How To Use/Understand Having Two Network Adapters

[abrogard]

My computer has two network adapters. I find. An nVidia nForce Networking Controller (no. 7) and a Marvell Yukon Controller (no.6).

I use the nVidia, don't know why.

The Marvell Yukon just sits there with a red cross on it in the 'network connections' screen and the comment 'network cable unplugged'. I haven't used it for yonks, if ever.

Today I was following a techie's instructions for trouble shooting a web cam and I tried to set my IP on 7 to 192.168.1.100.

I run winXP SP3.

The OS reported that IP already allocated to another card - must be no. 6, I guess. Did I want to allocate a different number to 7? It warned me there could be hassles. But I don't see how there can be if I'm not using the other card.

Anyway, we aborted that.

Now here's the thing: this computer gets its IP automatically from the router and it is always 192.168.1.100 - and that's what it was today!

So the machine is warning me I can't/shouldn't have that number - but I've already got it !

Seemed strange and puzzling to me.

Why is it continually being given that IP if it's already taken? I see on ipconfig that the lease is granted for 24 hours only.

I also see on ipconfig that 6 doesn't have a 32 bit IP address listed.

So I don't need to get technically deep with these things but I should get some kind of basic understanding of what to do with two of them on my machine, I guess.

How, when do I use them? Can I use both at once? Is that good or bad ? Which one to use? Why are there two? And so on..... What should I be aware of concerning my ethernet adapters and the use of them?

And, while were at it, we were today trying to connect to a device that should have its own built-in (and changeable) IP address. But we were unable to do so. We think this must be because the device has a problem with its own inbuilt controller card - despite the lights coming on over the RJ45 port when it is plugged in.

Can anyone suggest any ways of connecting to this device and reading its IP address?

:)

[bludgard]

As I cannot answer the question put forth with astounding brilliance, my network cards are listed below. I just choose to disable all but the one USB key. It would seem that the onboard NIC has more than basic networking abilities. JMO.