Specify that a connection to LAN disables Wifi?

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networkn

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#168493 16-Mar-2015 11:55

Hi There!

Anyone know of a cross hardware platform solution for windows that means that when a PC/Laptop is plugged into a LAN connection, that the wireless gets disabled automatically?

The number of times recently I have come across performance issues where the user has a laptop they use in the office via wifi, say in the lunch room who then goes to sit on their desk in a docking station and then has both networks connected, is stupidly high.

HP's and Toshiba's used to do it automatically but for some reason more recent versions don't do it any longer!

lxsw20

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#1260142 16-Mar-2015 11:58

We use Wiress Auto Switch XPV at work.

http://www.wirelessautoswitch.com/Home.aspx

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#1260171 16-Mar-2015 12:35

most laptops ive come across have a function button that disables wifi, could you not show them how to use that?

lxsw20

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#1260316 16-Mar-2015 15:07

Jase2985: most laptops ive come across have a function button that disables wifi, could you not show them how to use that?

Your user base must be less forgetful/disinterested/have a better understanding of why it's important to disable WiFi than mine.

redherring

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#1260531 16-Mar-2015 19:15

We also use Wireless Auto Switch XPV, it's a bit clunky to install but it works well, and doesn't have any annoying "notifications".

Item

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#1260556 16-Mar-2015 19:48

The most recent HP laptops we have been buying (HP 840 G1) actually have this setting buried in the BIOS for some reason.

Works well!

nathan

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#1260738 17-Mar-2015 08:12

what version of Windows?

My Surface does this automatically when I am on LAN vs WLAN. Check your binding order in, ncpa.cpl, advanced, binding order

There is also a VBS script https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Disable-wireless-f3bcf66f

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#1261224 17-Mar-2015 18:08

networkn: Hi There!

Anyone know of a cross hardware platform solution for windows that means that when a PC/Laptop is plugged into a LAN connection, that the wireless gets disabled automatically?

My HP Elitebook has it as a setting in the bios - but it is a few years old.
Might want to check as they could have just disabled that feature by default but left it as an option

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#1261251 17-Mar-2015 19:46

My work laptop (Thinkpad) wireless seems to get disabled by the network group policy or does it do it itself???

Every time I connect from home I have to use the windows troubleshooting thing to get wireless enabled again.

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#1261312 17-Mar-2015 21:17

My work laptop has Cisco AnyConnect on it, does what you are after, apart from the VPN side it connects to WiFi SSIDs that it recognises and LAN connection takes priority.

Not sure it is free, but does work well.

nathan

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#1261769 18-Mar-2015 15:19

nathan: what version of Windows?

My Surface does this automatically when I am on LAN vs WLAN. Check your binding order in, ncpa.cpl, advanced, binding order

There is also a VBS script https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Disable-wireless-f3bcf66f

Windows 8 automatically disables wifi when on wired, by default. You can disable it if you don’t want wifi off when connected to wired. This feature is documented here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn320946.aspx

If you are on Win7 or earlier, that’s where you have to get into scripts, 3rd party tools, BIOS or metrics to disable wifi when on wired

networkn

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#1261772 18-Mar-2015 15:21

nathan:
nathan: what version of Windows?

My Surface does this automatically when I am on LAN vs WLAN. Check your binding order in, ncpa.cpl, advanced, binding order

There is also a VBS script https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Disable-wireless-f3bcf66f

Windows 8 automatically disables wifi when on wired, by default. You can disable it if you don’t want wifi off when connected to wired. This feature is documented here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn320946.aspx If you are on Win7 or earlier, that’s where you have to get into scripts, 3rd party tools, BIOS or metrics to disable wifi when on wired

Yes, I'd really like a nice solution for Windows 7, since that is by some considerable margin, the largest OS deployment we support.

It does seem really strange MS doesn't provide some form of method for this internally.

It surely would have been a problem even as far back as XP, though because we mostly support HP machines and Toshiba both of whom had a solution of their own, it's not been so major.

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#1273335 30-Mar-2015 12:01

I found that there is a way to order the connections which might help, not sure if it can be set within group policy though to make it easy:

The other option is to set the metrics on each connection so that the LAN metric is set manually to 1 and the wireless metric set to a higher number.

Click Start and, in the search field, type View network connections.
Press the ALT key, click Advanced Options and then click Advanced Settings.
Select the Wireless Connection and move up for top priority.

timmmay

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#1273359 30-Mar-2015 12:32

I've been wondering about this, my work laptop connects through both and I saw that when I loaded this page it uses both wireless and wired networks. Unsure why. What's the downside of this? It seems to work...

networkn

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#1273363 30-Mar-2015 12:42

timmmay: I've been wondering about this, my work laptop connects through both and I saw that when I loaded this page it uses both wireless and wired networks. Unsure why. What's the downside of this? It seems to work...

It might work (Sometimes) but we have seen frequently traffic being sent on one interface but received on the other causing delays and timeouts.