All those who use a laptop or desktop PC that is connected to the internet via cable and that also has wifi reception, would do well to follow this guide and change the behavior of Windows which always tends to favor wireless connection instead of Ethernet via cable. A computer can be connected to two or more networks but only one is used to access the internet, so you have to choose which one should be the main one. there are at least three possible reasons to prefer cable connection:
- Because at home, the wifi network is used by all devices while only the cable can reach the PC.
- Because you want to prevent the PC from automatically connecting to an external and unknown wifi network.
- Because the cable connection is faster and more stable than the wifi connection which can have a weaker or intermittent signal.
Windows, by default, takes the wireless connection as a priority and uses it to surf the internet. In this short guide we see how to force Windows 10 to use the cable connection (when available) instead of a wireless network .
READ ALSO: Turn off Wifi if your PC is connected via Ethernet
There are two steps to doing this. One involves changing the priorities of the network card, the other method is changing the metric for each network connection. By default, Windows uses the connection with the lowest metric value and does not allow you to lower the value of the Ethernet connection too much.
1) On how to change the priority of network connections I had already written a guide (since it must be done from the command prompt). In this way you can change the order in which the network cards are to be used so that the system uses the second one only if the first one is not available.
2) The second method is recommended to ensure that Windows 10 is forced to always use the LAN connection before the wireless one .
The value of the Metric must be changed for the existing connections.
This feature of Metrica is explained in Microsoft technical article 299540.
To change the values, it is necessary to go back to Network Connections, press the right mouse button on the network card on which you want to change the metric value and go to Properties .
Now click on Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4), click on Properties and then on the Advanced button at the bottom right.
Finally, on the IP Settings window, remove the cross in the " Automatic metric " box and set a numerical interface Metric value manually.
For wired LAN connection, you can put a lower value and write 10 which is the Microsoft standard.
For wireless connection, type a higher value, such as 25 or 100. This will cause the "fastest" network connection to be considered wired Ethernet and not wireless in the routing table.
By using both steps, it is 100% guaranteed that Windows is forced to use one connection rather than another. These technicalities are always interesting to implement, although not easily understood in theory.
