NetSetMan Support

Jorg

Guest

multiple network cards: confirm behaviour?

Hello,

I'm running a system with different networkcards (wifi, bluetooth, wired), and am just beginning to use netsetman.
I wonder if you can elaborate on some behaviour of netsetman.

Suppose you have 2 wifi profiles (set1 and set2) and 2 wired profiles (set3 and set4).

1. activate set1
2. activate set3: will 1 still work (with its settings)?
3. activate set4: will 1 still work?
4. activate set2: will 4 still work?
5. ...

My guess is that it will (and that it is possible to use netsetman for multiple adapters, switching the one you want when you want), but can you confirm this?
I have read your workaround to have it call up another profile upon activation, which makes me think the above scenario should be ok.

Which settings might be conflicting?
Or more specifically, for which settings would the activation order make a difference ? I'm thinking: printer and action executed in the script, maybe some DNS behaviours...?

Thanks!

Jörg

KerstenW

Member

Registered: 2006-08-22

Posts: 1

Re: multiple network cards: confirm behaviour?

Hi

it might be necessary to enable/disable network adapters within
individual profiles of NetSetMan via an additional script.
Quit useful tool I found is devcon.
>> Ref.: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311272

1st example: DOS-prompt:> devcon disable PCI\CC_0200

where "PCI\CC_0200" is the shortest entry of compatible IDs shown within details of the properties of my CU network adapter. Please use devmgmt.msc from run... in order to open device manager quickly.

2nd example: DOS-prompt:> devcon enable PCI\CC_0280
where "PCI\CC_0280" is the shortest entry of compatible IDs of my WLAN adapter.

Of course, you try to use the unique Device Instance ID, in my 2nd example
  PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4319&SUBSYS_00051028&REV_02...............A

but unfortunately, devcon doesn't like the character "&", means it enables all devices like PCI\VEN_14E4*
Attention, if you use devcon disable with wildcards, your computer may not work properly.

Good luck and best regards

Kersten

emagin

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 4

Re: multiple network cards: confirm behaviour?

This is very interesting.

To discover NICs you put in:
devcon listclass net

Not all NICs are under /PCI

I don't think that this solution cannot be employed across many machines via scripts / gpo etc. since each machine has its own NIC ID name.

It would be nice if one could use devcon with the NIC NAMES so that one could name all NICs on a network the same and then turn them on / off as needed.

Last edited by emagin (2007-11-10 07:57)

emagin

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 4

Re: multiple network cards: confirm behaviour?

I've got this working very well now.

Each profile runs a script before implementing the settings.

I create x scripts for however many NICs you have (i have 2)
nic1.bat
nic2.bat

To set up I use devcon (you can find online)
I put that in c:\
Then I sniff out my NIC registry names by doing
devcon.exe listclass net

This lists all the NIC names  you have
Pick out the items with PCI\VEN on them

Then set up a script to turn off the NIC you don't want, and turn on the NIC you do want.

Throw in the ping command between them to give hardware a chance to respond.

The result looks like this (note the *name* because in dos for some reason the '&' is not recognized, so you have to cherry pick a part of the name that is unique but yet does not '&' in it)

@ECHO off

REM Disable Realtek
c:\devcon.exe disable *pci\VEN_10EC*
PING 127.0.0.1 -n 2

REM Enable Broadcom
c:\devcon.exe enable *pci\VEN_14E4*

:end

For the other NIC script you just reverse the disable to enable and enable to disable and you are all set.

I also put a 12 second pause "until continuing with network settings" (bottom left of the script window) to allow the hardware to turn on and be recognized before NSM puts in the settings.
If you don't do this, it can choke because it's so fast the hardware has not registered yet.

Good luck!