Switching between Wi-Fi and wired in XP

[David]

Our new portables have both 802.11b and 10/100. The wired
connection is desired at the desk and then unplug and
switch to wireless for meetings and then return to the
desk and connect 10/100.

Our DHCP sees both network adapters and assigns them
unique IP addresses. The 10/100 is always chosen at boot
time by XP which is okay. The problem begins when the
wired network connection is disconnected. XP seems
to "switch" to the wireless connection in a few seconds.
However, XP doesn't seem to want to switch back to the
wired connection when reconnected.

I have tried making a bridge but we continually get
duplicate IP address warnings. The MS KB says that this
is a problem with our DHCP server. I have tried several
different DHCP servers with the same result.

I don't really care about bridging if there is another way
to get the functionality without the bridge.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Our new portables have both 802.11b and 10/100. The wired
connection is desired at the desk and then unplug and
switch to wireless for meetings and then return to the
desk and connect 10/100.

Our DHCP sees both network adapters and assigns them
unique IP addresses. The 10/100 is always chosen at boot
time by XP which is okay. The problem begins when the
wired network connection is disconnected. XP seems
to "switch" to the wireless connection in a few seconds.
However, XP doesn't seem to want to switch back to the
wired connection when reconnected.

I have tried making a bridge but we continually get
duplicate IP address warnings. The MS KB says that this
is a problem with our DHCP server. I have tried several
different DHCP servers with the same result.

I don't really care about bridging if there is another way
to get the functionality without the bridge.

One solution is to disable the connection that you don't want to use
and enable the one that you do want to use.

Another solution is to explicitly define a metric for each connection.
When there are multiple enabled connections for the same LAN, XP uses
the one with the lowest metric. Assign a lower metric to the wired
connection and a higher metric to the wireless one. To assign a
metric to a network connection:

1. Open the Network Connections folder.
2. Right click the desired connection.
3. Click Properties | Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
4. Click Properties | Advanced.
5. Un-check "Automatic metric".
6. Enter a number between 1 and 9999 for the "Interface metric".
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

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