care of it....
Click to expand...
 
I was attempting all the stuff I read from this thread and elsewhere earlier today, but I still couldn't get any success. It may be because the Cisco VPN client that has to be used to access the VPN of the company network was interfering with what I was trying to do.

In the end, it turned out that the thing the team wanted to do via wireless couldn't even be done via wireless, so they just ended up plugging the machines directly to the network. :rolleyes: :p:

Thanks for all the help though, I'll keep it in mind for future knowledge. :)
 
VPN Clients usually block you from talking to the local or any other network. I hear its configurable on the server side of the VPN by I.T.

Its fairly pointless as you can run the vpn client from within a VM, while accessing the local networks from the host fine.
 
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