Linksys on second Ethernet Port

[treo360]

Is it possible to connect the router on the 2nd ethernet port? There's no specific reason as to why, suffice it to say it's because I want to see if it works. So far I'm stumped. My Macpro see it's connected to it, but that's where it ends.

Do I have to setup a manual IP addy on the Router or Mac?

 

[belvdr]

Do you mean connect the second NIC to a router? Sure, if you connect the second port to a regular LAN port (not WAN/Internet), it should pull an IP.

 

[kingicon1]

Yeah.. I've found out the second NIC on the MacPro isnt all too useful for most normal folks.

I'm far from normal and I still dont see much use for it. I tried the whole link aggregation thing, but it didnt want to work right(even with a switch that supports it).

Plugging both ports in is fun, but the computer will only use one of them for most of its dealings with the internet. About the only thing I've found it useful for so far was setting my VM's to use that link, and it keeps the traffic separate when I have a look at whats going over the network.

I've played with setting up a second internal network with that and a few other things.. but so far its been rather pointless.

Anyone have any good use for it? Other than a pretty status light to stare at?

 

[belvdr]

That's just crazy. I wonder why it doesn't behave correctly like every other system does.

As for link aggregation, it could depend on the link aggregation protocol being used. Either way, unless you're pushing a lot of traffic, you may not ever see that second NIC being used. For example, I've seen switches linked by 10 or so fiber links, and noticed that maybe 4 or 5 are never used as there's just not enough traffic to utilize those extra links.