Force Windows 7 to Use Wired Connection over Wireless

So, here’s an interesting situation I ran into when using Windows 7 connected to both my Ethernet and my wireless network at home: whenever I was transferring data between my NAS and my machine, Windows 7 was usually was using a wireless network instead of Ethernet. connection! This was annoying as the wireless connection was much slower for obvious reasons.

I was a little surprised because I figured Windows would automatically detect that the Ethernet connection was faster for this type of transfer and therefore switch. However, this was not the case. So I couldn’t help but try to find a way to force Windows to use a wired connection instead of a wireless one.

In this article, I will show you two methods that you can use to do this. Note that it might be better to combine both methods to really make sure the correct connection is being used. One method involves changing the network adapter bindings, and the other method involves changing the metric for each network connection. By default, Windows uses the connection with the lowest metric value. For some reason, the Ethernet connection may not have a lower metric value, so you can change it manually.

Method 1. Change the binding of a network adapter

First method – change the network adapter links

To change the bindings and order of adapters, first click Start and then type network connections. In the list, click View Network Connections.

In the Network Connections dialog box, you will need to press the ALT key on your keyboard for the menu bar to appear. Then click Advanced and click Advanced Settings.

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You will now see a list of network connections listed in the connections field.

In my case, you cannot see the wireless network because it is running in a virtual machine, however you usually see “Local Area Connection” and “Wireless Network Connection”. You want to move the LAN connection to the top using the green arrows. This will move the wired connection up in order so that Windows 7 will first access the network over Ethernet and then wirelessly. This is the first step. The second method is also recommended to make sure Windows 7 enforces the LAN connection.

Method 2 – changing the value of a network indicator

The second method – change the network scale value

You can read a little about how metric values ??work when accessing network resources here:

http: //support.microsoft.com/? id = 299540

To change the values, you need to go to Network Connections again, but this time right-click on the network for which you want to change the metric value and select Properties.

Now click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and click Properties.

Then click the “Advanced” button in the lower right corner:

Finally, in the IP Settings dialog box, deselect the Automatic Metric checkbox and enter the value yourself.

For a wired connection, you need a lower value, and it’s best to start with 10. At least that’s the standard that Microsoft uses. For a wireless connection, you can enter a higher value, such as 25 or 100. This ensures that the “faster” network route in the routing table is now a wired connection rather than a wireless connection.

As I said, it is best to use both of these methods to fully ensure that you are forcing Windows to use one connection over the other. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave comments. Enjoy!

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