Is it possible to...

BigRed · May 31, 2004

Ok heres the deal. I have a game server which is also a file server at lan parties. The computer has 2 gigabit network cards (1 onboard, one PCI). Is it possible to share files through one network card and run game dedicated servers via the other one?

I have several people telling me its possible and not possible. Its all making me confused

Smokeys · May 31, 2004

Yes it is possible, but I can't think of any reason why you would want to.

gusgizmo · May 31, 2004

yes it is, ive never tried it really, but you should be able to just tell people to connect to the game server on one ip address, and connect to your file server on the other cards ip address.

su root · May 31, 2004

First, to make sure the non-filesharing traffic goes through the other line, you need to take a look at your routing table. Start/Run/ type cmd and hit enter. At the prompt, type route print to see your routing table. You should see lines like this:
Destination: 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask: 0.0.0.0
Gateway: Doesn't matter
Interface: Your Gaming Gigabit IP
Metric: 1

There should be 2 lines like that. One of them will be taking precidence. The easiest way to do it is to use the one that is taking precidence as your Gaming line. If you feel up to it, you can just bump the metric to 2 for the File sharing line, or remove it all together. This forces any non-filesharing traffic to the Gaming NIC.

Next, go into your connection settings for the Gaming Gigabit line, and uncheck "File & Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks", as well as "Client for Microsoft Networks". Then, under TCP/IP properties, in the Advanced button / WINS tab, set "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP"

That will force file and printer sharing onto the other Gigabit line.

Then get people to connect to your gaming IP (not by name), and all traffic should flow to/from the gaming link only

This works because it forces everything into and out of your Gaming Gigabit NIC, except File sharing, which can't run on that NIC, and is forced out the other one. The mangling of the routing table makes sure that the Gaming NIC is the NIC used for outgoing traffic.. by removing or upping the metric of the File sharing NIC, only the stuff that has to go out there will go out there.

BigRed · Jun 1, 2004

su root said:
First, to make sure the non-filesharing traffic goes through the other line, you need to take a look at your routing table. Start/Run/ type cmd and hit enter. At the prompt, type route print to see your routing table. You should see lines like this:
Destination: 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask: 0.0.0.0
Gateway: Doesn't matter
Interface: Your Gaming Gigabit IP
Metric: 1

There should be 2 lines like that. One of them will be taking precidence. The easiest way to do it is to use the one that is taking precidence as your Gaming line. If you feel up to it, you can just bump the metric to 2 for the File sharing line, or remove it all together. This forces any non-filesharing traffic to the Gaming NIC.

Next, go into your connection settings for the Gaming Gigabit line, and uncheck "File & Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks", as well as "Client for Microsoft Networks". Then, under TCP/IP properties, in the Advanced button / WINS tab, set "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP"

That will force file and printer sharing onto the other Gigabit line.

Then get people to connect to your gaming IP (not by name), and all traffic should flow to/from the gaming link only

This works because it forces everything into and out of your Gaming Gigabit NIC, except File sharing, which can't run on that NIC, and is forced out the other one. The mangling of the routing table makes sure that the Gaming NIC is the NIC used for outgoing traffic.. by removing or upping the metric of the File sharing NIC, only the stuff that has to go out there will go out there.

So what if they just double click on the game server in the server browser? will it still go through the gaming NIC?

Yes it is possible, but I can't think of any reason why you would want to.

This is a game/file server for a Lan party. The people who pull patches and stuff off of the rig when we are all playing a game lag it.

BigRed · Jun 1, 2004

Also how do I change the metric values?

The metric volues for both of the NIC's are set to 20 on my server, not 1. Although I dont think it makes much of a difference.

Edit: NM on this one, I found it

twas in the tcpip advanced properties changed them to 2 and 1

BigRed · Jun 1, 2004

w00tage!

It works

Thanks for the help. The real test will come on the last weekend of june at the next Lan

BigRed · Jun 1, 2004

Er... 4th post in a row! lol

Slight problem. When someone uploads somthing to the servers upload folder it uses both NIC's

Anyway to change that?

XWRed1 · Jun 1, 2004

You can unbind Windows File and Printer sharing from the nic running the game servers, can't you? Do that.

Smokeys · Jun 1, 2004

XWRed1 said:
You can unbind Windows File and Printer sharing from the nic running the game servers, can't you? Do that.

Yes, just de-select client for microsoft windows and file and printer sharing in the network card properties.

su root · Jun 1, 2004

BigRed said:
This is a game/file server for a Lan party. The people who pull patches and stuff off of the rig when we are all playing a game lag it.

Personally, I would put them on seperate boxes, if possible. Most likely, the lag that you see is not from the network card, but from the File I/O operations, or the PCI bus usage, rather than the NIC.

Mr. Chambers · Jun 2, 2004

su root said:
Personally, I would put them on seperate boxes, if possible. Most likely, the lag that you see is not from the network card, but from the File I/O operations, or the PCI bus usage, rather than the NIC.

we've done this at our lans, and yes it still lags, but not *as* much as it would using 1 NIC.

for the best possible speeds, like su root said, just setup another box, it doesn't have to be a huge speed demon

BigRed · Jun 2, 2004

I have already deselected those things. su root said to in his orginal post. but I still get active lights on the router on both NIC's when I upload somthing to the server.

su root said:
Personally, I would put them on seperate boxes, if possible. Most likely, the lag that you see is not from the network card, but from the File I/O operations, or the PCI bus usage, rather than the NIC.

Actually its from 20 people pulling 100mb files from the server at once

At the last lan we announced there was a new ut2k4 patch and mappack that people needed to play on the server so everyone who wasnt playing call of duty went to get it off of the scsi drive on the server and everyone who was in the call of duty game suddenly got 200+ pings.
The bandwidth on 1 nic got maxed out easily and since we are planning a 300+ person lan here pretty soon I thought it would be useful to make use of the onboard gigabit and seperate the connections for files/games

Another rig isnt really nessessary, just takes up more space/power

Is it possible to...

BigRed

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gusgizmo

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su root

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BigRed

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