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My NAS has two network ports. Can I use the second one to speed up data transfers on a 1-1 connection?

I assume the 2nd port will have a different IP, so does it make a difference for a single PC trying to transfer data over a network if I would use two network ports?

If not, what is the second port good for?

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    are you sure you are limited by Network and not by your HDDs when doing data transfer operations? Two ports are useful, you might want to connect it to multiple physical LANs.
    – ek9
    Apr 19, 2014 at 10:49

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In most situations: No, it won't. If you're connected by LAN and simply plug in both interfaces, even if you manage to tell the NAS to send data over both it will not grant you a speed boost. The simple question is: what is the limiting element? As mentioned in comment, often the HDD is it. Sometimes the transfer rate of the connection (not really on a lan, but maybe if your connection goes through WLAN) limits the transfer rate. But if it is already used to its maximum capacity, how should it go faster if you have two connections? In most cases it will even get slower.

So what is the different port good for? - A second port is great. If you have a more complex network. From the fact that your NAS has two ports i assume it's not a cheap one, with a lot of functions. For example you can build up two LAN networks, one with your private computers at home where you share your picures and music and one where you like to experiment or even host some serious web services. It's nice to seperate those two networks. Your NAS - being very powerful - now can provide functions you'd like in both networks, for example data sharing or vpn acces. You can now choose to which network which functions to apply. E.g. hosting your favourite music on the private site and some linux kernel source code on the other one. Now you got some friends who enjoy coding and you like to grant them a vpn acces to your - let's call it "dev" - network. You do so with your fabolous NAS and they can become a full member of your dev network. For your family, you set up a vpn for your private network where they can always view their favorite photos.

So to conclude, it's mainly for security / infrastructure reasons. Hope this explanation was not too long.. =)

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Using two network interfaces in a link aggregation group (LAG) increases performance and reliability. However, it cannot increase the bandwidth for a single conversation. It is designed to increase bandwidth when multiple clients are simultaneously accessing the same system.

If you connected both ports to your network, you could lose one of the physical connections or even an entire switch, and still have access to your NAS. Your switches would need to support LACP in an ideal configuration.

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