Switching between Internet connections WiFi & Ethernet

[Bram van den Heuvel]

How does Windows 10 handle manual & automatic switching between Internet
WiFi & Ethernet connections?

Does it automatically switch based on the best signal strength?
Or does it automatically switch based on some test speed?

If I want to manually change from one connection to the other, how do I do
that?

# I have a desktop with no WiFi card.
# On a USB port, I have a $25 AC1200 TP Link "T4U" wifi dongle
(FCCID TE7T4U, IC 8853A-T4U) https://fccid.io/TE7T4U
# On the Ethernet port, I have an Ubiquiti Nanobeam M2 (802.11n)
(FCCID SWX-NBM2HP, IC 6545A-NBM2HP)

My two questions are
1. How does Windows automatically decide which to use?
2. How do I manually switch from one to the other?

 

[lifewoutmilk]

Bram van den Heuvel wrote on 7/10/2017 7:14 PM:

How does Windows 10 handle manual & automatic switching between Internet
WiFi & Ethernet connections?

Does it automatically switch based on the best signal strength?
Or does it automatically switch based on some test speed?

If I want to manually change from one connection to the other, how do I do
that?

# I have a desktop with no WiFi card.
# On a USB port, I have a $25 AC1200 TP Link "T4U" wifi dongle
(FCCID TE7T4U, IC 8853A-T4U) https://fccid.io/TE7T4U
# On the Ethernet port, I have an Ubiquiti Nanobeam M2 (802.11n)
(FCCID SWX-NBM2HP, IC 6545A-NBM2HP)

My two questions are
1. How does Windows automatically decide which to use?
2. How do I manually switch from one to the other?

<https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/299540/an-explanation-of-the-automatic-metric-feature-for-ipv4-routes>

> The Automatic Metric feature can be useful when the routing table contains multiple routes for the same destination. For example, if you have a computer with a 10 megabit (Mb) network interface and a 100 Mb network interface, and the computer has a default gateway that is configured on both network interfaces, the Automatic Metric feature assigns a higher metric to the slower network interface. This feature can force all of the traffic that is destined for the Internet, for example, to use the fastest network interface that is available.

Basically, Windows chooses the fastest link. You can override this by
adjusting the automatically assigned metric. To adjust the metric, open
the adapter properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 > General >
Advanced and disable Automatic metric. The adapter with the lowest value
is the one Windows will choose.

If you only need a particular adapter to be used temporarily, it might
be easier to either manually disconnect from wireless or disable the
adapter (right-click > Disable), rather than setting the metric manually.

 

[Bram van den Heuvel]

Given <newsk1gbd$t7i$1@dont-email.me>, lifewoutmilk
<lifewoutmilk@distraction.x10host.com> wrote:

Basically, Windows chooses the fastest link. You can override this by
adjusting the automatically assigned metric. To adjust the metric, open
the adapter properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 > General
Advanced and disable Automatic metric. The adapter with the lowest value
is the one Windows will choose.

Thanks to that info, I found that "automatic metric" checkbox.

Here is a picture of it on my computer desktop.
https://www.turboimagehost.com/p/35488920/wifi.jpg.html

If you only need a particular adapter to be used temporarily, it might
be easier to either manually disconnect from wireless or disable the
adapter (right-click > Disable), rather than setting the metric manually.

At this point that's exactly what I do which is I either pull the Ethernet
cable out of the one wifi antenna connection at the back of the desktop or
I pull the usb stick out of the usb port at the back of the desktop.

Right clicking and disabling would also work as you noted.

What I will try to figure out is how to *set* that metric so that I can
just set the adapter metric to, say, 25 for the adapter I want to win and
50 for the adapter I want to lose, and when I want to switch which wifi
connection it uses, I just reverse the "cost" metric.

That web page you referred me to seems great but it's complex the first two
times I read it.

An explanation of the Automatic Metric feature for IPv4 routes
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/299540/an-explanation-of-the-automatic-metric-feature-for-ipv4-routes

 

[Char Jackson]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 04:32:28 +0000 (UTC), Bram van den Heuvel
<braam456987@yahoo.com> wrote:

What I will try to figure out is how to *set* that metric so that I can
just set the adapter metric to, say, 25 for the adapter I want to win and
50 for the adapter I want to lose, and when I want to switch which wifi
connection it uses, I just reverse the "cost" metric.

https://serverfault.com/questions/238695/how-can-i-set-the-metric-of-a-manually-added-route-on-windows

"route print" gets you the interface numbers, as well as the current
metrics.

Plug the interface number into the following command to set the new
metric. (Following command uses 25 as the interface number.)

netsh interface ipv4 set interface 25 metric=2

When you're tired of it, set it back to automatic like this:

netsh interface ipv4 set interface 25 metric=automatic

For a bit of hands-off automation, create a pair of batch files that do
these tasks simply by double clicking.

 

[Bram van den Heuvel]

Given <news:9sp8mc1aph9divukbl4givtffe62kjptvh@4ax.com>, Char Jackson
<none@none.invalid> wrote:

"route print" gets you the interface numbers, as well as the current
metrics.

Taking this step by step, does this output from "route print" make any
sense to you?

===========================================================================
Interface List
13...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......TP-LINK Wireless USB Adapter
9...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
8...0a 00 27 00 00 08 ......VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
12...00 26 55 d9 e3 44 ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
11...00 ff 84 a3 fa 25 ......TAP-Windows Adapter V9
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
44...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
16...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
5...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
===========================================================================

Of the 9 items in that list, I only recognize the TP-Link USB dongle, and
the RealTek Ethernet adapter. I guess the VirtualBox adapter is because I
have VirtualBox installed. And I guess the TAP adapter is because I
sometimes use OpenVPN.

The Wi-Fi direct adapter has the same MAC address as the TP-Link dongle so
it's probably inside the dongle.

But what is the "Teredo" or "ISATAP" adaptor?

Googling, both the Teredo & ISATAP things are related to IPv6 I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teredo_tunneling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISATAP

What does my "route print" tell you that you can tell me?

 

[Andy Burns]

Char Jackson wrote:

"route print" gets you the interface numbers, as well as the current
metrics.

Plug the interface number into the following command to set the new
metric. (Following command uses 25 as the interface number.)

netsh interface ipv4 set interface 25 metric=2

When you're tired of it, set it back to automatic like this:

netsh interface ipv4 set interface 25 metric=automatic

of if you want to be able to switch seamlessly from wifi to wired
ethernet, create a bridge of the two NICs, and let the IP address get
assigned to the bridge, rather than having IP addresses assigned to each
individual NIC.

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

The Troll is back, please do not feed the troll.

Most computers - including the one I am using this minute - does this automatically and seamlessly. This troll writes for the attention.

 

[Keith Nuttle]

On 7/10/2017 10:14 PM, Bram van den Heuvel wrote:

How does Windows 10 handle manual & automatic switching between Internet
WiFi & Ethernet connections?

Does it automatically switch based on the best signal strength?
Or does it automatically switch based on some test speed?

If I want to manually change from one connection to the other, how do I do
that?

# I have a desktop with no WiFi card.
# On a USB port, I have a $25 AC1200 TP Link "T4U" wifi dongle
(FCCID TE7T4U, IC 8853A-T4U) https://fccid.io/TE7T4U
# On the Ethernet port, I have an Ubiquiti Nanobeam M2 (802.11n)
(FCCID SWX-NBM2HP, IC 6545A-NBM2HP)

My two questions are
1. How does Windows automatically decide which to use?
2. How do I manually switch from one to the other?

I am not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish. What you are
asking sort of makes sense if you have a laptop that you take different
places.

On my desktop computer I have both Ethernet and wireless connections. As
stated Windows 10 picks the fastest connections.

The easiest way to change the connections manually is:

Right click the MSIcon on the lower left of the tool bar;

Click Network Connections;

click Changed Adapters Options;

Enable which ever adapter you wish to use.

In three click you can change your adapter.

--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

 

[lifewoutmilk]

Bram van den Heuvel wrote on 7/10/2017 9:32 PM:

Given <newsk1gbd$t7i$1@dont-email.me>, lifewoutmilk
lifewoutmilk@distraction.x10host.com> wrote:

Basically, Windows chooses the fastest link. You can override this by
adjusting the automatically assigned metric. To adjust the metric, open
the adapter properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 > General
Advanced and disable Automatic metric. The adapter with the lowest value
is the one Windows will choose.

Thanks to that info, I found that "automatic metric" checkbox.

Here is a picture of it on my computer desktop.
https://www.turboimagehost.com/p/35488920/wifi.jpg.html

If you only need a particular adapter to be used temporarily, it might
be easier to either manually disconnect from wireless or disable the
adapter (right-click > Disable), rather than setting the metric manually.

At this point that's exactly what I do which is I either pull the Ethernet
cable out of the one wifi antenna connection at the back of the desktop or
I pull the usb stick out of the usb port at the back of the desktop.

Right clicking and disabling would also work as you noted.

What I will try to figure out is how to *set* that metric so that I can
just set the adapter metric to, say, 25 for the adapter I want to win and
50 for the adapter I want to lose, and when I want to switch which wifi
connection it uses, I just reverse the "cost" metric.

That web page you referred me to seems great but it's complex the first two
times I read it.

An explanation of the Automatic Metric feature for IPv4 routes
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/299540/an-explanation-of-the-automatic-metric-feature-for-ipv4-routes

<https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/powershell/windows/nettcpip/set-netipinterface#example-2-modify-the-interface-metrics>

You could change it with a PowerShell, create two scripts, one to prefer
wired, one to prefer wireless.

The PowerShell command to set the metric is:

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex INDEX -InterfaceMetric VALUE

To get the INDEX for the adapter, run 'Get-NetAdapter' and look at the
ifIndex column.

 

[Char Jackson]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:46:50 +0000 (UTC), Bram van den Heuvel
<braam456987@yahoo.com> wrote:

Given <news:9sp8mc1aph9divukbl4givtffe62kjptvh@4ax.com>, Char Jackson
none@none.invalid> wrote:

"route print" gets you the interface numbers, as well as the current
metrics.

Taking this step by step, does this output from "route print" make any
sense to you?

===========================================================================
Interface List
13...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......TP-LINK Wireless USB Adapter
9...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
8...0a 00 27 00 00 08 ......VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
12...00 26 55 d9 e3 44 ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
11...00 ff 84 a3 fa 25 ......TAP-Windows Adapter V9
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
44...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
16...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
5...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
===========================================================================

Of the 9 items in that list, I only recognize the TP-Link USB dongle, and
the RealTek Ethernet adapter.

Agreed, those are your wireless and wired interfaces, respectively, so
you're interested in interface 13 (WiFi) and interface 12 (wired). Just
ignore the rest for now.

 

[Bram van den Heuvel]

Given <news:10t9mcpu5rmiqvsh96qq9t5d42v14nm45m@4ax.com>, Char Jackson
<none@none.invalid> wrote:

Agreed, those are your wireless and wired interfaces, respectively, so
you're interested in interface 13 (WiFi) and interface 12 (wired). Just
ignore the rest for now.

Thanks for confirming that these are the two lines of interest.
12...00 26 55 d9 e3 44 ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
13...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......TP-LINK Wireless USB Adapter

Given that interface "12" is the antenna connected to the Ethernet port,
and interface "13" is the dongle connected to the USB port, I'll try this
next to force the connection to go to Ethernet (but I'll send this first in
case I destroy my network ... don't laugh ... I've screwed up before).

FORCE ETHERNET ANTENNA:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=25
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=50

FORCE USB ANTENNA:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=50
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=25

RETURN TO AUTOMATIC:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=automatic
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=automatic

Before I screw with my network, how does that sound as a plan?

 

[Bram van den Heuvel]

Given <news:esjl82FpmlgU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

of if you want to be able to switch seamlessly from wifi to wired
ethernet, create a bridge of the two NICs, and let the IP address get
assigned to the bridge, rather than having IP addresses assigned to each
individual NIC.

Just to be clear, there is no "wired Ethernet" in this desktop computer.

There is no WiFi card.
There is an Ethernet port and USB ports.

So the USB 802.11n dongle is in the USB port.
And a radio and antenna is connected to the Ethernet port.

The computer doesn't know that the Ethernet port isn't a wired connection
though, so, maybe that distinction that it's not "really" Ethernet, doesn't
matter.

 

[Bram van den Heuvel]

Given <newsk2ini$tum$1@dont-email.me>, lifewoutmilk
<lifewoutmilk@distraction.x10host.com> wrote:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/powershell/windows/nettcpip/set-netipinterface#example-2-modify-the-interface-metrics

You could change it with a PowerShell, create two scripts, one to prefer
wired, one to prefer wireless.

The PowerShell command to set the metric is:

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex INDEX -InterfaceMetric VALUE

To get the INDEX for the adapter, run 'Get-NetAdapter' and look at the
ifIndex column.

I do not understand what a "power shell" is.
I do understand what a "command line" is, so the "netsh" commands working
at a command line make sense to me.

But how do I get to a "power shell command line"?
Googling, I found out I can do this:
Start -> Run -> powershell
But is that an "admin" power shell?

I really don't understand at all why a second command line even exists.
Can you give me a sentence or two on why I would use powershell over the
command line?

 

[Char Jackson]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 18:30:03 +0000 (UTC), Bram van den Heuvel
<braam456987@yahoo.com> wrote:

Given <news:10t9mcpu5rmiqvsh96qq9t5d42v14nm45m@4ax.com>, Char Jackson
none@none.invalid> wrote:

Agreed, those are your wireless and wired interfaces, respectively, so
you're interested in interface 13 (WiFi) and interface 12 (wired). Just
ignore the rest for now.

Thanks for confirming that these are the two lines of interest.
12...00 26 55 d9 e3 44 ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
13...c4 e9 84 a1 4c aa ......TP-LINK Wireless USB Adapter

Given that interface "12" is the antenna connected to the Ethernet port,
and interface "13" is the dongle connected to the USB port, I'll try this
next to force the connection to go to Ethernet (but I'll send this first in
case I destroy my network ... don't laugh ... I've screwed up before).

FORCE ETHERNET ANTENNA:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=25
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=50

FORCE USB ANTENNA:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=50
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=25

RETURN TO AUTOMATIC:
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 12 metric=automatic
netsh interface ipv4 set interface 13 metric=automatic

Before I screw with my network, how does that sound as a plan?

If the current metrics are all above 50, I think you're fine. Otherwise,
I'd bring the values down.

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

Please do not feed the Troll. This troll posts _only_ those questions to which he already knows the answer, and only to get attention.

 

[lifewoutmilk]

Bram van den Heuvel wrote on 7/11/2017 11:45 AM:

Given <newsk2ini$tum$1@dont-email.me>, lifewoutmilk
lifewoutmilk@distraction.x10host.com> wrote:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/powershell/windows/nettcpip/set-netipinterface#example-2-modify-the-interface-metrics

You could change it with a PowerShell, create two scripts, one to prefer
wired, one to prefer wireless.

The PowerShell command to set the metric is:

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex INDEX -InterfaceMetric VALUE

To get the INDEX for the adapter, run 'Get-NetAdapter' and look at the
ifIndex column.

I do not understand what a "power shell" is.
I do understand what a "command line" is, so the "netsh" commands working
at a command line make sense to me.

But how do I get to a "power shell command line"?
Googling, I found out I can do this:
Start -> Run -> powershell
But is that an "admin" power shell?

I really don't understand at all why a second command line even exists.
Can you give me a sentence or two on why I would use powershell over the
command line?

It's more consistent than the command line and related utilities in
Windows for one. Also, instead of manipulating text output, PowerShell
handles objects. So for instance, a pipe command:

Get-NetAdapter | where {$_.Name -eq 'Ethernet'}

Unlike cmd.exe the output from Get-NetAdapter is a list of objects, not
just a bunch of text output. The default output from the above command
would be a table, however, because the output is an object, you can do
something like:

Get-NetAdapter | where {$_.Name -eq 'Ethernet'} | fl

Which gives the same output but in a list format instead. (The 'fl' is
an alias for Format-List.)

Some of Microsoft's own GUI tools are actually running PowerShell behind
the scenes (Active Directory Administration Tool for example). Well
worth learning in my opinion.

 

[petrus bitbyter]

"Keith Nuttle" schreef in bericht newsk2eqk$knk$1@gioia.aioe.org...

On 7/10/2017 10:14 PM, Bram van den Heuvel wrote:

How does Windows 10 handle manual & automatic switching between Internet
WiFi & Ethernet connections?

Does it automatically switch based on the best signal strength?
Or does it automatically switch based on some test speed?

If I want to manually change from one connection to the other, how do I do
that?

# I have a desktop with no WiFi card.
# On a USB port, I have a $25 AC1200 TP Link "T4U" wifi dongle
(FCCID TE7T4U, IC 8853A-T4U) https://fccid.io/TE7T4U
# On the Ethernet port, I have an Ubiquiti Nanobeam M2 (802.11n)
(FCCID SWX-NBM2HP, IC 6545A-NBM2HP)

My two questions are
1. How does Windows automatically decide which to use?
2. How do I manually switch from one to the other?

I am not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish. What you are
asking sort of makes sense if you have a laptop that you take different
places.

On my desktop computer I have both Ethernet and wireless connections. As
stated Windows 10 picks the fastest connections.

The easiest way to change the connections manually is:

Right click the MSIcon on the lower left of the tool bar;

Click Network Connections;

click Changed Adapters Options;

Enable which ever adapter you wish to use.

In three click you can change your adapter.

--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre


MSIcon? Don't see it on my toolbar.