Configure Windows Network Communication Settings With Multiple Network Interfaces

A P P E N D I X A

This appendix provides information you should consider when configuring the Windows network communication settings with multiple server network interfaces.

Topics in this appendix include:

Determine Which Network Data Ports Are Actively Connected to a Network.

Confirm Physical Port MAC Addresses and Match Them to Window Device Names.

Determine Which Network Data Ports Are Actively Connected to a Network

By using Microsoft’s Network Connections folder, you can visually determine which network interface ports are actively connected to a network. To access the Network Connections folder, follow this step:

Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel-> Network Connections.

The Network Connections folder appears identifying the actively connected data ports.

Illustration Key

An active port connection.
A red X marks the port connections that are currently inactive.
The port has been manually disabled (right-click to re-enable).

Confirm Physical Port MAC Addresses and Match Them to Window Device Names

To confirm the MAC addresses of installed network interface ports and to match them to the Windows Device Friendly Names, you will need to open a command prompt and run ipconfig /all.

To open a Windows command prompt and run ipconfig /all follow these steps:

1. Click -> Start -> Run.

The Run dialog box appears.

2. In the Run dialog box, type cmd then click OK.

The cmd.exe DOS window appears.

3. In the cmd.exe DOS window, type ipconfig /all.

The output from the ipconfig /all command identifies the installed network interface ports by the connection name in the order of enumeration.

Note - The output does not necessarily follow an alpha or numeric order. You can customize the connection name in the Network Connections folder for details, see Microsoft’s documentation. The output below illustrates how the Windows operating system, by default, assigns logical names to network interfaces.

Illustration Key

Second Ethernet adapter port.
First Ethernet adapter port.

In the sample output:

Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection is the Windows default logical name (friendly name) assigned to a network interface.

Note that the first Ethernet Adaptor Local Area Connection appears with a null value. This entry identifies the connection-specific DNS suffix (for example, east.sun.com) and the physical MAC address for that port.

Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection 2 identifies a disconnected media state, a description, and the physical MAC address for that port.

The numeric value following the Windows logical friendly name refers to the network connection number.