Forcing laptop and desktop to use wired connection.
I have a laptop with Win7 x32 and desktop PC with Win7 x64, both connect to the internet through wireless connection to router, but are also connected through ethernet cable to each other. They recognize each other without problem in both networks.
My problem is, when I transfer files from one to the other, they use wireless connection (who is often busy), and not high-speed wired one. How to force them to use the latter to communicate between each other, and wireless to access internet?
I managed to do it on WinXP on both about 2 years ago (it had to do something with network priorities, I bet), but can't manage to do it on 7.
Bloody hidden menus in bloody Win7...
Posted Jul 21, 2012, 9:10 PM UTC · edited
13
Here's what I would do and that is to load the WIRED NIC as the first in the binding order and change the IP settings so that there is NO default gateway for Wired. This way, any request to anything other than the other PC gets punted to wireless and out to the Interwebs:
Start -> Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change Adapter Settings -> Advanced -> Advanced Options (If necessary, touch the ALT key first to make the menus pop up) -> Adapters and Bindings: Make sure that the WIRED connection is first in the binding order on both PC's
Ensure that the IP address structure for both wired and wireless is unique -it's REALLY hard to push data the right way if all 4 addresses are within 2 octets of each other on the same subnet - put the wired on 10.10.x.x and the wireless on 173.x.x.x for example
Back in the Change Adapter Settings screen right click the WIRED connection on each PC and remove the default gateway or hardcode an IP in there with the correct IP address and subnet mask but NO gateway and no DNS. The 2 PC's will ARP to find each other and all other traffic goes out the Wireless NIC. If you can't make the PC's connect without DNS, then add the respective entries to the HOSTS file on each PC.
Good Luck!
Mother of... That's EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks, I know what to do now.
you're welcome!