A computer with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 can connect to multiple different networks, using various adapters, simultaneously. If you use a laptop or a netbook connected to the internet both via wifi connection and via ethernet cable it is useful to know why Windows connects to one rather than to another.
Obviously the internet connection cannot be combined, a computer cannot receive data from different interfaces so one of the two, although connected, is not used to navigate.
This will not be a question on the maximum systems however it is important to know why Windows gives priority to one or the other network also because it can happen that you cannot open the internet due to a problem on network priorities.
It is also important to understand and know how to change the priority order of the different wifi networks, so the computer will prefer to connect to one over another if both are activated.
A possible goal is to make the computer use the cable network as the main means of connection, but if this is not available, the wireless connection.
In another related article, each step is explained to force Windows to use the cable connection (faster) and not the wireless one
The setting to change the priority of the network connection is somewhat hidden in Windows.
You have to go to the Control Panel> Network and Internet> Network and Sharing Center> Click the link on the left Change card settings > Press on Advanced in the menu of the bar at the top and then again on advanced settings .
If you don't see Advanced, press the ALT key on your keyboard.
What opens is a window with the words: Cards and bindings that lists the network connections configured and stored in Windows 7.
By selecting one of the networks and pressing the up and down arrows, you move the position in the list and, therefore, assign priorities.
The first one is the preferred connection, the others come later, if the first one is not available.
Pressing OK saves the configuration.
In this way it is possible to finally decide which network card has priority in Windows 7 and Windows 10 and that problem will no longer occur where, with two active connections, the internet does not work because Windows favors the one that does not surf.
To set the priority of one wifi network over another, you can use the following procedure.
Open a command prompt with administrator rights from the Start menu (in Windows 10 it is found by pressing the right key on the Windows key at the bottom left) and run the following commands:
netsh wlan show profiles
This shows the registered wifi networks, listed in order of priority.
netsh wlan set profileorder name = "Wi-Fi Name" interface = "Wi-Fi" priority = 1
If you want to continue, you can also decide on the second place with:
netsh wlan set profileorder name = "Wi-Fi Name" interface = "Wi-Fi" priority = 2
To understand what is the network connection used on the computer right now just open the Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Esc and go to the network tab.
At the bottom there are the names of the networks and their connection status.
Understanding which network you connect with, as well as being important for solving internet browsing problems, becomes a non-secondary security fact.
