windows 7 - MOBO has 2 Ethernet ports. I want to use one for Internet and one for LAN only. Possible?

30
2013-10

Akbar Abidi

My computer (Windows 7) has two Ethernet ports (ASUS Maximus IV Extreme MOBO), both are Gigabit, and I have one port connected to the Ethernet port in the wall that leads to the central router/modem/switch and the other port on the motherboard connected to the WiFi router in my room (this router is only for WiFi and Ethernet switch purposes only so DHCP is turned off on this router).

Since I've got the whole house including all routers under one DNS/network, both connections from my motherboard are connected to the same network (lets just call this network "Home" for my example). Under "Network Connections", both connections have internet access. In my house on my Home network, I have several other computers and NAS (Network Storage) devices and media players and I was wondering if I could assign one of my motherboard's Ethernet ports to handle all internet-only traffic and the other one to handle only LAN traffic, so that I can download or skype using one Ethernet port on my motherboard while at the same time transferring data between devices on my LAN using only the other Ethernet port on my motherboard. Both Ethernet ports are controlled by an Intel controller.

Keep in mind that when I say "ports" here I'm talking about physical Ethernet ports and that we want both to stay on the same network or DNS or whatever they call it, I just want to allocate one for internet traffic and the other for LAN traffic.

Is this possible? And if so, how do I do it?

Answers

Hennes

Yes, it is possible.

Configure the routing table to have an entry for your LAN via one NIC, and configure the default gateway though the other NIC.

(Background information in routes etc can be found here in this serverfault post).

Edit: I always love diagrams in cases such as these, so added the one below.

enter image description here

There is a lot more information which can be added. E.g. which IP range is in use? Do the devices connected to the 'WiFi router' need to access the internet via the PC or do they have their own access? Are there reservation in the central routers DHCP table so your PC always gets the same IP? Etc. etc.

Related Question

windows 7 - Is it possible to provide a wired ethernet connection to external devices with an extra LAN card?

windows-7 windows networking home-networking lan

Ben McCormack

I'm trying to provide a wired ethernet connection (wireless is not an option for this device) to a device (Samsung blu-ray player) without running Cat5 cable all over the home. I have a PC sitting next to this device and the PC is connected to the network via a wireless USB adapter.

Is it possible to provide a wired connection from the PC to the wired device using the (currently unused) ethernet port in the back of the computer?

Here's how I envision the device getting connected to the internet via my network:

Linksys WRT54G v8 Wireless Router
  |
   ``--> Windows 7 PC connected via wireless
         |
          ``--> Blu-ray player connected via wired connection to the 
               ethernet port on the PC.

If so, how is this done? Will I need a crossover cable? What settings will I need to change in Windows 7 so that the device can connect?

NOTE: I'm trying to avoid having to buy a wireless bridge and/or hacking a router with an open-source firmware to get this to work. See my previous question for more details.