[jheaston]

Can anyone tell me if multiple PCI ethernet cards in a G3 or G4 will boost performance speeds. I've got a G3/333 and a G4/450 both acting as file servers and I'm trying to opitmize their performance.

Also, anyway of testing network speeds and internet connections?

Thanks!

[ghporter]

Are you talking about "aggregating" your bandwidth? The answer is a (very) qualified "yes," but it has a very large "but" attached.

That "but" is simply "it works ONLY if you have a big enough pipe to provide the data, AND if your computer(s) can handle the bandwidth you're looking for. A gigabit ethernet card will saturate the PCI bus if it really gets a gigabit connection. On the other hand, having two or more 100BaseT cards probably won't saturate the bus, but you'll need special drivers to combine the signals-and here's the real pain in the "but": you need special connection equipment to take the big data pipe's data and split it up for the multiple cards.

So in theory what you're talking about is feasible and even workable. In practice, for a home or small office user, it just isn't workable.