2 nics 2 networks 1 PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter G. Leavitt
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G. Leavitt

I have a wired gigabit connection to my corporate network and a USB wireless
connection to our internet hotspot. Both connections have access to the
internet, but the wired connection is filtered through a proxy server and the
nature of my job is such that I need unfiltered access to the internet. What
I am trying to do is figure out a way to route all my internet traffic
through the wireless nic, and all my local traffic over the wired nic.

The first thing I tried was setting up my static routes so that the wireless
was the default route and then set up a static route for local traffic with a
lower metric. The problem is that our internal network is so heavily
subnetted that this solution isn't practical. I would have to create like 35
static routes to all our disparate subnets to make that work.

I have also tried setting the IProuteEnable registry key to 1 and setting my
wireless nic as the proxy server in my browser as someone in another forum
suggested, but that doesn't seem to work either.

I'm just about ready to give up, but thought I would ask here first. If
anyone can offer some advice or even just tell me I'm an idiot and this can't
be done I would really appreciate it.
 
G. Leavitt said:
I have a wired gigabit connection to my corporate network and a USB wireless
connection to our internet hotspot. Both connections have access to the
internet, but the wired connection is filtered through a proxy server and the
nature of my job is such that I need unfiltered access to the internet. What
I am trying to do is figure out a way to route all my internet traffic
through the wireless nic, and all my local traffic over the wired nic.

The first thing I tried was setting up my static routes so that the wireless
was the default route and then set up a static route for local traffic with a
lower metric. The problem is that our internal network is so heavily
subnetted that this solution isn't practical. I would have to create like 35
static routes to all our disparate subnets to make that work.

I have also tried setting the IProuteEnable registry key to 1 and setting my
wireless nic as the proxy server in my browser as someone in another forum
suggested, but that doesn't seem to work either.

I'm just about ready to give up, but thought I would ask here first. If
anyone can offer some advice or even just tell me I'm an idiot and this can't
be done I would really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

In case anyone ends up looking for this same answer I got it working
finally. Here is what I had to do.

1. Added a new static route:
route add 172.0.0.0 mask 172.0.0.0 172.18.74.1 metric 5 if 3

2. Then I raised the metric of the default route for my wired interface:
route change 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 172.18.74.1 metric 25 if 3

3. Then (metric was already 25) I lowered the metric of my wireless
interface to 20:
route change 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 172.18.253.2 metric 20 if 2

4. I had also enabled IP routing in the registry, but I'm not sure if that
was a factor in the success of this method.

After these changes everything works perfectly All internal traffic
(anything with 172 in the first octet) gets routed to the wired interface.
Even the local intranet pages work flawlessly. And anything going to any
other address gets routed to the wireless interface, i.e. the internet.

note: the command lines I show here do not include the -p switch to make the
changes persistent. I would strongly recommend doing everything without the
-p switch until you are absolutely certain the changes you are making do what
you want them to do. If you make a change that causes your system to slow
down or crash you can just restart and it will go back to the original
settings.
 
I have a wired gigabit connection to my corporate network and a USB wireless
connection to our internet hotspot. Both connections have access to the
internet, but the wired connection is filtered through a proxy server and the
nature of my job is such that I need unfiltered access to the internet. What
I am trying to do is figure out a way to route all my internet traffic
through the wireless nic, and all my local traffic over the wired nic.

The first thing I tried was setting up my static routes so that the wireless
was the default route and then set up a static route for local traffic with a
lower metric. The problem is that our internal network is so heavily
subnetted that this solution isn't practical. I would have to create like 35
static routes to all our disparate subnets to make that work.

I have also tried setting the IProuteEnable registry key to 1 and setting my
wireless nic as the proxy server in my browser as someone in another forum
suggested, but that doesn't seem to work either.

I'm just about ready to give up, but thought I would ask here first. If
anyone can offer some advice or even just tell me I'm an idiot and this can't
be done I would really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Before you do anything, check with the corporate IT people and ask
whether they permit this type of setup. They might not, because the
non-corporate Internet connection could compromise the security of the
corporate network.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Desktop Experience)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
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