Combining two network connections

[austinmcgraw877]

I recently got a server computer and use it as a personal computer, and i saw that is has two Ethernet ports (three technically but i think its for maintenance) i would like to know if i can somehow combine those two as one connection, and would it make my connection faster?

I need something that is reversible aswell because im taking this computer when i move out.

Thank you.

 

[Gam3r01]

Nah, you cant combine two ethernet ports to increase performance.

 

[jacobweaver800]

Nah, you cant combine two ethernet ports to increase performance.

Actually yes you can, I have done it before, It might not be noticeably faster depending on how fast your internet is, however it will allow a total of 2gb throughput between your Server and modem, also yeah that 3rd one is for debugging. Generally it won't be noticeable unless your using ethernet to transfer file between systems but it is possible. So if you have gigabit ethernet then you might see an improvement with both plugged in.

 

[bill001g]

It pretty much has no purpose in a home user environment. You obviously can't go faster than your internet connection and few people have even close to 1gbit so 1 ethernet is fast enough.

Now if you were to buy special switch/router that supports 802.3ad port aggregation then in theory at least you could go faster than 1gbit. BUT what are you going to talk to. If you ran your machine as a server in theory you could run a number of machines accessing disk and their total usage could exceed 1gbit. Not many people have a lot of machines in there house that constantly copy lots of data back and forth.

Now even if you had say 2 machines that both had 2 bonded ports you can not use a single file transfer faster. Because of how 802.3ad does load balancing it will only use a single path for each session. You would have to have 2 different sessions and it is almost luck that it does not try to put both on the same path and leave the other unused. Because it does not load balance well and 10g ports are now cheap nobody really uses this method to get faster connections anymore.

You would of course have to have a disk system that was designed to exceed 1gbit. It also greatly depends on what you are coping, many small files are very different than single large files.

What I use the second port on mine for is to access a security camera network that is not connected to the internet.

 

[jacobweaver800]

It pretty much has no purpose in a home user environment. You obviously can't go faster than your internet connection and few people have even close to 1gbit so 1 ethernet is fast enough.

Now if you were to buy special switch/router that supports 802.3ad port aggregation then in theory at least you could go faster than 1gbit. BUT what are you going to talk to. If you ran your machine as a server in theory you could run a number of machines accessing disk and their total usage could exceed 1gbit. Not many people have a lot of machines in there house that constantly copy lots of data back and forth.

Now even if you had say 2 machines that both had 2 bonded ports you can not use a single file transfer faster. Because of how 802.3ad does load balancing it will only use a single path for each session. You would have to have 2 different sessions and it is almost luck that it does not try to put both on the same path and leave the other unused. Because it does not load balance well and 10g ports are now cheap nobody really uses this method to get faster connections anymore.

You would of course have to have a disk system that was designed to exceed 1gbit. It also greatly depends on what you are coping, many small files are very different than single large files.

What I use the second port on mine for is to access a security camera network that is not connected to the internet.

I find the best use case is for large file transfers between a computer and a storage server so something, Linus from LTT tested it and got 2gb/s transfers I believe. Although if you only have 1 or 2 machines connected to it you wont saturate a 1gb connection, but if you have per say 10 or 15 you want that dual 1gig speed.

 

[bill001g]

It pretty much has no purpose in a home user environment. You obviously can't go faster than your internet connection and few people have even close to 1gbit so 1 ethernet is fast enough.

Now if you were to buy special switch/router that supports 802.3ad port aggregation then in theory at least you could go faster than 1gbit. BUT what are you going to talk to. If you ran your machine as a server in theory you could run a number of machines accessing disk and their total usage could exceed 1gbit. Not many people have a lot of machines in there house that constantly copy lots of data back and forth.

Now even if you had say 2 machines that both had 2 bonded ports you can not use a single file transfer faster. Because of how 802.3ad does load balancing it will only use a single path for each session. You would have to have 2 different sessions and it is almost luck that it does not try to put both on the same path and leave the other unused. Because it does not load balance well and 10g ports are now cheap nobody really uses this method to get faster connections anymore.

You would of course have to have a disk system that was designed to exceed 1gbit. It also greatly depends on what you are coping, many small files are very different than single large files.

What I use the second port on mine for is to access a security camera network that is not connected to the internet.

I find the best use case is for large file transfers between a computer and a storage server so something, Linus from LTT tested it and got 2gb/s transfers I believe. Although if you only have 1 or 2 machines connected to it you wont saturate a 1gb connection, but if you have per say 10 or 15 you want that dual 1gig speed.

That is why I was very careful to say 802.3ad. There are all kinds of proprietary port bonding methods. Almost all require direct connection between machines. Almost all commercial switches only support the industry standard with uses XOR for port selection so you can never use more than a single connection for a single file transfer.

It really doesn't matter if you really have a computer and storage system that can transfer at those rates you can afford to just use 10g ports and ignore the messy port bonding issues.

 

[jacobweaver800]

It pretty much has no purpose in a home user environment. You obviously can't go faster than your internet connection and few people have even close to 1gbit so 1 ethernet is fast enough.

Now if you were to buy special switch/router that supports 802.3ad port aggregation then in theory at least you could go faster than 1gbit. BUT what are you going to talk to. If you ran your machine as a server in theory you could run a number of machines accessing disk and their total usage could exceed 1gbit. Not many people have a lot of machines in there house that constantly copy lots of data back and forth.

Now even if you had say 2 machines that both had 2 bonded ports you can not use a single file transfer faster. Because of how 802.3ad does load balancing it will only use a single path for each session. You would have to have 2 different sessions and it is almost luck that it does not try to put both on the same path and leave the other unused. Because it does not load balance well and 10g ports are now cheap nobody really uses this method to get faster connections anymore.

You would of course have to have a disk system that was designed to exceed 1gbit. It also greatly depends on what you are coping, many small files are very different than single large files.

What I use the second port on mine for is to access a security camera network that is not connected to the internet.

I find the best use case is for large file transfers between a computer and a storage server so something, Linus from LTT tested it and got 2gb/s transfers I believe. Although if you only have 1 or 2 machines connected to it you wont saturate a 1gb connection, but if you have per say 10 or 15 you want that dual 1gig speed.

That is why I was very careful to say 802.3ad. There are all kinds of proprietary port bonding methods. Almost all require direct connection between machines. Almost all commercial switches only support the industry standard with uses XOR for port selection so you can never use more than a single connection for a single file transfer.

It really doesn't matter if you really have a computer and storage system that can transfer at those rates you can afford to just use 10g ports and ignore the messy port bonding issues.

Yeah, if your motherboard doesn't have built in 10gig you can get a fairly cheap expansion card, although a 1gig connection should be fine.