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Teaming 3Com Network Cards in NT4

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by garydw 2 views

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I've got two 3Com 3c905B-TX network cards in a NT Server 4.0 SP6A server and I'm trying to find a way to team them so that if one fails the other will take over and also so that they will load balance but I can't find the information I need from 3Com and Microsoft.

Is it possible to do this with these cards?
If so any tips or pointers will be much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Gary Williams
gary@gdwnet.co.uk

2 replies

by avachon

Typically adding two nics on the same wire is an inexpensive way to increase network thorughput, but you are right, you need load balancing between the two nics. To ensure balance, here's the registry change:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters
From the edit menu, choose new, and then DWORD value. Name the value randomAdapter and set its value to 1. Similarly, create a DWORD value named SingleResponse and set its value to 1.To disable load balancing, set either value to 0.
As you know, backup your registry before making any changes. Good luck.

by garydw

Thanks that's useful but what I'm really after is some software similar to what Compaq provide with SmartStart to combine the two network cards into one virtual card with a single IP address.

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