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I have a need to network two very large desktops together, both running Win 10 Pro 22H2, both fully updated. They are both X570 machines, both overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, both with 64Gb of 3600 CL18, (2x32, 4x16), one with an RX6950 XT, the other with a plain old RX600. Storage is Seagate Firecuda 530 system disks, 4Tb on one, 500Gb on the other, and 16 x 4Tb Toshiba N300 NAS drives. One board runs 8 Toshiba drives in two RAID 0 arrays off the onboard chipset controller (one live, one backup), with a further 16TB (4x4) of Seagate Expansion external USB disks (really Seagate DM004 video surveillance drives) as very reliable external backups. The other board has an Adaptec 7805 with a further two 4 spindle arrays of the same Toshibas. I need to build a watertight network to hump lots of data around the place, and I'm talking TB's here, not just 200-300 Gb's. A four spindle Toshiba array can happily read and write in the 600-850 MBs range depending on file size (2+GB video files go at closer to 900MB/sec), so nothing less than a 10 Gbs LAN will do.
One machine has a 10 GBs LAN on the board, the other a 2.5Gbs Realtek chip, soon to be replaced with Link Removed. Both machines also have Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 chips on board. I have identified Link Removed which seems to satisfy my needs; room for 2x10Gbs desktops, and also room for my current 1130 Mbs internet connection to double again! So it all seems sorted, yes? Oh no, not by a long way! The hardware is simple and straight forward, Cat 7 and RJ45 throughout with no hideous SFP's to overheat, and PCIE-3 x 2 lanes gives around 15.6 Gbs, enough for my needs. Indeed. with the RAID arrays limited to say 850 MB/sec, I'm using 70% of the available bandwidth which should keep the internet speeds at least respectable. No problems in terms of CPU power, then, no shortage of memory, so what is the problem?
Well, I thought I'd use an old 1 Gbs switch to test the topology, which works just fine; a new 10Gbs port and that switch are really just cosmetic changes. Shares were established and recognized OK, but could I access them? Could I? Hell no. Both ethernet adaptors have fixed addresses, but no way could I persuade credentials manager to let me in, in either direction. So I ran sfc /scannow to clean things up, then DISM with /restorehealth, deleted all existing windows credentials on both machines and then put them all back in. Still no joy. So next I shut down credentials manager on both machines, and got as far as being able to view the shares on the target machine, but a credentials request came through as I opened any share. Switch off NordVPN, no change. Check Comodo and both fixed IP's are sitting there in the local network. What next? First junk that switch and think again.
How many of you remember the bad old days (Windows 3.11) when you could directly cable two machines together? Serial ports are long gone, of course, but where there's a will there's way. Set the WIFI on both machines to fixed addresses, then disconnect the ethernet from the Virgin router once all four fixed addresses are reserved in the router. Shouldn't need to do it for the ethernet controllers, because they should not need either DHCP or DNS, but I did it anyway. First problem, NordVPN does not work very well with fixed IP wireless. Turn it off and consider that later, because the wireless works fine without it, and COMODO is more than happy, which means I'm safe enough. Next run some CAT 7 between the two ethernet ports (don't need a crossover because modern chipsets do it automatically as needed), and set up each on IPV4 with the host machine pointing at the other as it's gateway. Then you have to move on to the advanced tab, and uncheck metrics, setting them to 2. For the wireless chips, just edit the metric to 1, or your internet will become problematic and jerky, and there is a noticeable DNS lag.. As a matter of interest, it mattered not whether I used COMODO, NordVPN or Virgin DNS servers, the lag was ever present.
Now, the smart ones among you will recognize that this little two machine network actually has three gateways, and we're all told in kindergarten that you simply cannot do this, no sir, not at all. first rule of a network is only one gateway. But this worked, well, after a fashion. The ethernet ports synchronised at 2.5Gbs, and I was able to copy from Box1 to Box 2, but for some strange reason not Box 2 to Box 1. I'd set the shares up with full control and that is what I got. I've ALWAYS run my machines using the Administrator account (please, this is not the time to debate that issue), and they seemed happy enough to talk to one another. So I have no credentials manager anymore, a one way network that seems stable, and at last no requests for credentials. So I used AOMEI to back up both systems (I'm a careful soul) and cranked up NordVPN on both machine. I love Nord, they've never let me down before, but when the system was up and running again, what did it do? Convert my latest creation into a 20MB's wireless network. I assume this is because they've applied the metrics to all networks and not just internet connectivity as the book says should be done.
So, after an eventful twelve hours today, I restored those backups and decided to ask for your help. This is so close; apart from NordVPN. I need a little help to get this rig to be bi-directional, then I can hammer NordVPN for a solution. I don't suppose the boys from Redmond will be very happy either, but it's their mess we all have to deal with every day. Credentials manager has never worked properly since Windows 7, and since they decided to place security way in front of connectivity neither has home networking. Any thoughts as to why this actually works at all, and what might make it bi directional? Because if I could find a way to keep NORDVPN from using the wireless chips as a network, other than by reversing the metrics (which really hits real-life speeds), then I could live with a uni-directional network. Always supposing it works when I wake up tomorrow.
The sad thing is, I know this shouldn't work at all, and I still don't know how I got sustained 300MB/sec transfers earlier today. But I did, so it's got to have some merit. Any thoughts you can spare would be gratefully accepted.
One machine has a 10 GBs LAN on the board, the other a 2.5Gbs Realtek chip, soon to be replaced with Link Removed. Both machines also have Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 chips on board. I have identified Link Removed which seems to satisfy my needs; room for 2x10Gbs desktops, and also room for my current 1130 Mbs internet connection to double again! So it all seems sorted, yes? Oh no, not by a long way! The hardware is simple and straight forward, Cat 7 and RJ45 throughout with no hideous SFP's to overheat, and PCIE-3 x 2 lanes gives around 15.6 Gbs, enough for my needs. Indeed. with the RAID arrays limited to say 850 MB/sec, I'm using 70% of the available bandwidth which should keep the internet speeds at least respectable. No problems in terms of CPU power, then, no shortage of memory, so what is the problem?
Well, I thought I'd use an old 1 Gbs switch to test the topology, which works just fine; a new 10Gbs port and that switch are really just cosmetic changes. Shares were established and recognized OK, but could I access them? Could I? Hell no. Both ethernet adaptors have fixed addresses, but no way could I persuade credentials manager to let me in, in either direction. So I ran sfc /scannow to clean things up, then DISM with /restorehealth, deleted all existing windows credentials on both machines and then put them all back in. Still no joy. So next I shut down credentials manager on both machines, and got as far as being able to view the shares on the target machine, but a credentials request came through as I opened any share. Switch off NordVPN, no change. Check Comodo and both fixed IP's are sitting there in the local network. What next? First junk that switch and think again.
How many of you remember the bad old days (Windows 3.11) when you could directly cable two machines together? Serial ports are long gone, of course, but where there's a will there's way. Set the WIFI on both machines to fixed addresses, then disconnect the ethernet from the Virgin router once all four fixed addresses are reserved in the router. Shouldn't need to do it for the ethernet controllers, because they should not need either DHCP or DNS, but I did it anyway. First problem, NordVPN does not work very well with fixed IP wireless. Turn it off and consider that later, because the wireless works fine without it, and COMODO is more than happy, which means I'm safe enough. Next run some CAT 7 between the two ethernet ports (don't need a crossover because modern chipsets do it automatically as needed), and set up each on IPV4 with the host machine pointing at the other as it's gateway. Then you have to move on to the advanced tab, and uncheck metrics, setting them to 2. For the wireless chips, just edit the metric to 1, or your internet will become problematic and jerky, and there is a noticeable DNS lag.. As a matter of interest, it mattered not whether I used COMODO, NordVPN or Virgin DNS servers, the lag was ever present.
Now, the smart ones among you will recognize that this little two machine network actually has three gateways, and we're all told in kindergarten that you simply cannot do this, no sir, not at all. first rule of a network is only one gateway. But this worked, well, after a fashion. The ethernet ports synchronised at 2.5Gbs, and I was able to copy from Box1 to Box 2, but for some strange reason not Box 2 to Box 1. I'd set the shares up with full control and that is what I got. I've ALWAYS run my machines using the Administrator account (please, this is not the time to debate that issue), and they seemed happy enough to talk to one another. So I have no credentials manager anymore, a one way network that seems stable, and at last no requests for credentials. So I used AOMEI to back up both systems (I'm a careful soul) and cranked up NordVPN on both machine. I love Nord, they've never let me down before, but when the system was up and running again, what did it do? Convert my latest creation into a 20MB's wireless network. I assume this is because they've applied the metrics to all networks and not just internet connectivity as the book says should be done.
So, after an eventful twelve hours today, I restored those backups and decided to ask for your help. This is so close; apart from NordVPN. I need a little help to get this rig to be bi-directional, then I can hammer NordVPN for a solution. I don't suppose the boys from Redmond will be very happy either, but it's their mess we all have to deal with every day. Credentials manager has never worked properly since Windows 7, and since they decided to place security way in front of connectivity neither has home networking. Any thoughts as to why this actually works at all, and what might make it bi directional? Because if I could find a way to keep NORDVPN from using the wireless chips as a network, other than by reversing the metrics (which really hits real-life speeds), then I could live with a uni-directional network. Always supposing it works when I wake up tomorrow.
The sad thing is, I know this shouldn't work at all, and I still don't know how I got sustained 300MB/sec transfers earlier today. But I did, so it's got to have some merit. Any thoughts you can spare would be gratefully accepted.
