Q. How do I create a NIC team with my Intel NICs?

A. While the process I'm describing is specifically based on the Intel driver, other manufactures use a similar methodology to enable teaming.

1. Open the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Select Change Adapter Settings.
3. Right-click an adapter you want to add to the NIC team.
4. Select the Teaming tab, check Team this adapter with other adapters, as shown here, and click New Team.

[nicteam1.jpg]

1. Enter a name for the new team.

[nicteam2.jpg]

1. You'll be prompted to select the NICs that can be part of the team. Check the NICs you want and click Next.

[nicteam3.jpg]

1. Select the type of team. Adaptive Load Balancing is a good option that uses the bandwidth of all NICs, and if a NIC fails, the traffic is distributed over the remaining NICs. Pick the team type and click Next.

[nicteam4.jpg]

1. Complete the creation by clicking Next then Finish.
2. Once the team is created, its properties will open. You may need to perform certain actions here. For example, if you use Adaptive Load Balancing with Hyper-V, you need to disable Receive Load Balancing. I've created a video walkthrough of this process. [Can you link to somewhere that shows why you have to disable that, and what other "certain actions" you might need to perform? Created full walkthrough http://www.savilltech.com/Videos/NicTeam/NICTeam.wmv ]

[nicteam5.jpg]

1. Click OK and the team is available.