Setting connection priority preference LAN over WiFi

[Zyraz]

Hi

We currently have a problem that a lot of people at one of our clients seem to communicate with the network over wifi instead of LAN when both are simultaneously connected.
Is there a way you can set all pc`s to use LAN as the default preferred connection when both are connected via GPO ?

 

[shreez]

Hi

We currently have a problem that a lot of people at one of our clients seem to communicate with the network over wifi instead of LAN when both are simultaneously connected.
Is there a way you can set all pc`s to use LAN as the default preferred connection when both are connected via GPO ?

Howzit Zyraz.

I'm not an MS guy, but I know for a fact there is a solution which works via GPO.
At my previous company, the only way you could connect to the wireless network was if your LAN cable was disconnected.
So basically, while LAN is connected, the actual wifi adapter is disabled. As soon as you disconnect, the adaptor comes up.

I have no idea how to do this this in AD though.

 

[psion]

Usually the LAN cable would take priority in my experience if the IP addresses are on the same range that is.

 

[irBosOtter]

Not sure if you already checked it but go to a laptop and check the binding order of the adapters.
Network and Sharing Center-Change adapter settings-Advanced-Advanced Settings
Lan connection should be first in that list, but don't think one can change that with GPO

 

[irBosOtter]

Usually the LAN cable would take priority in my experience if the IP addresses are on the same range that is.

That's usually not a good idea to let your wired and wireless clients connect to the same IP range. That could create broadcast storms on the network

If they are on different ranges (or the same I suppose) one can check the metric of the routes on the laptop, if the one going over wireless is lower that the wired one it will have to be changed manually

Just type "route print" in command prompt on the laptop to check the routing table and metric info

 

[Zyraz]

Not sure if you already checked it but go to a laptop and check the binding order of the adapters.
Network and Sharing Center-Change adapter settings-Advanced-Advanced Settings
Lan connection should be first in that list, but don't think one can change that with GPO

Yeah manually per PC its quite easy to change.
However we trying to avoid doing it on an individual basis , hence the query about deploying a GPO that will automate the process including new PCs in future.

 

[furpile]

I have no idea if this will help, but I was looking for a way to manage my network connections to be able to schedule downloads through any download client (torrent, steam, whatever) that does not have a built in scheduler (to make use of after hours uncapped data). Anyway, I found the netsh commands to work very well for enabling or disabling network connections. The other commands are a bit complicated for my limited networking knowledge but maybe there is something that can help you. I made two batch files, one to enable and one to disable the network adapter (Local or Wireless) and run it with Task Scheduler. Through quick googling it seems you can run scripts for netsh through GPO as well.

 

[ponder]

Is the lan & wifi on the same subnet?

You could try changing your adapter order so the ethernet is at the top but this does not always work.
You could also disable automatic metrics for the tcp/ip entries for each adapter and set the lan to a lower metric than the wifi. This should work.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299540

You can also browse through this,
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2799...ty-of-wiredwireless-network-cards-in-windows/
http://superuser.com/questions/247601/make-windows-7-ignore-wifi-when-ethernet-is-available
http://superuser.com/questions/2378...he-wireless-connection-over-my-lan-connection