OK.
Since a likely response would be: "Why don't you try it and find out?" ... Here is what I see.
Squirrel: First, when you have a direct connection to the PC / server (NIC 2) and the network (NIC 1) you see TWO TerraServers in NAS Navigator 2. They are both named the same.
Sure, because they both have a unique MAC, I can understand the two instances, but it would make more sense that NAS Navigator2 should recognize it as the same box, and then show to NICS connected.
Looks like some lazy programming there, as the MAC is only displayed in the lower section of the page, so by selecting the instances above you can see the MAC.
But enough about that.
Trying "Active-backup":Since I have both NIC's connected, and they are both functional (tested by connecting to "Settings" on each IP address), I went into Settings / Network / Port Trunking and selected "Active Backup" in the drop-down, and then selected both LAN PORTs
Note: you can't select just one NIC here to be more primary than the other while still allowing both to be active, and that
would have been a great way to resolve it... but that's not the case.
Now, according to the notes "Only one NIC slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if and only if the active slave fails."
But the question is: How do I define that the NIC that I want IS the active one? The challenge here is port trunking is created to increase reliability. If one NIC or Cable or Port should fail, then the other is still golden. It assumes that both cables are connected to the same network.
Nope... this just won't work. The TeraStation shows now ONLY one IP address (NIC 1), and anything under network settings just shows a BOND for the NICS. Thanks for playing, time to break the bond, unpair and try another idea.
Service Port RestrictionNow THIS looks promising...
While messing around in network settings, I saw
Service Port Restrictions, which is not even discussed in the 252 page manual !!! (yes, ONE instance, but that is a glancing blow of what another feature will or will not do to Service Port Restrictions)
It looks like this:
Now this allows me to choose what is accessible on which NIC, which could do what I want... BUT ... at this point, I will admit, I do not know which to allow or block.
Options:For kicks, I have deselected [ ] Backup on NIC 1 and rand a compare using my backup software (SyncBackFree).
Deselecting Backup didn't do it. Looking at Win10 Task Manager / performance, I can see that the traffic is going over NIC 1 instead of NIC 2.
Limiting other options, I kept only the following allowed on NIC 1: HTTP, HTTPS, SMB, "Detectable by Buffalo Software", TeraSearch, and Web Server.
That didn't work.
I tried again, keeping it to only HTTP and HTTPS (thinking that would still allow me to run setup)
With only those two items selected, NAS Navigator2 sees the TeraStation on my direct connected NIC 2 only (as expected). I can still connect via browser to setup on NIC 1 (even though it is not seen by NAS Navigator2) from both my server and also from a wireless laptop on my network.
SUCCESS!
My backup traffic now goes only NIC 2.
I've accomplished my goal, but it feels like a really heavy-handed solution. I should only need to turn off one or two of the options there.
MY FINAL ASK:If someone from Buffalo reads this and has a more elegant way of accomplishing this, or can suggest which items to deselect to do the task without overly crippling the functionality, I would appreciate your input.