Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of MeridianManagement
MeridianManagementFlag for United States of America

asked on

force windows 7 with multiple internet connections to use only one

I have a windows 7 box which is our network's file server. The box uploads it's contents in encrypted format to an off-site storage facility every night. On our cable connection this is a bulky process, but we do have a T1 that just got installed. Since we only needed the voice portion of the T1 for phones, we have not used the data portion yet.

I was hoping to be able to connect the T1 directly to the file server, but still have the file server remain on the network. My idea was that we could continue to use the file server to store data on the LAN, but that the file server itself would use the T1 internet connection as opposed to the LAN's cable internet connection when attempting external connections.

Is Windows 7 smart enough to detect the faster upstream connection or do I have to force it? Are there any other issues with setting up multiple network connections on one box?
SOLUTION
Avatar of senad
senad
Flag of Slovenia image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of MeridianManagement

ASKER

How do I make the T1 connection the default connection?

Will the local computers still be able to interact w/ the file server on the other NIC?
'default gateway' is more appropriate ...
I don't understand what you mean by default gateway.

The file server will have two NICs one connected to the T1, and one connected to our LAN, so it will have two default gateways from my basic understanding of networking. I just want to know how to make one of the connections the default for internet traffic, but still allow the LAN to access our file server as normal.
Avatar of Ravi Agrawal
Okay, I read the article and it does help.... so I understand that I erase the default gateway on the nic to the LAN, and keep the default gateway on the NIC to the T1.

My question that nobody is seeming to be able to answer is will my fileserver still be accessible by the LAN as normal even though it is looking to the T1 nic for internet or will I have to do some extra configurations with routing tables and the such?

The file server will have an ip address of 192.168.1.XXX on Nic 1 w/ no default gateway and nic 2 will have a default gateway and be connected to the T1 directly. There will also be a different internet connection on nic 1, but I'm assuming since it has no default gateway the fileserver will not look for it there. My question is, what about the other IPs on nic 1? Will 192.168.1.XXX still be able to communicate with 192.168.1.101 102 103 etc without a default gateway on NIC 1?
It will be helpful if you post a diagram of the setup.

Ravi.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thanks for the accepting my comment as a solution.

If you want to use two internet connections simultaneously and do not mind investing a little extra money in additional hardware, a Load Balancing Router will help a lot in your setup.

Ravi.
Ravi,

I only want to use the T1 internet connection for the file server, so would the load balancing router be relevant in that case?
The concept of load balancing routers is to simple add the bandwidth to your internet connections. Say you have the following 2 internet connections with following speeds-

A - 2 mbps
B - 1 mbps

Load balancing will add your internet connections' speed to virtual 3 mbps with a few limitations (it is a long topic, google it & you will find your answers)

If the file sharing is done internally only in the Private LAN, loadbalancing is no use.

Sorry, I got too carried away in the discussion. You don't need a loadbalancing router for now.

Ravi.