PC with 2 NICs

give a thought to this
everyone is aware that to have interconnectivty between two computers, the computers are fitted with NICs (network interface cards). Each NIC has a physical burnt in address called a physical address or a MAC address .
Had it ever occured how will a computer behave if it is fitted with 2 NICs?? Will it then end up behaving as a router?
This is not uncommon

Replies

  • KenJackson
    KenJackson
    It did occur to me. In fact, I used to have two NICs in my PC. For a while I had that setup both at work and at home. In each case, one NIC connected to the ISP and one connected to the internal network. My PC acted as a router between the two because I enabled routing, and it did network address translation (NAT). The routing table decided which network an outgoing packet would go on.

    Oh. I was using Linux.

    I guess you could do that with Windows, but you would be foolish to expose a Windows PC to the internet.
  • durga ch
    durga ch
    right, and as usual they have pegged a term for this one as multi-homing(if i got it right). Its different from Ip aliasing (2 IP addresses to same NIC).Best example of multihoming would be having 2 ISP provide internet connectivity while one acts as a back up of another( this is to a router though). While we are discussing about it , the two NICs could be or not on same network and as far as internet connectivity is concerned, the NIC IP connecting the internal LAN though would be def gateway for the hosts on LAN, the computer(router) will be forwarding all the unknown destination packets to the NIC connecting the ISP(after NATting).

    while I had Vista on, ther was this feature called internet connection sharing which is very similar to what we are discussing. Here :
    #-Link-Snipped-#

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