What are the reasons that two NICs on the same computer are set to the same subnet? i.e. eth0 IP addresses is x.y.z.m and eth1 is x.y.z.n. Any websites describing these in details? http://lartc.org/lartc.html#LARTC.RPDB.MULTIPLE-LINKS "4.2. Routing for multiple uplinks/providers" have two cases (Split access and Load balancing) for two or more internet connections on the same computer but do not state explicitly that they can be set to the same subnet. The two cases requires creating two routing tables, one for each interface, and route the packets accordingly (using iproute2), don''t they? These kernel options for either 2.4.x or 2.6.y should be enabled: CONFIG_IP_ADVANCED_ROUTER (Networking/IP: Advanced Router) and CONFIG_IP_MULTIPLE_TABLES (Networking/IP: policy routing) CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_MULTIPATH (NetworkingIP: equal cost multipath) Is setting different service (eg. ssh, ftp) for different interface which are on the same subnet a valid reason?