Wireless v vs wired, selecting as needed

In XP, how do you set your network connections so that when my laptop is connected to my router via a cable (normal) it also doesnt also use the wireless network to connect. Is there a preference setting? Or doesnt it matter?

Originally Posted by Dr Rich

In XP, how do you set your network connections so that when my laptop is connected to my router via a cable (normal) it also doesnt also use the wireless network to connect. Is there a preference setting? Or doesnt it matter?

turn wireless off completely. Save some battery too.

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

turn wireless off completely. Save some battery too.

Its not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid. I also have a desktop with a wireless in it that I am sometimes using and sometimes not as I have had to move my router in and out of the room with the desktop in (long dull story).

I cant switch wireless off on the router as I have a third computer I need it for.

[fizzwheel]

Dr Rich, can you not turn the wireless off on the laptop when you dont need to use it, On my laptop theres a button that enables and disables the laptop.

Failing that you could go into the network section and right click the wireless connection and disable it that way.

I'm not sure if theres a thing in XP where you can set a preference order for the network devices, my work laptop is at work and Liz's laptop has Vista on it which probably doesnt work the same way...

Yes but also the desktop has a wireless card. I am having router issues (ongoing) so am ahving to experiment with different setups. I think you can set a preference for the order that XP selects the network device.

[Ruffy]

You can set up different hardware profiles that can be selected at power up, so you could have one with wired enabled/wireless disabled and one with wireless enabled/wired disabled. However, I think this means you have to reboot if you want to swap from one to the other - may or may not be a problem?

The only other thing I can think of is to configure your wireless link as a manual/on demand connection, so that it will not ever connect automatically.

If I remember correctly it goes like this - Start - Control panel - network connections - select advanced menu - advanced settings - Then change the order of the connections window to your preference.

So in your case it will need to try wired first then wireless it that fails.

Might be wrong but it seems tp works on my laptop at work, but then it does have this extra software that comes with it that does some other stuff so I can't truely test it.

Thats what Im looking for! Is it the 'metric' on the TCP/IP protocol?

Edit, Ah, ok, Advanced on the main menu bar. Never looked there, only on prperties for connection.

Did this work ok?

Not sure as at office now, will try this eve or tomorrow.