Configuring two NICs on XP Pro and Win 2003

Hi,

Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on Windows
XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.

Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss. That
means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost, and so on.

Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the primary NIC?

Thanks.

Try doing a Google search on 'two NICs" or 'two internal NICs' (no quotes) -
I foudnd quite a few pages/articles.

"xfile" <cou-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:eH0wrS$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>
> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss.
> That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost, and
> so on.
>
> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the primary
> NIC?
>
> Thanks.
>

Why do you need two NICs in the machine? What are you planning to use
the second NIC for?

Could you describe what you are trying to do. Is one NIC in a private
LAN and one on the Internet? Do you want the machine to work as a router?

xfile wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>
> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss.
> That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost,
> and so on.
> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the
> primary NIC?
> Thanks.

Hi,

Done many times or won't post here.


"Jerry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%23$5xsx$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Try doing a Google search on 'two NICs" or 'two internal NICs' (no
> quotes) - I foudnd quite a few pages/articles.
>
> "xfile" <cou-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:eH0wrS$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>
>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss.
>> That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost, and
>> so on.
>>
>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the primary
>> NIC?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>
>

Hi,

Thanks.

For the Windows 2003 server, the second NIC was added for trying to set up
an VPN.

According to the wizard, we need two NICs and set up one for the Internet
and one for the private network.

At one point, we did succeed in connecting to VPN server, but we could not
use the network resources. At the same time, local DNS cannot be seen by
other client computers using intranet anymore and all trust relationships
were gone.

Since we spent too much time on VPN but could not make it work, so we
decided to remove the VPN and in hope to restore the original intranet
environment and use Remote Desktop for the time being, and keep the second
NIC installed (but deactivated) for a while. But even doing that could not
bring back the intranet.

For the XP Pro box, the onboard NIC does not have WOL (wake on LAN), so
installed a second NIC with WOL support. This is also not intended to be
used as a router. We really only needs one NIC for this machine, but thought
there will be no harms if both are there. Well, it could be very wrong.

So my questions are:

(1) For Win 2003 VPN, are there any configurations for the NIC using for
Internet? Our original configuration was to have auto acquired IP address
and DNS. For the second one, we assigned it as when we were in the Intranet
environment.

(2) I assumed both NIC are connected to the LAN ports of the router?

(3) If the XP Pro has two NIC activated and connected to the router, is
there a way we can assign which NIC to do all the works? I don't know the
reason, but as long as the onboard LAN chip has been turned on (even without
any cable connected to the router), all traffics will by-pass the other NIC.

Thanks in advance and we really don't know much about networking.



"Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
news:ePrFoz$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Why do you need two NICs in the machine? What are you planning to use
> the second NIC for?
>
> Could you describe what you are trying to do. Is one NIC in a private
> LAN and one on the Internet? Do you want the machine to work as a router?
>
> xfile wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>
>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss.
>> That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost,
>> and so on.
>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the
>> primary NIC?
>> Thanks.
>
>

To answer the last question first, on-board NICs can be a problem. If
you want to use the other NIC, try disabling the onboard NIC.

Now the numbered questions.

1. For VPN, if you have two NICs, one NIC needs to be connected to the
Internet and one to your local LAN. If you are behind a NAT router, you do
not need two NICs. You have only one NIC , and use port forwarding on the
NAT router to get VPN traffic to the server.

2. With two NICs, you would not plug them into the same box. One would plug
into the LAN hub/switch, the other would connect to the Internet. They would
be in different IP subnets.

3. As above, you should not have two NICs plugged into the same hub/switch.

Have you tried stopping RRAS to restore normal LAN operation?

xfile wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks.
>
> For the Windows 2003 server, the second NIC was added for trying to
> set up an VPN.
>
> According to the wizard, we need two NICs and set up one for the
> Internet and one for the private network.
>
> At one point, we did succeed in connecting to VPN server, but we
> could not use the network resources. At the same time, local DNS
> cannot be seen by other client computers using intranet anymore and
> all trust relationships were gone.
>
> Since we spent too much time on VPN but could not make it work, so we
> decided to remove the VPN and in hope to restore the original intranet
> environment and use Remote Desktop for the time being, and keep the
> second NIC installed (but deactivated) for a while. But even doing
> that could not bring back the intranet.
>
> For the XP Pro box, the onboard NIC does not have WOL (wake on LAN),
> so installed a second NIC with WOL support. This is also not
> intended to be used as a router. We really only needs one NIC for
> this machine, but thought there will be no harms if both are there. Well,
> it could be very wrong.
> So my questions are:
>
> (1) For Win 2003 VPN, are there any configurations for the NIC using
> for Internet? Our original configuration was to have auto acquired
> IP address and DNS. For the second one, we assigned it as when we
> were in the Intranet environment.
>
> (2) I assumed both NIC are connected to the LAN ports of the router?
>
> (3) If the XP Pro has two NIC activated and connected to the router,
> is there a way we can assign which NIC to do all the works? I don't
> know the reason, but as long as the onboard LAN chip has been turned
> on (even without any cable connected to the router), all traffics
> will by-pass the other NIC.
> Thanks in advance and we really don't know much about networking.
>
>
>
> "Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
> news:ePrFoz$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Why do you need two NICs in the machine? What are you planning to
>> use the second NIC for?
>>
>> Could you describe what you are trying to do. Is one NIC in a
>> private LAN and one on the Internet? Do you want the machine to work
>> as a router? xfile wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>>> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>>
>>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will
>>> loss. That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust
>>> are lost, and so on.
>>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the
>>> primary NIC?
>>> Thanks.

Hi,

Many thanks for your kind explanations, and see if I could comprehend what
you've said:

(1) In general, I should not have two NICs (at the same box) both connected
to a router, or switching box. This will cause problems.

(2) If we have an NAT router, for which we recently purchased a new Buffalo
(WHR-G54S), we could use only one NIC and set up NAT table for port
forwarding (which is another headache). In any case, shall we ignore the
warning from Win 2003 Server and use custom set up for the VPN?

(3) I have tried to remove VPN server and RRAS but normal LAN operation
seems to be lost. I'd try to disable or remove all extra NICs and see if I
can bring it back.



Thanks.


"Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> To answer the last question first, on-board NICs can be a problem. If
> you want to use the other NIC, try disabling the onboard NIC.
>
> Now the numbered questions.
>
> 1. For VPN, if you have two NICs, one NIC needs to be connected to the
> Internet and one to your local LAN. If you are behind a NAT router, you
> do not need two NICs. You have only one NIC , and use port forwarding on
> the NAT router to get VPN traffic to the server.
>
> 2. With two NICs, you would not plug them into the same box. One would
> plug into the LAN hub/switch, the other would connect to the Internet.
> They would be in different IP subnets.
>
> 3. As above, you should not have two NICs plugged into the same
> hub/switch.
>
> Have you tried stopping RRAS to restore normal LAN operation?
>
> xfile wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> For the Windows 2003 server, the second NIC was added for trying to
>> set up an VPN.
>>
>> According to the wizard, we need two NICs and set up one for the
>> Internet and one for the private network.
>>
>> At one point, we did succeed in connecting to VPN server, but we
>> could not use the network resources. At the same time, local DNS
>> cannot be seen by other client computers using intranet anymore and
>> all trust relationships were gone.
>>
>> Since we spent too much time on VPN but could not make it work, so we
>> decided to remove the VPN and in hope to restore the original intranet
>> environment and use Remote Desktop for the time being, and keep the
>> second NIC installed (but deactivated) for a while. But even doing
>> that could not bring back the intranet.
>>
>> For the XP Pro box, the onboard NIC does not have WOL (wake on LAN),
>> so installed a second NIC with WOL support. This is also not
>> intended to be used as a router. We really only needs one NIC for
>> this machine, but thought there will be no harms if both are there. Well,
>> it could be very wrong.
>> So my questions are:
>>
>> (1) For Win 2003 VPN, are there any configurations for the NIC using
>> for Internet? Our original configuration was to have auto acquired
>> IP address and DNS. For the second one, we assigned it as when we
>> were in the Intranet environment.
>>
>> (2) I assumed both NIC are connected to the LAN ports of the router?
>>
>> (3) If the XP Pro has two NIC activated and connected to the router,
>> is there a way we can assign which NIC to do all the works? I don't
>> know the reason, but as long as the onboard LAN chip has been turned
>> on (even without any cable connected to the router), all traffics
>> will by-pass the other NIC.
>> Thanks in advance and we really don't know much about networking.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
>> news:ePrFoz$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Why do you need two NICs in the machine? What are you planning to
>>> use the second NIC for?
>>>
>>> Could you describe what you are trying to do. Is one NIC in a
>>> private LAN and one on the Internet? Do you want the machine to work
>>> as a router? xfile wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>>>> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>>>
>>>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will
>>>> loss. That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust
>>>> are lost, and so on.
>>>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the
>>>> primary NIC?
>>>> Thanks.
>
>

You can Specify the IP Addresses to Both of them. Specify your ISP IP to one
Lan Card & Specify one Internet IP Address by this way you can
differentiation of Internal & Exter network. You will not loose you Internet
connection.


"xfile" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on Windows
> XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>
> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss. That
> means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost, and so on.
>
> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the primary NIC?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>

I got my normal LAN back

I removed both second NIC although there was a little trouble; I did not
remove from the device manager first so there was so-called "hidden" NIC
card left, and the infamous "packed scheduler miniport driver" left. I
eventually solved it.

Now I will be trying to use one NIC and have the router to forward port to
the server.

Hopefully, this will work.


"Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> To answer the last question first, on-board NICs can be a problem. If
> you want to use the other NIC, try disabling the onboard NIC.
>
> Now the numbered questions.
>
> 1. For VPN, if you have two NICs, one NIC needs to be connected to the
> Internet and one to your local LAN. If you are behind a NAT router, you
> do not need two NICs. You have only one NIC , and use port forwarding on
> the NAT router to get VPN traffic to the server.
>
> 2. With two NICs, you would not plug them into the same box. One would
> plug into the LAN hub/switch, the other would connect to the Internet.
> They would be in different IP subnets.
>
> 3. As above, you should not have two NICs plugged into the same
> hub/switch.
>
> Have you tried stopping RRAS to restore normal LAN operation?
>
> xfile wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> For the Windows 2003 server, the second NIC was added for trying to
>> set up an VPN.
>>
>> According to the wizard, we need two NICs and set up one for the
>> Internet and one for the private network.
>>
>> At one point, we did succeed in connecting to VPN server, but we
>> could not use the network resources. At the same time, local DNS
>> cannot be seen by other client computers using intranet anymore and
>> all trust relationships were gone.
>>
>> Since we spent too much time on VPN but could not make it work, so we
>> decided to remove the VPN and in hope to restore the original intranet
>> environment and use Remote Desktop for the time being, and keep the
>> second NIC installed (but deactivated) for a while. But even doing
>> that could not bring back the intranet.
>>
>> For the XP Pro box, the onboard NIC does not have WOL (wake on LAN),
>> so installed a second NIC with WOL support. This is also not
>> intended to be used as a router. We really only needs one NIC for
>> this machine, but thought there will be no harms if both are there. Well,
>> it could be very wrong.
>> So my questions are:
>>
>> (1) For Win 2003 VPN, are there any configurations for the NIC using
>> for Internet? Our original configuration was to have auto acquired
>> IP address and DNS. For the second one, we assigned it as when we
>> were in the Intranet environment.
>>
>> (2) I assumed both NIC are connected to the LAN ports of the router?
>>
>> (3) If the XP Pro has two NIC activated and connected to the router,
>> is there a way we can assign which NIC to do all the works? I don't
>> know the reason, but as long as the onboard LAN chip has been turned
>> on (even without any cable connected to the router), all traffics
>> will by-pass the other NIC.
>> Thanks in advance and we really don't know much about networking.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
>> news:ePrFoz$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Why do you need two NICs in the machine? What are you planning to
>>> use the second NIC for?
>>>
>>> Could you describe what you are trying to do. Is one NIC in a
>>> private LAN and one on the Internet? Do you want the machine to work
>>> as a router? xfile wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>>>> Windows XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>>>
>>>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will
>>>> loss. That means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust
>>>> are lost, and so on.
>>>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the
>>>> primary NIC?
>>>> Thanks.
>
>

Hi,

Thanks for your kind advise, and wish I could try your suggestion before
removing the NIC.

Just for the purpose of learning and future preparations, I'd like to
clarify if I understood your suggestion:

(1) Physical connection: I assumed your suggestion means to connect one NIC
to the Internet router and one to the switching box?

(2) ISP IP: You mean IP assigned by ISP (such as 220.xxx.xx.x) as the
private IP address of the card or?

(3) Default Gateway: What about the IP address in the default gateway of the
two NICs? I got warning from Windows when I tried to assign both to the
same using the router. I also read an lengthy article from the net
(although I did not understand 90% of it) about the problem using the same
default gateway for two NICs on the same machine. In any case, I know it
won't work but I don't know what will be the other default gateway to use
other than the router's.

(4) Preferred DNS: How should I input for this on the two NICs?

Sorry for so many questions about using two NICs. I am afraid of losing my
previous internal network again.

Thanks in advance.


"Dash" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:EAF19CCA-7882-4858-A8CC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> You can Specify the IP Addresses to Both of them. Specify your ISP IP to
> one
> Lan Card & Specify one Internet IP Address by this way you can
> differentiation of Internal & Exter network. You will not loose you
> Internet
> connection.
>
>
> "xfile" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Appreciated if anyone can help me on how to configure 2 LAN cards on
>> Windows
>> XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server.
>>
>> Problem is that when two LAN cards are installed, intranet will loss.
>> That
>> means including DNS is lost, existing computers trust are lost, and so
>> on.
>>
>> Is there a way that we can specify which NIC to be used as the primary
>> NIC?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
>>