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In Windows, how do programs "decide" which network adapter/connection to use?
I have dual ethernet ports on my motherboard. I usually only have one enabled, but recently, I've wanted to enable the second adapter and dedicate its use entirely to a local VMware virtual machine. I'm able to set VMware Workstation to bridge solely to the second ethernet adapter. However, now that I've enabled the second adapter, the rest of my computer is now defaulting all network traffic through it, instead of the other adapter.
I'm guessing this is Windows' "choice", as multiple browsers now have their traffic channeling through this newly enabled adapter.
How is it decided what network adapter for programs to use? And how can I force the channeling of programs' network data through one adapter over the other?
Thanks. I've tried using this before, but it still seems like it doesn't "hold". I saw someone suggest somewhere that there's actually a "deeper", more intricate system of "metrics" involved, and that to really be sure of using a specific adapter, one must manually spread the metrics out between the two. Is this so? – Coldblackice – 2013-10-22T20:34:30.693
well I know on the server version of windows there is a network card metrics option, so it's possible they still could have it as a group policy option on the desktop version. – Kit Ramos – 2013-10-28T15:51:39.730