Why use multiple Network Adapters for Servers?

I think my question is quite simple:

Why would you use multiple network adapters or NIC's with multiple ports for
servers running Windows Enterprise 2003?

My servers are sitting behind two firewalls, a Cisco Pix and then a Symantec
Gateway. The servers are all on one network.

A follow-up question would be:
Can these network ports use the same IP address or be combined for better
throughput? Redundancy? I don't know...how does the business worls use these
things?

Regards,

JoeF

"JoeF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C668B963-B9AD-4AAC-8236-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I think my question is quite simple:
>
> Why would you use multiple network adapters or NIC's with multiple ports for
> servers running Windows Enterprise 2003?

If the server needs to be connected to more than one network you need additional
NICs.

> My servers are sitting behind two firewalls, a Cisco Pix and then a Symantec
> Gateway. The servers are all on one network.
>
> A follow-up question would be:
> Can these network ports use the same IP address or be combined for better
> throughput?

No.

> Redundancy?

Depends on hardware/drivers. Windows does not provide this. See
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=254101.

> I don't know...how does the business worls use these
> things?

See above.

People use multiple network adapters for many reasons. To answer your question, you can setup NIC teaming for redundancy and speed. This search result may help,

Network Teaming 5. The screen of the properties for the network adapter team displays. By default, there are two team settings and both are Automatic (Recommended). ...
www.howtonetworking.com/Networking/nicteam1.htm


Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"JoeF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:C668B963-B9AD-4AAC-8236-(E-Mail Removed)...
I think my question is quite simple:

Why would you use multiple network adapters or NIC's with multiple ports for
servers running Windows Enterprise 2003?

My servers are sitting behind two firewalls, a Cisco Pix and then a Symantec
Gateway. The servers are all on one network.

A follow-up question would be:
Can these network ports use the same IP address or be combined for better
throughput? Redundancy? I don't know...how does the business worls use these
things?

Regards,

JoeF

It depends on what needs to be achieved, for example...

NICs can be combined additional throughput. (See your vendor network
drivers/utilities/switch documentation)

Virtualization (VMWare/MS Virtual Server 2005), multiple NICs are good
because 1 can be dedicated to the host operating system while the remaining
ones are for the virtualized machines.

Web stuff (IIS/FTP), multi-nics might be good where you have the same
physical machine hosting different websites. This way the server can be
assigned multiple IP addresses and you can isolate each web site to a
specific IP address.


"JoeF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C668B963-B9AD-4AAC-8236-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I think my question is quite simple:
>
> Why would you use multiple network adapters or NIC's with multiple ports
> for
> servers running Windows Enterprise 2003?
>
> My servers are sitting behind two firewalls, a Cisco Pix and then a
> Symantec
> Gateway. The servers are all on one network.
>
> A follow-up question would be:
> Can these network ports use the same IP address or be combined for better
> throughput? Redundancy? I don't know...how does the business worls use
> these
> things?
>
> Regards,
>
> JoeF