i have an xp workstation which i have 2 nics installed. nic 1 is connect to the network and nic 2 is connected directly to a graphic printer. Both of them are 192.168.1.x the problem i am having is that when nic 1 is connected the software will not connect to the printer which is nic 2. i don't want the printer over the network because it prints very slow, but i do need to pull files from the network. so how can i setup both nics so that windows uses nic 1 for the network and nic 2 for the printer. thanks

make sure nic 2 does not have a gateway entry. This solves most conflict problems. I would have used 192.168.0.1 for the nic and .2 for the printer so XP would have no confusion as to what subnet printing was on.

Could even consider using another range of private IP's. I like to use 10.10.x.x for one and 192.168.x.x for the other. Dunno why, just do. For the lan as above don't put gateway address in. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10