NIC card issue!!

[Partho Protim Paul]

hi folks!!
i was wondering... no this is no way related to
clustering.... its more or less related to network
load balancing. i got 2 pcs and on each pcs i got 2
nic cards. 
i was wondering how can i make the cards go live. 
what i mean is suppose if one card fails to work!! is
there any mecanism that the other card picks up the
same network id number and same mask. viz. the 3com
100mbit card with n/w id 192.168.1.2 and snm
255.255.255.0 and another 3com 100 mbit card with
another n/w id 192.168.1.3 and snm 255.255.255.0 
what i actually want to do is this. i expt shut down
one interface. i.e 19...2 and i want the nic card
192...3 to use the n/w id 192....2 when its assigned
19...3 ... is this kind of tweaking possible. 
if so how?? 
i was just wondering. tho all the 4 nic cards are
brand new 3com 100 mbit cards, there is no qstn of
them being down. but whet if they go dowm :-p
cheers!!