22

I have multiple network adapters on my Windows XP system. Is there a way I can establish which adapter Firefox and Internet Explorer are using? Can I force them to use a specific adapter?

3
  • Out of curiosity, why are there multiple network adapters on your system? It's uncommon just to have more than one NIC on a system let alone have multiple NICs that are in use. Is this a "work PC" attached to different internal LANs? Jul 6, 2010 at 19:37
  • 1
    I can't speak for the original poster, but I use one NIC for the directly-exposed-to-the-internet network, and another NIC for my internal NATted network where my NAS and wireless trafic live.
    – Zed
    Jul 6, 2010 at 20:45
  • 5
    @irrational John: Add a VPN to this and a virtualization software like virtualbox/vmware and you'll get at least 4 network adapters listed, that's not really uncommon imho :)
    – Shadok
    Dec 7, 2011 at 16:48

5 Answers 5

8

Your browser isn't choosing which interface your traffic goes through, the network settings in the OS are responsible for that. In this case it would probably depend on what the default gateway was set as. By default all the traffic would go through that unless there was an exception.

If this were linux the answer would simply be 'iptables' but in windows it's a tad more murky. I wish I could answer better, I'm sure someone else will have a better answer, but this should at least get you started.

4
  • I don't believe there is any logical necessity for a "default gateway" setting to also specify which interface to use. The default just needs to identify which router to use as a "last resort" when IP can't figure out where else to send a packet. Jul 6, 2010 at 19:42
  • 1
    The default gateway setting is an IP. An IP which is in the range of one of the interfaces as specified by their subnet masks and IP. So yes, you only specify the DG and not the actual interface (Unless you're using linux).
    – Daisetsu
    Jul 6, 2010 at 20:32
  • in Windows 7, you can type netstat -rn to see the ip routing tables. Aug 20, 2013 at 22:02
  • Windows networking behaviour is just bizarre. I can ping the address and tracert it to see the connection go the right way, but within the web browser it resolves the address via a totally different route (the same subnet routed to via a different adapter).
    – deed02392
    Aug 8, 2014 at 10:56
11

You can use ForceBindIP to force applications (e.g. web browser) to bind to a specific network interface or IP address.

4
  • It seems nobody here noticed your answer. It works only sometimes and it's not a "beautiful" program nor easy to use, even if it has some experimental GUIs. It would be great to have an option implemented natively on Windows.
    – skan
    Jan 18, 2017 at 19:05
  • Thanks for noticing! Updated URL so it points to updated page. :)
    – Sun
    Jan 18, 2017 at 19:06
  • This is actually the best answer for Windows. ForceBindIP is the way to go. You can create a shortcut that launches a browser on a particular network interface, and then you're done. Aug 3, 2018 at 15:00
  • Openvpn is Overkill but you could also show a certain up for your browser this way
    – Sun
    Aug 4, 2018 at 16:28
2

You cannot set the browser's default interface, but you can change Window's default interface. See this article from http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27994/how-to-change-the-priority-of-wiredwireless-network-cards-in-windows/

2
  • but that would force all the applications to use the same interface
    – skan
    Jan 18, 2017 at 19:45
  • What if I want to use two network connections, one with chrome and another with torrent? Or one with my university VPN and the other for everything else.
    – skan
    Feb 17, 2021 at 0:13
1

My PC has two network cards. I did this: In the network card that has internet, I left the IP for default gateway. In the other network card, I deleted (left blank) the default gateway. It worked. I Hope this helps someone.

2
  • 1
    And then how do you force some applications such as Firefox) to use one card and other (such as Chrome or torrent) to use the other one?
    – skan
    Jan 18, 2017 at 19:09
  • @skan This is handled by the application in question on Windows. I reckon you can't with neither of Firefox or Chrome. This technique worked wonders for me though. Helps avoid the corporate firewalls while still accessing the local network.
    – AirOne
    Jun 14, 2023 at 8:27
1

I believe that in XP you can choose the priority list like so: control panel>network connections>advanced(in the top toolbar) V Advanced settings... and you can move the connections up and down etc.... I don't know if this REALLY changes the USED connection or not... EDIT:::tried-and-working-on-my-connections-with-different-IP's......:)

3
  • It doesn't. As Daisetsu mentioned, "Your browser isn't choosing which interface your traffic goes through, the network settings in the OS are responsible for that."
    – Pylsa
    Jul 7, 2010 at 18:35
  • 2
    I know that the browser doesn't choose... but this has worked to get the OS to change it for me.. I had 2 separate connections running (with different external IP addresses) and I switched them.. and checked the IP in the browser and it worked!... at least for me it did :) Jul 7, 2010 at 18:37
  • Then put that in your answer... At the moment it seems like this will tell the asker that the browser CAN...
    – Pylsa
    Jul 7, 2010 at 18:40

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .