[SOLVED] Configuring 2 PCs with 2 NICs - Connect to each other & Connect to Router (Internet)

RyanTScott

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Apr 9, 2017
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Hello all and thanks for reading.

I have two workstations that each have two NICs on their mobos. I want to connect them directly to each other as well as to my router for internet access. At present they are both communicating with each other through the router and I now need help connecting them to each other. Please help.
 
Solution
The numbers must be wrong if you get 180mByte on 1Gbit connection. This is simple math 8 bits to the byte. The most you can possibly get is 125MByte and that will never happen because data transfers do not include the overhead. 115-120 is about what you should expect.

It should not be hard to force it to use the direct connection for file transfers you just need to use the proper ip address. It depends on how you are actually doing the file transfers but if you mount the drive using the IP it will always use that IP to talk to the other machine.

You are making things overly complex for no real reason. A switch or the lan ports on a router (which is a switch) do not delay the traffic. Almost every switch you find can...
Set the IP addresses on each machine on one NIC, each on the same subnet with no gateway. Connect them directly togther. This will allow the two machines to talk directly. You could then let DHCP on the router handle the second NIC on each machine as long as it a different subnet to the stic ones set on the first NICs.
 

RyanTScott

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Apr 9, 2017
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Let me describe my use case as well. I want to direclty share 2 drives from one to the other and both of their desktop folders from one to the other. I'm also using NoMachine to remote in and would like NoMachine to use this direct connection as well. At present everything still seems to be going through the router after making the recomended changes and restarting both machines.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
As I understand your requirements to share there is no need to establish a second physical path using additional NICs, etc..

If the objective is to just share drives between the workstations (WS) just use normal network connectivity and share the desired drives/folders via the network router.

I.e.:

ISP ---->[WAN] Router[LAN1] ----->WS1 and Router[LAN2] ----> WS2

Map and share the applicable WS drives as required.

Starter reference link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4092694/windows-10-file-sharing-over-a-network

You can find additional tutorials via a Google search.

Simpler, easier to setup, configure, and maintain.
 

RyanTScott

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Apr 9, 2017
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I stated I wanted to connect them to each other AND to the router. My reasoning for connecting them to each other is hopefully increased throughput between both machines for both my remote viewing app (NoMachine) as well for playing lossless video (DNxHR, ProRes, Images sequences, etc.) from one to the other. I use my PCs as apart of a money making operation so performance is valuable to me. I was able to setup a unique IP and subnet for the secondary NICs on both machines and have NoMachine routed directly though that. It's performance seems to be better in that I appear to be getting less visual glitches as I was before. Any ideas on how to make this perfect would be welcomed.

Also it appears Win10 is handling the direct transfer for file transfers as my throughput has gone well above the typical 110MB/s I was getting upwards to bursts of 180MB/s to settle on averages of around 140-160MB/s. This is the area that I would like a bit more info on as data transfers between my two machines does affect my bottom line. Anyway to force Windows 10 to use the direct connection for file transfers, NoMachine and the like, and then use the router for Internet? Is the current setup the best it will get? Thanks for the info guys.
 
The numbers must be wrong if you get 180mByte on 1Gbit connection. This is simple math 8 bits to the byte. The most you can possibly get is 125MByte and that will never happen because data transfers do not include the overhead. 115-120 is about what you should expect.

It should not be hard to force it to use the direct connection for file transfers you just need to use the proper ip address. It depends on how you are actually doing the file transfers but if you mount the drive using the IP it will always use that IP to talk to the other machine.

You are making things overly complex for no real reason. A switch or the lan ports on a router (which is a switch) do not delay the traffic. Almost every switch you find can transmit 1gbit and receive 1gbit on every port all at the same time. So the 4 ports on the router can transfer 8gbit total so you will never get a slow down.

There really is no difference between a direct cable and a switch in between performance wise. 10 years ago you might be concerned but not with modern equipment.

If you actually think 1gbit of bandwidth is not enough for both your file transfers and your internet surfing you need to consider 10gbit ports. Still you have to be very careful unless your file and disk systems are designed for high speed performance the network will not be the bottleneck the file system will.
 
Solution

RyanTScott

Honorable
Apr 9, 2017
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10,680
Fair enough regarding the maths... I think the other part of this that I forgot to mention is that I work from home so their are multiple devices connected to the router/switch and these devices consume overall network bandwidth while I'm working. I'm not trying to make this overly complicated as much as ensure that the connection from both of my workstations has top priority over everything else. Again I make money with my computers so I'm prepared to make it as complicated as it needs to be and nothing more. I fiddled with network prioritization on my WRT1900AC but appreantly this actually has the opposite affect with this router (verified via research and then testing - google it).

Havigs said all of the above I actually I think my setup is good for now in that the only thing using using the direct connection via IP is NoMachine which is important to providing as seamless a working experience as possible between the two workstations to essentially make them feel like one workstation. I breifly looked up mapping drives via IP and I think I can figure that out on my own if network congestion becomes a problem.

Thanks for the info thus far gentlemen. Any other thoughts are certainly welcome but I think I'm good for now.
cheers-