[SOLVED] Converged network adapter

[Jammalam]

I just installed an ethernet converged network adapter with two ports to speed up my LAN connection for streaming media via firestick, oculus etc. I was looking through the properties and settings for the adapter and realised it could do all kinds of things I didn't expect or really understand, for example sharing Internet connection between ports.


Can anyone tell me what other uses it has that I could use, for example what are network bridges all about and could it be used to speed up smb connections? How can I maximise the network adapter to speed up my LAN?

I use cat 8 cables and a tp-link gigabit network switch and mainly stream over smb on firestick and upnp on oculus, and I've got a three 5g modem/router thing

Amazon link for adapter: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B4RL9QJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edit: by the way I'm running Windows 10 on a lenovo v530 with i5-9400, 32gb ram, and I have the original ethernet port, so 3 ethernet ports in total

 

[bill001g]

Maybe take the card out of your machine and use the built in ethernet port.

It is highly unlikely you are exceeding 1gbit of bandwidth to either your lan or your internet.

The feature to combine them is called link aggregation and it doesn't work unless you have a special switch that also supports it. In addition it does not actually increase the transfer of a single file and even if you were to transfer mulitple files it still might put all the traffic on a single connection and leave the other unused.

If you have a actual need for more than 1gbit of bandwidth the 10gbit adapter cards are a better option....again your switch must have 10g ports also.

The use of cards like this is niche. You can for example use it to connect to 2 different networks in your house. I have a network that only has my security cameras on that has no connection to the internet. Some people also use cards like this when they are running VM in their machine to make it easier to isolate things.

 

[kanewolf]

I just installed an ethernet converged network adapter with two ports to speed up my LAN connection for streaming media via firestick, oculus etc. I was looking through the properties and settings for the adapter and realised it could do all kinds of things I didn't expect or really understand, for example sharing Internet connection between ports.


Can anyone tell me what other uses it has that I could use, for example what are network bridges all about and could it be used to speed up smb connections? How can I maximise the network adapter to speed up my LAN?

I use cat 8 cables and a tp-link gigabit network switch and mainly stream over smb on firestick and upnp on oculus, and I've got a three 5g modem/router thing

Amazon link for adapter: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B4RL9QJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edit: by the way I'm running Windows 10 on a lenovo v530 with i5-9400, 32gb ram, and I have the original ethernet port, so 3 ethernet ports in total

Additionally, you have wasted money on "cat 8" cables. You have gigabit network. Cat5e is all that is required.

 

[SamirD]

The only real way to use multiple ethernet ports on the same lan is if they have completely different ips and a different subnet. So in essence you're running a second logical lan with its own bandwidth. I will do this to transfer files between systems over a dedicated links versus the same link used for everything else, but this is only important if you are maxing out gigabit bandwidth.