Okay my fellow geeks, I would like to know if there is anything special I need to install, configure, and run 2 network cards in XP Pro. I already have 2 computers and they are running XP Pro and both networked through a Linksys Router. Everything is working fine but someone told me that running 2 nics can greatly increase the speed at which a person can surf the net or transfer information like file serving. So clue me in and tell me what gives. I am under the assumption in my mind that all I need to do is plug the other nic in and run cable to router. Anything else ? Thanks ahead of time Louie

Ok... here's the skinny on this. Surfing the net faster is a matter of bandwidth. The NIC's in your computer run at either 10Mb/s or 100Mb/s. Internet connections run at: 56k: .056Mb/s ISDN: .128Mb/s DSL .128Mb/s Upload .768Mb/s Download SDSL .192Mb/s Upload .192MB/s Download Cable: .128Mb/s Upload 1.5Mb/s Download T1 1.5Mb/s T3 45Mb/s These are typical rates for internet access... they may vary a bit, but this is, as I said, typical. So... comparing these numbers to what NIC's run at, you can see that unless you are connecting to a T3 or better, 1 10Mb/s NIC will push and pull your Internet traffic as fast as it can go. When do I need 2 NIC's? Most of the time, 2 NIC's are used when that system is sharing it's Internet conneciton. One NIC is IP'd for you LAN and the other is IP'd for the Internet. Your system then acts as a router to router Internet traffic from the LAN (192.168.0.xxx) to the Internet (DHCP assigned ip by your provider). Why Do I Need a 100Mb/s NIC? For your LAN, it is a HUGE improvement to use 100Mb/s NIC's on your LAN. When you transfer files to and from other computers on your LAN, the amount of time is greatly reduced (by 10 times theoretically). You have to make sure your hub/switch on your LAN supports 100Mb/s... otherwise the NIC will be stepped down to 10Mb/s. 2 NIC's and 2 Net Connections? If you have 2 net connections, then you can use 2 NIC's to balance the traffic between the two connections. This means having two cable/DSL modems for DSL or Cable connections. There is some advanced system configuration you need to do for this to work properly, but I know it's been done.