hey i have 2 comps (win32 and rh7.2 server) networked to a linksys 8 port switch/router going to an adsl connection...i was wondering if i would see a performance increase by adding another nic to linux box and doing load balancing? thanks.

I would seriously doubt it. What speed are your cards/switch/router?

all running at 100mbit

If they are all running at 100MB how would you anticipate it speeding up? The only difference I could see it making is if you were downloading ISOs to the RH box or something and using your full internet bandwidth while also copying large amounts of data (system backup etc) from the windows box to the linux box. Your best bet would probably be to see how much bandwidth of your NIC you are actually using before commiting. Personnaly though I don't think you would notice a difference.

Remember the golden network rule:ie - there ain't much point in having a machine capable of 200MB when your internet connection MAX's out at 128K etc.

well the speed wouldnt be a bandwidth increase but more of like when one port is doing somthing itll use the other....(copying large files in lan, uploading to internet)

Yes but if your Internet connection is only using 1MB out of 100MB then you aren't going to notice much change. Run gkrellm and monitor how much of the 100MB you are using before you commit yourself.

I just installed SuSE 10 on an Intel Alief Server MB. How can I accomplish loadsharing between the two onboard 10/100/100 Nics? Im using a HP 2848 10/100/100 Managed Switch and would like to use trunking to get up to 4 Gig connection with duplex management.

If David could help, I would really appreciate it!

You need to have a look at a function called bonding in Linux. Cisco calls this ether-chanelling and I believe Nortel call it trunking. The switch and the Server must both support ( and be configured for ) trunking/etherchannel/bonding. You need to be careful with the switches as often you need to use certain combinations of ports for it to work. i.e ports may need to be concurrent. I'd be interested to see what actual throughput you get with 4 gigs into one server, I'd have thought it was a bit of a tall order for a single server myself.

to roofy: That means that no, you won't be able to pull this off with your home networking linksys router/switch. If you wanted to spend about three grand, you could buy a decent switch that does support bonding, then you would also need a couple identical NICs that support it in their Linux drivers as well.

If you just put 2 NICs in and expect it to double the speed, it won't. The OS and the switch will both attempt to disable, or at least ignore, one of the network connections because they both go to the same place.