Multiple IP addresses on a Windows 2000 box

Can we attach multiple IP addresses to a single Windows 2000 network interface card, similar to the way Unix systems support multiple alias IP addresses on a single interface?

Yes. After the first IP address is assigned in the normal way, you can open the network connection dialog box, highlight the TCP/IP entry and click the Properties button. When you click the Advanced button on the next window, you will see an IP addresses pane under the IP settings tab, where you can click on the Add button to enter another IP address.

If the additional IP addresses are part of the same subnet address space as the original, you can test them by connecting a second workstation through a regular hub.

If the additional IP addresses belong to a different subnet, testing becomes more interesting, because your workstation will try to route packets for the other subnet through the default gateway defined in the TCP/IP settings.

Depending on your network, you might not be able to support multiple subnets on one NIC. Using multiple IP addresses on one interface works well to support things such as virtual Web hosts, but is not meant to be used in place of multiple network interfaces in a firewall configuration.