Using Gigabit and Fast Ethernet on computer

Assuming that you're using mapped drives...

You could try mapping the drives by IP address rather than using the machine names.

For example, use //192.168.2.3/myshare instead of //computername/myshare and you can be sure to always use a particular interface.

You could also disable File and Printer sharing on the fast ethernet interface, and that should force file sharing to your gigabit interfaces also.

If I understand correctly then each machine has two network connections (a gigabit and a slower one).

XP uses something called METRIC to assign whighting for each network card connection. The weighting determines which card it will use. Normally XP does this automatically but you can do it manually.

use the following command to display your current config:
"route print"

Change the metric manually using this method:

When multiple Internet connections are available, WXP uses the one
that has the lowest "metric" value.

To assign a metric to a network connection:

1. Open the Network Connections folder.
2. Right click the desired connection.
3. Click Properties | Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
4. Click Properties | Advanced.
5. Un-check "Automatic metric".
6. Enter a number between 1 and 9999 for the "Interface metric".


Personally I have never got this to work properly so I always disable the slower card when I want to copy large files and then re-enable