What happens under Windows (XP Pro SP3, specifically) when you have multiple network interfaces configured on the same subnet, like when your ethernet is plugged in and your WiFi is active at the same time?
My company is refreshing everyone's laptop and once I got to the last few, I started to get complaints about Dell's network profile switcher utility. Turns out that while it works fine in the office, as soon as you actually try to switch to a different profile it completely wigs out. Long story short: Dell support's only (and first, honestly) solution was to disable the switcher.
But now that it's gone, I'm worried that people are going to be working at their desks and unintentionally using their WiFi connection. It's connected to the same network, and there's WPA2-Enterprise involved, so I'm not too worried about security, just performance.
Will Windows prefer the faster connection? I don't think it does. Is there some way to get it to prefer one? Is there a generic utility that will do this? (That's gratis. I have zero budget for this.)
In general, how does everyone else handle this situation?
Best Answer
Connections have metrics that influence their preference, the lower -- the better. Windows will probably assign correct metrics automatically. See KB299540. When both connections are active verify the assignment with
You can assign metrics manually if needed. See also KB894564.