2 networking cards (2 ip's) on one PC possible?

[videolan2020]

i have PC, windows xp sp2.
i notice when I stream from one pc to another, my internet connection comes to a screeching halt.
even after I terminate the applications, many times I have to reset the router to get it working again.
This is probably my router, a netgear 54mbps wirelsss capable but when i stream to one pc to another, it is always via cat 5.

i was wondering if i can set up 2 networking cards per pc....one router for internet, ISP stuff. and another router for networking card dedicated to video streaming. My other router is an older SMC 10/100 wired router which has performed flawlessly.

Might this work? anyone try it with 2 networking cards? how would I set up the IP's? is there something in windows xp that says one pc anc only have one IP address or can it have more than one? any thoughts???

[markfm]

PCs can have more than one NIC, and a single NIC can even have more than one IP address.

No problem adding a second card, pick whatever IP address you want/need. You then use the Windows Route command to tell Windows which particular interface to use for particular connections.

See viewtopic.php?t=6470&highlight=route+add

[Guest]

I guess for the video streaming lan, it would have to be a static IP? it would have to go thru a router,not a switch, right, since it needs to manage IP's?

would you recommend static ip for the internet lan as well or can dynamic do it?
is 10/100 cards plenty for mpeg streaming?
or does gigabit cards make anysense at all?

thanks for you quick replies...
trying to learn this stuff...

[markfm]

Are you just doing local video stuff, LAN at home? If you are, then at very most connect the second, internal LAN, cards to a dumb (unmanaged) cheapo switch.

For local, private, LAN things I would recommend just using UDP multicast. The output of the one PC playing a given thing can then be watched by as many other PCs as wish to watch it.

For these internal LAN Ethernet connections, static IP is simplest.

You can configure the PC's to "play nice", always do their multicast on the internal LAN cards pretty easily. If your external-facing cards (the ones aiming at the router to the 'Net) are 192.168.2.x, for example, you might choose to use 192.168.3.x for the internal LAN cards.

Say you decided to use UDP multicast, and will use the multicast addresses in the 239.240.x.y address space.
Say you are at PC 1, and that its internal LAN IP address is 192.168.3.1.
You then open a DOS prompt, and type:
route add -p 239.240.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 192.168.3.1

This tells PC1 that any time it is doing things relative to 239.240 addresses, it should use the Ethernet interface with address 192.168.3.1. The -p makes it persistent -- the PC will remember to do this between reboots.

If PC1 is then to transmit a movie, use UDP multicast with an address of 239.240.10.20, and it will automatically kick the stream out the internal LAN card.

(technically, a different MASK could be used, one that sends any and all UDP out the right card, but as long as you can live with "just" the 65000 addresses in 239.240 what I listed is OK)

[videolan2020]

thansk so much for the help!
will try.
yes, I am just doing a simple home LAN to broadcast from one pc to others.
so sounds like if I broadcast via multicast from one pc, the receivng pc's can receive the picture via a simple switch?

[markfm]

Yes, a simple, unmanaged, Ethernet switch will send the multicast from the Server to all PCs. An Ethernet hub would actually be fine (don't even need a switch, since all ports will be getting the stream, whether or not they choose to process it)