How to Prioritize your network adapters (Windows)
kryyst
Ontario, Canada
Here's a handy little trick that I just stumbled across. This generally only pertains to laptop users but some other specialized installs may benefit as well.
Here's the scenario (the one I commonly come across):
You have a laptop in a work environment. You cable in at your desk but it also picks up your wifi network. The annoying thing about windows is that by default it assigns a higher priority to the wireless network then the wired. Why this is a pain is that if you are cabled in and wired it'll give priority to the slower wireless network by default even if both adapters are active.
Solution:
One way is to just disable the wifi, but honestly that's a pain. The better way is to give the wired connection the priority.
This works in XP, Vista, and 7 (haven't got any 2k machines to test but their relevance anymore is moot).
1) Open up the page that lists your network adapters. In XP that's done through Control Panel, Network. In Vista and 7 you have to go into Control Panel Network and Sharing and then from the left pane select 'Change Adapter Settings'
2) This will bring up a page showing all your different network cards. Without selecting any cards. Choose the 'Advanced' option from the very top menu. Then from that menu choose 'Advanced Settings'
3) This should open up a screen with two tabs labeled 'Adapters and Bindings' and 'Provider Order'. Under the Adapters and Bindings tab will be two windows called 'Connections:' and 'Bindings for local Area Connection:'
4) It's the connection window where the magic happens. Just use the arrow buttons to move the adapter priority order to your preferred settings.
5) Reboot and if you have your LAN set first then it'll handle the network traffic even if your wifi is connected.
There are some other things you can do if you feel more adventurous with the Bindings and Provider order. But the real meat is just shifting the adapter priority around.
Here's the scenario (the one I commonly come across):
You have a laptop in a work environment. You cable in at your desk but it also picks up your wifi network. The annoying thing about windows is that by default it assigns a higher priority to the wireless network then the wired. Why this is a pain is that if you are cabled in and wired it'll give priority to the slower wireless network by default even if both adapters are active.
Solution:
One way is to just disable the wifi, but honestly that's a pain. The better way is to give the wired connection the priority.
This works in XP, Vista, and 7 (haven't got any 2k machines to test but their relevance anymore is moot).
1) Open up the page that lists your network adapters. In XP that's done through Control Panel, Network. In Vista and 7 you have to go into Control Panel Network and Sharing and then from the left pane select 'Change Adapter Settings'
2) This will bring up a page showing all your different network cards. Without selecting any cards. Choose the 'Advanced' option from the very top menu. Then from that menu choose 'Advanced Settings'
3) This should open up a screen with two tabs labeled 'Adapters and Bindings' and 'Provider Order'. Under the Adapters and Bindings tab will be two windows called 'Connections:' and 'Bindings for local Area Connection:'
4) It's the connection window where the magic happens. Just use the arrow buttons to move the adapter priority order to your preferred settings.
5) Reboot and if you have your LAN set first then it'll handle the network traffic even if your wifi is connected.
There are some other things you can do if you feel more adventurous with the Bindings and Provider order. But the real meat is just shifting the adapter priority around.
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