I am currently a college student who enjoys downloading files. On my side of the room I have 2 LAN network connections, usually one goes to my Xbox 360 and the other to my computer but when I have large files to download I was wondering if I could use both LAN connections in my computer to double my potential internet speed.

In my computer I have 2 network adapter cards (built into the mobo) and when I plug a CAT5 into both of them my networking tab in the Task manager shows the 2nd network but doesn't utilize it. I notice also that the first network hovers around .1% - .2% utilization and that's when downloading 2 files at once. :confused:

Is there a way to utilize the second connection and if not is there a way that I can squeeze more utilization out of my first connection?

I'm using Vista Home Premium if that helps at all. :D

Your PC NIC's use two different MAC addresses (by design), the 1st MAC address is already used in the communications stream to download your file.

The OS is not designed to utilize both NIC's simultaneously.

You can't make use of both connections to download the same file. However, you can use both connections to download from two different locations (i.e. different destination IP's). You'll need to make some manual changes which aren't pretty or practical.

Both connections probably provide you with a DHCP address as well as a default gateway. Your computer only chooses one of the default gateways to communicate with any destination IP that isn't explicitly defined in your routing table. If you want to use your second ethernet connection then you need to an explicit route to the destination IP to use your second ethernet address.

As explained above, Only one NIC can be used for one connection but this could be a good research project don't you think?