On the Wi-Fi side, (802.11b aps as well, not delt with 11g etc)
all the documentation ive read that came with the access points we have is to make sure you have at least 2 channels of seperation between APs where theyre likely to overlap each others range, mainly so you dont get overlapping interference from the other channels.
so it knocks it down from 13 channels to .... 1,4,7,10,13 - or 5 different usable channels at the very most.
for some reason they seem to default at channel 11, probably US defaults :?
on the lan side, not a lot wrong with a multi-honed server
This tends to happen only one low end consumer kit, with higher end APs interference is not much of a problem. Speaking to Grey on IRC he has 11 aps covering his building. If the max was 3 this wouldnt be possible. San francisco is fully wifid up. Again if the max was 3 then this wouldnt be possible.
Serious your answering from your experiences with crap kit.
Throughput will not be affected by number of cards in a server unless your server is inadequate for the task (as BX mentions above it just doesnt happen).
If you needed multiple gigabits of transfer youd use fiber. You wouldnt use UTP.
M3ta, you can have as many APs as you like, long as they dont overlap each others transmission area.
simplested explanation i can think of is a chessboard, the black squares being one channel and white the other, long as the next AP is on a different channel, they co-exist nicely.
if you plonk two APs on the same channel, the strongest one will win out.
theres a set of offices below me that look to have installed an AP on the default 11 conflicting with mine above and its caused laptops not to be able to connect to my network.
ive had to bump the AP down a few channels and its resolved it.
theyve also left it unsecured downstairs but more fool them
in respose to the original question, its gonna be another device in the way but itll behave just like you where using a router with multiple interfaces (wan, dmz, lan).
the PC can send at n*network speed, but the devices communicating across it will still be limited to the slowest link between them,
ive no idea at what point itd saturate the PCI bus on the computer mind (or if it would).
Id more importantly would be asking if its a pc used as a server or just a day to day pc.
servers sit there and dont often have users "working" on them so to speak (firing up word etc), and the OSs normally specify themselves higher priority to background tasks (such as networking services and database requests) rather than a user drawing in paint.
there are multiple interface lan cards for servers, just for reference and ive got my servers on, cant remember the exact name, an ether-channel link to the main switch, using two 100mb links and load balancing across them.
this is very dependant on the switch and the lan card drivers used though, they both need to be aware that they need to do the above otherwise itll SNAFU.