Fluke NetDAQ 2645A - Manual (Page 277)

Network Considerations
Running Two Network Cards in a PC
I
I-15
If your network contains routers, bridges, gateways, or other devices that divide
the network into subnets, and you intend to have the PC on a different subnet from
the NetDAQ instrument(s), you need to make sure that the devices can route IP
packets. This is especially true on Novell networks, where the network may
contain devices that can route only IPX packets.
The PC software uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to establish the
relationship between the physical address and IP address of the NetDAQ
instruments. The ARP protocol uses broadcast messages. So, your routers must be
set up to pass ARP broadcasts to all subnets containing NetDAQ instruments.
Running Two Network Cards in a PC I-14.
There are cases when you may want to operate more than one network interface
on your PC. You can do this if you’re careful in setting up the adapters and
configuring the software.
One instance when you might want to use two adapters in your PC is when you
want to communicate with the NetDAQ instruments on a network that is separate
from your general, multipurpose network. Another is when your general network
uses other than Ethernet hardware (such as Token Ring).
Use of two network adapters will allow higher throughput when communicating at
high speed with a set of NetDAQ instruments on one network and logging data to
a file server over the other network.
When setting up two network adapters in a single PC, make sure that the hardware
resource setups do not overlap. Each adapter needs a unique interrupt level (IRQ)
and port address. This is sometimes hard to do because of the limited number of
IRQ levels available in the PC hardware, so be careful.
If you’re using two Parallel-to-LAN Adapter Ethernet interfaces (264XA-802),
you should include the LPTn switch on the packet driver load line, in the driver
section of the
protocol.ini file for the NDIS driver, or in the driver section
of the net.cfg file for the ODI driver. This switch specifies which of the
parallel ports that adapter is connected to. If you leave this switch off, the driver
may attach to the wrong adapter.
If you’re using two ISA bus Ethernet adapter cards, make sure that the IRQ level
and port addresses don’t overlap. Also make sure that you add the I/O address to
the end of the packet driver load line, in the driver section of the
protocol.ini file for the NDIS driver, or in the driver section of the
net.cfg file for the ODI driver.
Load the network operating system client software first, then load the Trumpet or
Newt software.
During installation of the Newt software, be careful to enter the IRQ and port
address that matches the network card attached to the NetDAQ instruments.