Forcing between ethernet and wireless

I know that when I have both wireless and ethernet connected, Windows will choose the ethernet to route all of its traffic through. This is convenient when you go off of wireless and then connect an ethernet for immediate speed boosts and such, without causing anything to disconnect (such as AIM). However, if the ethernet is disconnected, it takes a moment for Windows to respond and route to the wireless. In this time, downloads or AIM will get disconnected. I don't want this, how can I force Windows to begin routing through wireless before I disconnect the ethernet?

 

When you go from using wireless to being plugged in, it still is connected wirelessly and continues to use that until all connections are finished on it. Even if you were to force windows to use the wireless prior to disconnecting from wired, you would still get disconnected from AIM, etc, as you would be losing (or at the least changing) your IP settings, probably including address.

 

Actually, as far as I know, there is no way to force Windows to use one connection over another, or two connections at the same time to the same port/AP/etc. One connection is used at a time. It also does not automatically switch from a wireless to wired connection just because the NIC suddenly receives packets.

When a wireless network is detected, it takes time to gain access. That's why you lose connectivity when making a switch. Since Windows doesn't use two connections at once, there will always be a loss of connectivity when one connection is dropped and another activated. There is no negotiation required for a wired connection, which gives the illusion of multiple connections when the ethernet port is activated.

 

What you are talking about is roaming from Ethernet to WiFi, and it doesn't exist.

 

Open your Network Connections folder.
Menu: Advanced > Advanced Settings...
Change the order in the top portion of the Adapters and Bindings tab.
This will enable you to set Windows to prefer one connection over another.

I ran into this on a corporate site, where we needed to set the Ethernet connection as default to prevent plugged-in laptops from swamping the wireless access point.

 

I'm using vista, where is this menu?

 

Just out of pure speculation - what would happen in this case if you bridged the two adapters - ethernet to wireless?

 

I don't understand what you are trying to do, the baseband is applied to the Ethernet circuit and the wireless circuit, but the layer managing the resources is activating only one interface at the time (ethernet or wifi), and the internet session is a logical channel, not a hardware, so to roam the signal from one hardware to the other the appropriate layer must do something, must first activate the second hardware (wifi), connect and then redirect the logical channel to that HW, I don't think TCP/IP or other applications do this.

In CDMA there is something like this, is called soft hand-off, when you go from one cell to another, cell 1 and cell 2 start receiving the user signals, then when the user is in cell 2, another common piece of equipment called BSC cut the signal from cell 1 and let the user continue the communication through cell 2.

 

I want to be able to take advantage of ethernet when it is available, and to stop using it when I'm about to disconnect it in favor of wireless, all with absolutely no disconnects with anything. But, looks like its impossible.

 

Yeah, you need the transport layer send the same packets to both adapters but to have one active only (the preferred adapter) and switch to the second one when roaming or when one becomes unavailable.

Now, what is the possibility that Ethernet is unavailable in reference to the wireless adapter? It seems to me that the wireless adapter has greater chances to stop working than the Ethernet one.

Anyway, this is all talking to the wind because it just doesn't exist, but you can certainly write a script and don't forget to patent it

 

Then, unfortunately, you'll probably have to write your own protocol, or else a custom driver that fits into the driver stack at the level at which the I/O from the TCP/IP protocol is fed to the physical hardware.

 

good luck, holler if you figure out the secret!!!!!