Method of detecting errors in a network

Claim 3

The method of claim 1, wherein said method of determining the address of a primary NIC comprises the method of determining the Media Access Control address of said primary NIC.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1, wherein said binding said primary NIC and said secondary NIC comprises the method of binding said primary NIC and said secondary NIC into a MULTISPAN group.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1, wherein said method of binding said primary NIC and said secondary NIC into a group comprises the method of identifying each NIC in the group with the address of said primary NIC.

Claim 6

The method of claim 1, wherein said method of routing a portion of said data packets comprises the method of removing the MAC address of said data packet and replacing it with a different MAC address.

Claim 9

The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the data packets in the portion of the plurality of data packets includes a source media access control (MAC) address, and the means for routing further comprises means for modifying the source MAC address in each of the data packets in the portion of the plurality of data packets to indicate the second NIC.

Claim 10

The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising: means for receiving a second packet addressed to the second NIC from the network, the second packet including a destination MAC address; and means for modifying the destination MAC address to indicate the first NIC.

Claim 11

The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising means for responding to a failure of the first NIC by routing all of the plurality of data packets to the second NIC for transmission over the network.

Claim 12

A computer program for load balancing traffic on a network between a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) in a computer, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC, the computer program comprising: a first set of instructions for intercepting a data packet sent by a second computer program to the first NIC for transmission over the network, the data packet including a source media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the first NIC; a second set of instructions for selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs according to usage of the plurality of NICs; a third set of instructions for setting the source MAC address in the data packet to correspond to the second NIC; and a fourth set of instructions for forwarding the data packet to the second NIC.

Claim 13

A computer program for load balancing traffic on a network between a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) in a computer, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC, the computer program comprising: a first set of instructions for intercepting a data packet sent by a second computer program to the first NIC for transmission over the network, the data packet including a source media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the first NIC; a second set of instructions for selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs according to usage of the plurality of NICs; a third set of instructions for setting the source MAC address in the data packet to correspond to the second NIC; and a fourth set of instructions for forwarding the data packet to the second NIC.

Claim 14

The computer program of claim 10, wherein the second set of instructions further comprises a fifth set of instructions for round-robin usage of each of the plurality of NICs.

Claim 15

The computer program of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of NICs has a corresponding status of one of enabled and disabled, and wherein the second set of instructions further comprises a fifth set of instructions for round-robin usage of each of the plurality of NICs with a corresponding status of enabled.

Claim 16

The computer program of claim 10, further comprising: a fifth set of instructions for receiving a second data packet from one of the plurality of NICs, the second data packet including a destination MAC address corresponding to one of the plurality of NICs; a sixth set of instructions for setting the destination MAC address in the data packet to correspond to the first NIC; and a seventh set of instructions for forwarding the second packet to a second program.

Claim 17

An server computer comprising: a plurality of network interface cards (NICs), each of the plurality of NICs capable of being coupled to respective networks, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC; a memory, the memory comprising a plurality of programs, each program in the plurality of programs controlling respective NICs in the plurality of NICs to transmit data packets for the respective NIC over the respective network, a first program, the first program generating a data packet for the first NIC, the data packet including a source address, and a second program intercepting the data packet, selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs in a round-robin order, modifying the source address to correspond to the second NIC and sending the packet to the respective program in the plurality of programs for the second NIC; and a processor, the processor executing the first program, the plurality of programs and the second program.

Claim 18

An server computer comprising: a plurality of network interface cards (NICs), each of the plurality of NICs capable of being coupled to respective networks, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC; a memory, the memory comprising a plurality of programs, each program in the plurality of programs controlling respective NICs in the plurality of NICs to transmit data packets for the respective NIC over the respective network, a first program, the first program generating a data packet for the first NIC, the data packet including a source address, and a second program intercepting the data packet, selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs in a round-robin order, modifying the source address to correspond to the second NIC and sending the packet to the respective program in the plurality of programs for the second NIC; and a processor, the processor executing the first program, the plurality of programs and the second program.

Claim 19

The server computer of claim 14, wherein the second program intercepting a second data packet including a destination address received on a third NIC in the plurality of NICs, modifying the destination address to correspond to the first NIC, and sending the packet to the first program.

Claim 20

The server computer of claim 14, wherein the memory further comprises a corresponding status for each NIC in the plurality of NICs, the corresponding status one of enabled and disabled, and wherein the second program selecting a second NIC in the plurality of NICs in round-robin fashion comprises verifying that the corresponding status of the second NIC is enabled.

Claim 21

The server computer of claim 14, wherein the second program is a Netware loadable module (NLM) comprising a prescan driver.

Claim 22

The server computer of claim 14, wherein the second program is an intermediate driver.

Claim 23

The server computer of claim 14, wherein the first program is Netware loadable module.