I'm connecting to two identical Huawei routers via two ethernet adapters (the onboard Broadcom NIC & a recently installed Realtek RTL8169 PCI). As a matter of curiosity, I've created a network bridge between the two ethernet connections. I want to check if there is any real benefit when the bridge is theoretically balancing the network load between the two connections. However, after creating the network bridge, Windows 11 (build 22635.3350) started randomly rebooting a few times per day. Actually, I don't need the damn bridge, but I'm really curious to know why it's causing Windows to crash!!!
I disabled the "Wake-Up LAN" and the "Power Saving" features in the BIOS and the settings of both adapters and the crashes didn't happen again!!! Anyway, I could see that the average network speed is practically the same with or without the bridge!!!
I took a look and the only entry in the event viewer that matches the last crash time says: "The Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver Miniport had the event Network Interface deleted while PNP Device still exists."
Could you clarify a few details for me, please? Are the two routers configured with completely different network subnets? I just want to be sure that you properly understand the purpose of a network bridge. The intention of a bridge is NOT to increase performance by joining or "teaming" two network adapters together. A bridge is intended to join two different networks together.
As an example, suppose that you have an internal network of 10.0.0.0 with subnet mask 255.0.0.0 and another network of 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0. Since these are two completely different networks, they would not be able to talk to each other without some sort of routing. The bridge will allow you to join those networks.
On the other hand, if what you want to accomplish is increasing performance or setting up redundancy by using two network adapters on the same network, let me know and I can help you with that.
64GB (Waiting for warranty replacement of another 64GB for 128GB total)
Graphics Card(s)
No GPU - Built-in Intel Graphics
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
HP Envy 32
Screen Resolution
2560 x 1440
Hard Drives
1 x 1TB NVMe SSD
1 x 2TB NVMe SSD
1 x 4TB NVMe SSD
3 x 512GB 2.5" SSD
1 x 4TB 2.5" SSD
5 x 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
PSU
Corsair HX850i
Case
Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case
Cooling
Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Home Computer Specifications, Configuration, and Usage Notes General Specifications ASUS Prime Z590-A motherboard, serial number M1M0KC222467ARP Intel Core i7-11700K CPU (11th Gen Rocket Lake / LGA 1200 Socket) 128GB Crucial Ballistix RGB DDR4 3200 MHz DRAM (4 x 32GB) Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black CPU cooler Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Corsair LL-120 RGB Fans (Qty. 3)
Keyboard
Corsair K70 Max RGB Magnetic Keyboard
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 3
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
The five 8TB drives and three 512GB SSDs are part of a DrivePool using StableBit DrivePool software. The three SSDs are devoted purely to caching for the 8TB drives. All of the important data is stored in triplicate so that I can withstand simultaneous failure of 2 disks.
Networking: 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6e
Operating System
Win11 Pro 23H2
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
CPU
Intel i7-1255U
Memory
16 GB
Graphics card(s)
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Sound Card
Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
Monitor(s) Displays
13.3-inch IPS Display
Screen Resolution
WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
Hard Drives
2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
PSU
USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
Mouse
Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
Keyboard
Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
Sorry for the late reply, but I was at the ranch and the internet there sucks!!! My modem serves my office and home, but each network has its router!!! The PC I'm referring to is connected via cable to both routers!!! What led me to do this little experiment was pure curiosity, because I don't need the bridge!!! Anyway, as I mentioned before after disabling the wake-up LAN function in the BIOS and the power-saving mode for both adapters, whatever was causing the system to crash hasn't happened anymore!!!
