connect to two networks, ethernet(LAN w/o internet), wireless(w/ internet)
so i'm trying to connect to two networks, a wireless and a wired onethe wireless(which connect to an access point) is a network which allows me to connect to internet, and the wired(regular router) one is a small home local network, which does not connect to internet.if i just have the wireless one on, unplug/disable wired one, i can connect to internet just fine, but if i do plug in ethernet cable, then all of the sudden i can't connect to internet anymore. in my Network Coonections window, it does show that the wireless one has "Access to Network and Internet" while the wired one has "Access to Network only". I'd assume that the computer is smart enough to find its way to internet, but apparently not.is there a way to set a preference, so vista tries to find internet conncetion thru wireless first, before go on to the wired network? I konw this is technically possible, because on my mac, i can set in such way that it takes certain connection firstthanks in advance
August 13th, 2006 5:40am

Open your command prompt and type route print. IPv4 uses the default gateway in the routing table for any subnet that it does not have a direct route to. I am betting that the wired connection that you are using either has a hard coded gateway or has a DHCP assigned gateway. If that gateway shows up with a lower metric in the routing table, Windows will automatically use that address to access any subnets (such as internet addresses)that it does not have an explicit route for. The only way to fix this is to either lower the metric of the wireless connection's gateway address (the 0.0.0.0 route) or delete the wired network's gateway entry
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August 14th, 2006 11:10pm

Hi, PLease make sure no default gateway was configured on the Ethernet LAN network interface.Otherise, Windows will use it as the gateway to go out to internet.
August 17th, 2006 9:16pm

Although this problem is very old, I am posting this solution for others encountering the same issue:If you have both the wired and the wireless interface automatically configured for DHCP and the DHCP server(s) giving default gateways for both networks, then you could have the internet packets routed through the gateway on the wireless network by setting manual metrics on both interfaces, giving the wireless adapter a lower metric than the wired one. You can do this on the adapter Properties (Change adapter settings)-> Internet Ptotocol V4 -> Advanced -> Interface Metric.Hope this helps.
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September 21st, 2009 10:28am

You are a bad ass mother! I love you!
August 5th, 2011 5:42pm

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