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How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

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Dear Sir,

I would like to ask you how can I choose which NIC I want to be used, every time I ping through MS CMD…?

Example: I have couple of computers connected to my home network. 2 of those use double NICs. 1 10/100 UTP-Cat5 interface, and another, Wi-Fi card.

Everything works just fine, except when I am trying to ping between wireless connected PCs, the ping trace, is routed automatically through the Ethernet (wired) Interface. So, when trying to ping an IP address that belongs to a Wi-Fi connected computer, the NIC of the wire-based network, cannot find the alias.

Thanks for your time answering me.

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Reply To: How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

In reply to How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

Adjust the metric on the Local Area Connection and Wireless accordingly. By adjusting the metrics, you are setting a sort of priority for the route.

The info will go through the shortestest path first unless you give the secondary device a higher metric. It should be in your advanced settings of your TCP/IP properties for the device.

Chris

Reply To: How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

In reply to How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

You could name each IP address with a unique name for the DNS records and then you could specifically ping the NIC in question.

As usual, House’s suggestion will work also.

Reply To: How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

In reply to How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

Hello,

As suggested in the previous excellent answers, you could make changes on each client to control how packets are routed to your two networks (wired and wireless).

But, I suggest you would benefit more by using a wired+wireless router to integrate your two separate networks. Then, routing would not be an issue at all. And, you would not need to have two NICs in every client PC. Each PC could fully connect with either a single wired or wireless NIC.

For example, the inexpensive (<< US$100) Linksys WRT54G wired+wireless broadband router: - Provides four wired 10/100 ports, one wireless B/G access point, and one wired 10/100 broadband Internet port for cable modem or DSL. - Routes transparently between the wired and wireless networks. - Provides DNS, DHCP, and NAT. - Provides a gateway to broadband Internet for both networks. - Provides a "stealth" firewall that hides the computers on your network from the Internet. This keeps your vulnerable Windows systems off the Net. - Easy configuration and administration from any local client via a web brower. Good luck! -----Steve Jackson CEO/CSA Software Corporation (Softcorp) http://www.softcorp.us/probono
Pro Bono Software free for personal use

Reply To: How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

In reply to How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

I think that if you adjust the metric then all traffic would be affected. The metric would make all traffic use the Wi-Fi connection over the Ethernet connection even if the Ethernet connection is the better choice.

You may want to try to make a static route for the Wi Fi network. If you go to a command line you can use the route command to make a “routing table” for your PC. Here is a good link to read about it.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx

This command will allow you to choose what interface certian traffic uses when exiting your PC.

Reply To: How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

In reply to How to choose which NIC I want to ping?

I definately agree with softcorp. You should add a wireless router.

You would only need wireless cards in the machines that don’t have wired.

You will make things easier on your self.

Lee

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