Disconnect from Wifi while connected to Ethernet?

Hey guys,

When I am in my dorm I am connected via hard wire to the internet since its 4-5 times faster but whenever I boot up my wifi automatically connects to the wifi. Is there any way for it to not connect to wifi if I am connected to the ethernet? The reason I ask is because the wifi speed always takes precedence over the ethernet and therefore I need to manually disconnect it every time.

 

There are easy ways to do this, and (slightly) harder ways to do this.

The easy way to do this is to just disable your WiFi adapter on your laptop, until you need to use it, through an Fn-key combination (believe it is Fn+F3).

The (slightly) harder way is to configure your computer to set a preferred network adapter binding. You basically tell your computer that your wired ethernet adapter should take priority over your WiFi adapter, in the event that both are connected.


How to change the binding order of network adapters

1. Click Start, click Run, type ncpa.cpl , and then click OK.
2. You can see the available connections in the LAN and High-Speed Internet section of the Network Connections window.
3. On the Advanced menu, click Advanced Settings, and then click the Adapters and Bindings tab.
4. In the Connections area, select the connection that you want to move higher in the list. Use the arrow buttons to move the connection.

 

Thanks, I am trying the 2nd method because I am connected to an external monitor and keyboard/mouse when I am connected in my dorm so the fn key is not available as easily when i return from class. Once I run ncpa.cpl I am brought to a screen without the Advanced Menu. Attached is an image. Can you direct me?

 

Hit the Alt button to bring up the menu.

Then go to Advanced --> Advanced Settings.

 

Haha oh wow. Thank you. Didn't even realize. +1

 

sweet I was having this same problem!

 

Just a quick other question: I never was able to test it until now. Is it normal for the wifi bars to still be showing up over the ethernet icon in the taskbar?

Just now got back to my dorm.
I'd imagine its showing up because its connected? But its using the hardline first and foremost?

 

Side note, DeeVu, I just added you to my steam friends... Im sure you can guess my user name

 

Haha came up as KameiX1 but I figured

 

Oh yeah, that right, I thought I had changed it back to ejohnson, oh well.

 

1) Yes, still normal for WiFi bars to show up. You're not changing very much about Windows and networking - just the under-the-hood mechanics of how it handles preferred network adapters.

2) It should be using the ethernet connection first. You can verify this by using a network bandwidth meter on your computer, and seeing which network interface is active when you are transferring a large file over the internet.

 

Sounds good thank you again

 

Also added you on steam, Deevu, (RPG is Primary) I'm glad you posted this question, because I was getting sick of having to manually disconnect also