Explanation of the Binding Order

Hi all,

Can somebody explain or refer to any docs, how the Binding Order exactly works, with 2 or 3 network cards

What happens exactly when changing the binding order of 2 nic's for example, how reflects that in a network. Assuming you have a windows 2000 or 2003 network environment?

When having 2 nic's and the first NIC in the bindingorder is disabled, does this create any network overhead

thanks,

Fabian

 

You can only use one network connection at a time and you cannot use two different cards on the same subnet. You can switch between the two connections though. If there are multiple interfaces of the fastest speed, the interface that is listed first in the binding order is used to forward traffic to its default gateway.

By default, TCP/IP automatically determines the routing metric for the default gateway of each interface. The fastest has the lowest metric. This a new feature with XP and 2003, but with multiple network connections, you can assign a metric value to one network connection that you prefer to use. For more details, see the following link.

An Explanation of the Automatic Metric Feature for Internet Protocol Routes
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299540

 

Hi Ecross,

thanks for the explanation and link.

One thing,

if changing the binding order, is that immediate or do I have to reboot the server. Or can I check this with command?


Thanks

 

If you change the binding order for the adapter, the change doesn't take effect until after a reboot but it does this automatically. There is only a few exceptions where you can use two network cards at a time but in general it isn't necessary to use both depending on the network setup. Use on or the other.

 

Keep in mind that Binding Order can also apply to protocols. For example, if NetBEUI is bound first the system will first try to use that protocol to locate resources, then move on to TCP/IP, etc.

Also, it is possible to have two NICs attached to the same network segment, as long as they have separate addresses.

DRD