In a network setup, there is a server (running Windows Server 2003) connected to a Cisco Catalyst 2900XL switch. With the current prices of 10/100 NICs, is there a way to install several NICs in the server in order to increase bandwidth? If so, how? (I know that Linux supports this, but does Windows?)

I had to do something similar a long time ago and what I did (and I am not sure if it is the best solution, but it worked for me) was assign the IPs manually to each NIC, and manually add the IPs to the DHCP server. This was done in order to improve the file transfer performance on a file server.

This was done a windows domain with Windows 2003 servers. The DHCP server was the domain controller.

What also helps to eliminate the DHCP overhead is to assign different pc's to that server in the host file to specific IP address depending on what card you want them to access.

The place I used to work at had standard traffic going over one set of cards through the switches, and another set of cards was speciffically for the backup server to draw data across, theoretically eliminating bottlenecks. It worked most of the time, but a couple of the servers were old enough that the backup process would cause some heavy cpu load . . . kinda eliminated the benefits of the extra cards . . . But it did prevent work stalling out completely.

Another option that I learned about is if your switch IS equiped with the 1000 baseT port, buying the adaptor for your server is well worth it. The payout for getting 10x the bandwidth in one card gets you closer to making sure the only bottleneck in the system is the server itself vs the network load. And, unless you are going with DIRT cards on the 10/100 side, you'll almost always save money by buying that one 1000 baseT card than any combo of the others.

But that's my $.02.

D

The switch does not have gigabit. A high quality gigabit switch costs $500 last time I checked so I'm not planning to upgrade anytime soon!
And I'd be happy with 200Mbps. I've heard of an option called "channel bonding" or "EtherChannel" or something like that. Can it be setup on Windows?