I haven't tried this and don't plan on it, but I was wondering... I have an external hard drive that interfaces USB 2, Firewiree 800/400, and eSATA. Now I know this doesn't make sense, but I just was wondering if someone could explain to me: Why can't I plug in the drive through multiple interfaces at the same time? Why can't the data be sent simultaneously through all interfaces?

Can the controller only establish one connection at a time? What is limiting the device?

To do this you need a device called Network Attached Storage (NAS for short). It has a network (ethernet) connection that will allow it to be shared my multiple users on a network. Your external hard drive has multiple connections for different types of users/machines but only one will work at a time.

yes... but why does only one work at a time?

It is that way by design

actually, it is due to the routing tables.

every time there's a connection made, an entry is made in the routing table

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netstat -r

Route Table
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...xx yy xx zz aa bb ...... Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.0.1     192.168.0.4       20
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
      [COLOR="Blue"]192.168.0.0 [/COLOR]   255.255.255.0      192.168.0.4     192.168.0.4       20
      192.168.0.4  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
    192.168.0.255  255.255.255.255      192.168.0.4     192.168.0.4       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0      192.168.0.4     192.168.0.4       20
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255      192.168.0.4     192.168.0.4       1
[B]Default Gateway:       192.168.0.1[/B]
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Notice the default gateway!
All new outbound connections will route thru 192.168.0.1 to the connection on the other side (the ISP) and there can only be ONE default.

All local LAN traffic flows via 192.168.0.0 to my system NIC at 192.168.0.4 to the router at 192.168.0.1

adding another NIC to the system will create another row just like
192.168.0.0 but with the IP address assigned by the DHCP on the other end (or static ip)

jobeard, I think you misunderstood the original question. giyad was asking why he could not plug multiple PC's to his external hard drive, one using USB, one using firewire and one using esata and have all access the hard drive at the same time. Your post has to do with networking which I dont think he was asking about (correct me if I'm wrong)

you are correct gguerra... wasn't asking about networking

grrrr :wave: