If you have ever wondered if you can have two Wi-Fi cards on the same PC, or what use can it be to have them, we are going to see a couple of options where it can be useful to have this type of configuration on our computer. We are going to see what types of Wi-Fi cards we can use, and why having two Wi-Fi cards in the same computer can be a good security method to always be connected.
The first thing we must take into account to connect our equipment to a Wi-Fi network, is a Wi-Fi card, we have several types that include somewhat more comfortable cards thanks to its USB connection, and cards that are inserted into the PCI ports Express from our desktop computer. Laptops typically come with a standard Wi-Fi card installed in the computer, and in this case, the most obvious option for adding another Wi-Fi card is a USB Wi-Fi card since no cards can be added. of another kind.
Different types of WiFi cards and which ones are the best
There are different types of WiFi cards, both USB and PCIe, and within each of them, we find them with external antennas or with internal antennas.
USB Wi-Fi Cards
These types of cards are the most comfortable and the cheapest . Practically no card of this type needs its own drivers since all the necessary drivers are already available within the huge library of drivers that Windows has. The cheapest ones can only connect to the 2.4GHz network although we will have somewhat more expensive options that can also connect to the 5Ghz network,
USB Wi-Fi card with directional antenna
This type is somewhat less comfortable, because it needs a little more space for its external antenna but it is also one of the most comfortable options, they have better reception thanks to its antenna and normally we will not need specific drivers either, it is clear that depending on the model. We will also have different configurations, a 2.4Ghz only antenna, a dual band Wi-Fi antenna or two antennas, one for the 2.4Ghz network and the other for the 5Ghz network.
Wi-Fi PCI Express card
This type of card is inserted into our desktop computer occupying a PCI Express port , most have two antennas and are capable of operating up to Wi-Fi 6, it is also another good solution for space problems.
PCI Express Wi-Fi Cards with External Station
This type of card consists of two parts, the card that is placed inside our equipment, in the PCI Express port, and the external station which we can place in another area if we have coverage problems where we have the tower of our equipment. The station usually has two antennas although there are also models with four antennas and they are capable of operating even under Wi-Fi 6.
Now that we know the options, let’s go with the solutions. Having two cards installed in our desktop computer gives us the possibility of connecting to two different wireless networks. We can connect a card with one network, and another card with another, regardless of whether the two networks are offered by the same equipment (router) or if they are different.
Have a second card as a backup
If we have the two cards connected to two different networks provided by also different computers, it gives us the possibility of having one active network as the main network, and the other ready to establish itself as the main network and support all the traffic if the first one fails.
It is necessary that this reserve network is not subject to the same equipment as the first network, since if that network fails, it is very possible that the failure is directly caused by the status of this equipment. If, for example, we suffer a network outage, it may have been due to an automatic restart of the router that serves this network, so if the second network is also provided by this computer, it will fall in the same way as the main one.
When we are connected to two different networks, it is necessary that these networks make use of different subnets facing the LAN, that is, that both networks do not use the typical 192.168.1.0/24 network, because otherwise we could have a problem in the table routing of the equipment, and we will not be able to access the shared resources of both, because we will always have one network as primary and another as secondary leaving through different network interfaces, and when using the same subnet, the equipment will not be able to differentiate between them. The ideal thing is to use different subnets so as not to have any type of problem, in this way, we can check in the routing table which network we will go to the Internet, and we can even modify it without many problems in case we want to go through the other. We must bear in mind that there can only be one default gateway, but we can change it through the routing table.
Split our network to keep files or computers off the Internet
By having two Wi-Fi cards on the same computer, it can also help us to keep files safe. We will have a computer with the two cards, one connected directly to the router and therefore with Internet access, and the other can be connected in Ad-Hoc mode with another computer on our network, in this way, this second computer will not have Internet access , but if it will be within the local network that will form the team with Internet access and the latter. What we will achieve with this is to be able to share files with the main computer, but with the security of not being able to receive threats directly from the internet.
There are other uses for this type of configuration, but for this we need third-party programs or applications. We wanted to show you some uses that do not require more paraphernalia than having the two cards on the same team. In this way, we can protect both the connection of our computer, in the event of a drop in it, and the files on a computer on the network, isolating it from the Internet so that it does not suffer attacks.