Dual Gigabit ethernet MAC - XP Sharing / web surfing - Simultaneously?

The difficulty comes from the MAC side of things - Network Port Configurations contstantly needing to be reordered - I am told by apple this is not the expected norm.....

GOAL:

My intention is to connect to my ISP through en0 while connecting locally to my XP machine through a gigabit hub on en1, so i can manage my security and resources independantly

APPARATUS:

PowerPC G5 - 4 x 2.5 GHz

Build 8p135

OS 10.4.9

en0 - Built in Ethernet 1 is connected through a D-link 704-UP router to my cable modem, IP adderss is configured using DHCP

en1 - Built in Ethernet 2 is connected through a D-link DGS-1005D hub to my Windows -XP SP2 Machine. IP address is configured manually (no router info - not a smart device?)

The Windows XP machine has dual gigabit ethernet as well, configured similarily.

HYPOTHESIS:

IT SHOULD JUST WORK !

HURDLES: (Maybe mostly personal)

I have managed to ensure that:

-the cabling is all correct,

-that I have all the right IP addresses for each of the 4 ethernet ports and the router,

-that my file sharing is turned on appropriately and shares from both machines are available, (note the mac only shares the user account, and not volumes , and while some suggest Sharepoints for Apple - I have not got that working yet - it is not essential, but would be highly beneficial - more in suggestions)

-on Mac - Personal File Sharing and Windows sharing is enabled in network preferences - firewall is off and internet sharing is off

-on Mac en1 has Appletalk enabled

-on my MAC en1 is first in the list of network port configurations page in my network preferences - as a result of hooking hub up first and wanting to ensure my LAN was through the Gigabit HUB, at which point I made shortcuts on my XP machine to my desktop on my mac.

-on my XP PC - that my firewall, while in place, has my ip address of my Mac's en1 in it's trusted list,

OBSERVATIONS -

call to TECH SUPPORT and more settings

Dlink customer support for the D-link DGS-1005D explained that I

-needed to configure my connections IP address info from both computers to it manually as it was not a smart device and couldn't hand out IP addresses and that I by using the ip addresses in making connections you are specifying what port your connection is going through.

-run a connection from the router to the hub, even though my paths are both computers through the router to the internet and both computers through the hub to each other (they were unable to get anything working with me on the phone (probably because of one or more of the issues that are in my Managed to ensure list), after I hung up I i decided to hook up the two computers to the hub without the router/ISP in the mix, got it working, and then add the router and got internet - sw no immediate reason to hook up cable between router and hub yet.

IT's A L I V E ! ! !

At this point, I am able to do the following:

from my PC

-share root drives out

-see Mac's user accounts access them

-push and pull files to and from folders within user account

-surf the internet

from my MAC

-share user account and all subfolders

-see any shared volume or folder from the PC

--push and pull files to and from folders within shares

-NO NETWORK ACCESS -

On my mac in network preferences, under Network Port Configurations I decided to reverse the order of my network ports - not sure if it would make a difference - (on that preference pane it states that you need to drag the enabled ports in the order in which you want them tried for a connection), placing en1 - Built in Ethernet 2 after en0 - Built in Ethernet 1 , (I reversed the order when I hooked up en1 to the hub while not using en0 for internet).

Now I have no shares from my PC or Mac, but can surf internet from both computers.

I changed the order of ports again, and was back to the same original - PC sees mac shares, mac sees PC, Mac cannot surf internet, PC can.

note if you change order of ports while a safari window is connected or an xp share is open on your mac - causes hiccups -

while changing the order of the ports does not require a restart from either computer if no open connections are interrupted, i have noticed that editing any settings on the MAC network preferences seems to require a MAC restart for MAC to continue seeing the PC shares (even with my share aliases already in place) while the PC still sees the MAC shares despite this and can still surf the net (PC does not require restart - I have tried restarting one or the other and both, I choose restarting the mac because it seems fastest, i am not sure that if I started).

Apple tech support first told me that this was normal that I should have to rearrange the ports order on a need to basis and that they do not work simultaneously, but when i pointed out the very statement in their preference pane, they agreed that even if the ports order is reversed for internet surfing's sake fromt he MAC side, you should still be able to surf because the mac should try the first connection and when it doesn't work it should move on to the next enabled port....not happening for me - because this is not what is expected - case id was created - told that I had to try doing an archive and install of my mac machine, i suggested a fresh load of the os on another volume, and boot in that in case it doesn't solve issue and then I only have to erase the base load and not reinstall my original configuration from scratch....maybe this is what needs to be done....

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JUMBO FRAMES? how do you tell and do you need to specify,

What is the expected transfer rate I am looking for over Gigabit ethernet,

I see 35 MB/s transferring from one disk of my mac to the PC, i see in the 55's transferring multiple files from 3 disks (WD Raptor is one, raid 0 Sata 2 set is another ) to 1 disk on my PC - note - disks on PC are raid 0'd,

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suggestions to Apple - from someone who knows very little - -

1. allow root of volume sharing, like in PC world - we are becoming a multi disk society, so transferring 25 gigabytes of home movies from one disk to another just so it cna be sent across the network is redundant.

2. allow simultaneous and unique control of each of the dual ethernet ports - we are becoming a multi port society - it seems silly to have two ports and not be able to specify which is for what and have that work seemlessly in the background - i.e. a safari preference that allows you to choose which ethernet it will connect from.

3. Security is a growing concern, but unless i plan to sabotage my own local area network, i do not know if i need the same securities in place on my LAN as i do on my connection to the outside world. another reason to have more control over two ports

4. Improve the activity monitor for networking monitoring and troubleshooting - i.e. the network graph in activity monitor shows you the transfer from rates of whatever is being transferred on whatever port is at the top of the network port configurations list....why not just show it the same way you show multiple CPU's - my quad has four real time graphs 1 for each CPU so i can see them all real time simultaneously, i don't have to reorder anything to compare - troubleshooting which network connection is being used and accessed would be much easier...

IT appears to this layman that some of this stuff was not a concern for apple developers, what is in place right now seems to point to the idea of one network connection at a time - pick the most important one, and we'll use it and monitor it, tech support hasn't been able to show otherwise, i cannot help but believe it is either not within current capability or their is an easier answer.

If anyone can clear any of this up, I would appreciate it, hope it helps anyone else, Thanks

(Otherwise

Conclusions:

has anyone got a long string and two tin cans?)

Dual Gigabit ethernet MAC - XP Sharing / web surfing - Simultaneously?windows vista home premium

First you are totally wasting you time with twin cards, this does not increase security. If someone gets past the router firewall they will have enough control on the machine they hit to compromise both. If you feel you have to go this route you need to set the internal only cards to a completely different network segment from the external. You give absolutely no useful info above like actual addresses etc. The default gateway setting for the internal cards on each need to point at the external cards, or they are liable to go off looking for the Internet connection internally. The dns on the internal cards needs to point to the router, as well as the external cards pointing that way. The ip addresses of all the cards really need to be fixed, not controlled by dhcp, as in effect you are trying to set up a router internally, this can only work with fixed addresses.

One other comment, anyone who shares a root drive should be hung. It is the fastest way to lose your machine. If anyone gets into your network, the moment they see an open root drive they will dive in. An accidental move, delete or over-write can stop the machine dead. Remember also, under Windows the recycle bin is inoperative over the network. If you really know what you are doing you get better results from editing the configuration files. You are going beyond workstation setup. A Mac can be set up very effectively as a firewalling server where the use of network cards is absolutely critical.

ADDITIONAL INFO turn OFF appletalk, it plays hell with tcp/ip. It is totally wasted unless you have an older mac with no tcp/ip.