Re: What happens if there are two interfaces?

[Timothy Murphy <gayleard eircom net>]

Nathanael Noblet wrote:

>> "ip route" just tells me both interfaces are up,
>> not which one is being used.
>> Even "ifconfig", which gives the number of packets
>> passing through each interface,
>> is not completely conclusive.

> ip route on my machine gives:
> default via 192.168.4.1 dev wlan0  proto static
> 192.168.4.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.4.103
> 
> Which means wlan0 is the default route. Everything goes out that way.

Yes, thanks for that observation -
I had overlooked the fact that "ip route" (and "route") 
specify a default interface.

However, this doesn't completely answer the question.
You appear to have only one interface active,
so naturally all packets must go that way.
I assume that is the situation with most people most of the time.

My experience with 2 interfaces active, say WiFi and ethernet,
does not entirely fit in with your theory,
as ifconfig shows a large number of packets
going through each interface.
I'll experiment further and see more exactly what happens.

Incidentally, the reason why the issue arose in my case
is that one room in my house is at the borderline of WiFi connection.
Sometimes the connection is made and sometimes it is not.
So I attached TP-Link homeplugs to my laptop and the server.
As far as I can make out this works fine under Windows XP,
but is only partially successful under Fedora.

I also have a very cheap chinese WiFi-Repeater
which sends out a strong signal as seen by "iwlist scan",
but is not seen by NM under Fedora, as far as I can see.