Two ethernet ports, two ISPs

[Killerbob]

Hi,

I always wondered what to use the second Ethernet port on my MP for

However, now I have an idea; I have a company provided 10Mbit ADSL, and a private 50Mbit Cable connection. As both can be used at the same time, could I connect each into the MP, and be able to utilise the faster Cable connection for downloading, and then the slower ADSL for surfing, or another download?

If this is possible, how would I effectively switch between the two? Also, I guess I also have a third network connection, namely the AirPort.

KB

 

[VirtualRain]

Hi,

I always wondered what to use the second Ethernet port on my MP for

However, now I have an idea; I have a company provided 10Mbit ADSL, and a private 50Mbit Cable connection. As both can be used at the same time, could I connect each into the MP, and be able to utilise the faster Cable connection for downloading, and then the slower ADSL for surfing, or another download?

If this is possible, how would I effectively switch between the two? Also, I guess I also have a third network connection, namely the AirPort.

KB

I don't believe you can route applications across different IP's like this. Using one as a fail-over shouldn't be hard though.

If you don't get any better answers here, perhaps try the OSX forum as this is more of an OS issue than a Mac Pro question.

 

[macusersince5]

I believe its for those who use it for servers. Every server has 2 ethernet ports. I don't know why we usually disable the second one where I work... I would think it would be faster to have two than just one.

 

[DoFoT9]

its all automatic. if both have a conenction it will swap between which one it is using, unless you are telling specific applications to use specific controllers, etc.

good idea though

 

[lemonade-maker]

I use one for regular/internet network and the other to connect to my dev network that is not connected to the outside. My db server has 10 gigabit ports - makes it easy to connect a multitude of private networks.

 

[goMac]

It's if you're using the Mac Pro as the primary server for your network. One port is for the internet connection. The other goes out to your network. The Mac Pro shares the connection out to the network, provides firewall, routing, VPN, etc.

What you're talking about is load balancing over two connections, which is not automatic, and requires extensive setup.

 

[trainguy77]

If you wanted to set that up I would recommend a pfsense box.

http://pfsense.org/

As for the two ports they are often used if you have a cluster which uses its own network for communication. So one port is for the cluster one is for the regular network.

 

[Killerbob]

its all automatic. if both have a conenction it will swap between which one it is using, unless you are telling specific applications to use specific controllers, etc.

How would I tell a specific application to use one connection and not the other? Because then I could get what I wanted; Unison would use my faster Cable connection, and Firefox would use my "slower" ADSL.

KB

 

[DoFoT9]

How would I tell a specific application to use one connection and not the other? Because then I could get what I wanted; Unison would use my faster Cable connection, and Firefox would use my "slower" ADSL.

KB

nearly had me stumped there

i found this page googling for this. does that help at all? there doesnt seem to be any particular applications from a quick search.

 

[300D]

Its not possible to use more than one internet source at a time.

Multiple ports are for connecting to a network and NAS, network and internet, etc etc.

 

[DoFoT9]

Its not possible to use more than one internet source at a time.

Multiple ports are for connecting to a network and NAS, network and internet, etc etc.

hmm i dont agree with that. i know that there is a technology that allows you to combine internet connections (in ADSL), but not distinguish between them. (port bounding?)

what about that link i provided? surely its possible to force programs to use a certain interface..

 

[300D]

hmm i dont agree with that.

Not agreeing doesn't change the facts.

 

[andalusia]

Not agreeing doesn't change the facts.

It means it's open for discussion, and you should try and convince him of the true facts.

 

[DoFoT9]

Not agreeing doesn't change the facts.

never said that it doesnt. do you have anything to back it up? the article i linked to before seemed to think it was possible to do.

multiple ports allows for multiple combinations, i think the scenario that the OP is asking for could be possible

 

[Cromulent]

Not agreeing doesn't change the facts.

Repeating yourself does not make you any less incorrect.

Ever heard of network routing? The process by which you have two different network connections (in this case two different connections to the internet) and use a computer or a router to handle the pass through of data between them or to split outbound traffic between them in a load balanced manner.

No? I'd do some research before attempting to make untrue claims in the future.

 

[Winni]

I believe its for those who use it for servers. Every server has 2 ethernet ports. I don't know why we usually disable the second one where I work... I would think it would be faster to have two than just one.

No, it wouldn't. Unless you have an operating system on that server that would be able to use both ports as a trunk. But regular server systems only support bridging, which usually just creates some sort of redundancy: If the first port fails, the second port takes over after a short interrupt (using the same IP -- and -- MAC address). It doesn't make anything faster, though.

By the way, I can show you a few servers who also just have one Ethernet port, but I can also show you some that have a good deal more than two Ethernet ports. It really depends on what you want to do with the server.

Hi,

I always wondered what to use the second Ethernet port on my MP for

However, now I have an idea; I have a company provided 10Mbit ADSL, and a private 50Mbit Cable connection. As both can be used at the same time, could I connect each into the MP, and be able to utilise the faster Cable connection for downloading, and then the slower ADSL for surfing, or another download?

If this is possible, how would I effectively switch between the two? Also, I guess I also have a third network connection, namely the AirPort.

KB

You would need some load balancing software for that. Mac OS X cannot do it out of the box and I don't know if there is a third party software available for Mac OS X for that purpose.

 

[sporadic]

If you wanted to set that up I would recommend a pfsense box.

http://pfsense.org/

As for the two ports they are often used if you have a cluster which uses its own network for communication. So one port is for the cluster one is for the regular network.

Posting another endorsement for pfsense. I use it extensively at my place of work.

The other thing you can use the second Mac Pro port for is for connection to say an iSCSI SAN with jumbo frames, with your original port on your normal network and normal frame sizes.

I use both ports in my home Mac Pro as an aggregated link as my switch can handle 802.3ad LACP teaming, though that does not offer redundancy to the Internet connection. LACP required for Link Aggregation

 

[Killerbob]

I will try to set this up this weekend, and let you know how I get on. I have however found that some software packages, Communicator for instance, does have the capability of using a specific network interface, i.e. a specific ethernet port on my MP. And, it should be possible to force the usage of a specific router using routing tables (as described in the before mentioned link).

I am not trying to get more speed, just trying to use one ISP for one application (Unison), and the other ISO for another application (Firefox).

Last option is of course to use Parallels with an OSX installation, which you can specify to use a specific network interface as well.

KB