Windows – Two NIC cards with the same metric – Internet traffic going out the wrong one

local-area-networknicwindows

I have two NIC cards in my computer – one is connected to our corporate network and the Internet, the other is connected to a private LAN through a Linksys WRT54G. Both cards use DHCP.

This was never an issue with Windows XP, but with Windows Vista (and Windows 7) the metric for the 0.0.0.0 route is the same (20), and it appears that some network traffic that should go out my main network card are going out my secondary card instead.

The solution to date is to delete the 0.0.0.0 route associated with the second NIC card, but I have to do this several times a day.

Is there a better solution?

–Bruce

Best Answer

Yes. You can override the automatic metric calculation in the Advanced settings of the TCP/IP properties of each card. Use this to set which NIC you want to be preferred.