| What is the purpose of two network cards on one desktop computer?

What is the purpose of two network cards on one desktop computer?

Rob asked:


Dual nics are more prevelant now. Why is this? What would an average computer user with a small home network need it for?

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Comments

6 Responses to “What is the purpose of two network cards on one desktop computer?”

  1. radicalfunscout on March 30th, 2009 12:33 pm

    a small home user would usually have one nic card only (usually for internet), in the work enviroment dual nics are great for seperating internal and external networks.

  2. karnautrahl on March 30th, 2009 1:48 pm

    You can use it as a firewall/router for one. One card is for the external side of the network the other for the internal side of the network. You can set this up with smoothwall or ISA Server. I believe even internet connection sharing can make use of this configuration. I’m referring to the use of it on a simple home network connecting to the internet, however you could use it in more ways than that. Two seperate home networks joined together for various reasons is another example. Each card will have it’s own IP address. It’s a while since I did this stuff mind so someone will be far more precise :-).

  3. Afraid of Flu on March 31st, 2009 6:06 pm

    2 network cards are used if your computer needs to be on two different networks at the same time. Traffic from one network can be allowed to pass to the another, or be stopped.

  4. beni_gabor on April 2nd, 2009 6:49 pm

    If you don’t have a home router or switch. you can share your internet connection with another computer.
    along with other things like a firewall.
    even a router

  5. topgun h on April 4th, 2009 2:45 am

    It is for Load Balancing.

    For more info see following links…

  6. jimbob on April 4th, 2009 11:48 pm

    In a professional environment you will find a “multi-homed” machine providing several different types of services… In a home environment you can use a multi-homed computer as a NAT/Router device with the help of Internet Connection Sharing (98se to xp) or a third party software…. one card faces the public network ( the connection to your isp via your modem and the connection which has the ICS software enabled) and the other card is your internal network ( which includes your computer and any computer connected to the second card directly or via a hub). the multi-homed computer also becomes your DHCP service and simple Firewall.

    You can use this function to do the usual and share a single connection between other computers, or if you want to control access to you connection (such as a parent) you can stop the network on purpose or just by closing your computer down.