Use a different ISP hooked to different LAN cards?

[tordogs]

Have been on the 'net all morning trying to find a simple answer.

Motherboard has two LAN adapters--Intel and Realtek. Will be changing ISPs shortly and will have access to both services for a time. Wonder if I can hook one LAN card to one ISP modem and the other LAN card to the second ISP modem (using ethernet cables) and switch between them using software or Network and Sharing Center?

Not interested in using them at the same time or bridging or combining or load-leveling. Just use one ISP a while then switch to the other--have several things that seem like they might be easier to accomplish this way during the switchover. Would a reboot be required if this is possible?

The option would be to reach behind the computer and unplug one ISP and plug in the other--I know, lazy. Either way I'd still like know if switching between ISP/LANs is possible when both are hooked up simultaneously. I'm really curious now since there doesn't seem to be any straightforward answers that I can find online.

Tempted to just try it and see what happens. Of course, if it doesn't work I'd have no idea why.

Is this possible or impossible? Note that in Network and Sharing the the Intel LAN is enabled ( in use) and the Realtek is disabled ( not in use--red X on it). Would that change if something was plugged into both of them? Sparks, flames, complete anihilation? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[iamwhoiamtoday]

With a decent router, you can set two WAN connections to automatically failover or load balance between the two. I'm unsure of how to do this directly on your workstation.

The Edgerouter Lite can do this with ease.

 

[Nicklebon]

Change your default route to point to the router connected to whichever ISP you wish to use. This assumes that:

1. Each ISP has a different router w/ DHCP
2. Each router is handing out IP addresses from a different network.

In consumer craptastic hardware land neither of the above are good assumptions. It is very likely that without user configuration both pieces of equipment will have the same internal address and hand out IPs from the same network.

 

[gimp]

Just disable the LAC for the connection you don't want to use.
No reboot required.

 

[tordogs]

Thank you all for the replies.

No routers, just modems supplied by service provider and each hardwired to the two different onboard LAN adapters. One modem is ATT DSL and the other a cable modem from cable company. Would think they will use different internal configurations but not sure. Cable install should be this coming Thursday.

I had thought that just disabling one of the LANs would put the other one into operation. Even read that when both LANs are connected Windows will choose one as default--don't know this since I've never had them both hooked up at the same time.

Gonna try the suggestion to just disable one of them--not exactly sure what Windows will think when it boots up with two internet connections--curious to see what happens. Will keep a fire extinguisher handy. Now if I can just figure out what to do about my e-mail!