Windows 7 - Wireless vs Cat5 ethernet

When I bring my laptop home, I plug in a Cat5 cable and boot it up. Windows 7 then hooks up to my router with both the cable and via wireless. When I then transfer files from it, they transfer at the lower wireless speeds. If I disable the wireless on the laptop, the transfer speed increases to Cat5 levels.

Is there some way to get it to use the wired connection instead of the wireless connection without having to disable the wireless adapter in Device Manager (which means I have to re-enable it when I take the laptop on the road again)?

When the eithernet cable is plugged in it takes over the wireless connection and only the wired connection is used. In other words it should be happening automatically as soon as you plug in the cable.

Quite a few have tested this including myself so unless your system is somehow different than everyone else's I can't imagine why you would be having this problem.

Maybe because I plug in the ethernet cable before turning on the computer?

That could be part of the problem not sure. I know that with the machine turned on as soon as I plug in the eithernet cable the wireless is cut off and the wired connection takes over with no other obvious problems. A few others have tested this and it was the same for them also.

Here are a few tips on how to make your wireless transfer rate be better:
1. Change the channel of your router. US routers are allowed to have 11 channels. The current channel that you are in might be congested by any device running on 2.4 Ghz.
2. Isolated the router from interference. Anything Metal, Magnetic, or Electronics (microwave oven, baby monitors, other routers, wireless phones, etc) can affect the signal.
3. If you are far from your router, consider a repeater. (please contact the router manufacturer if your current router can support it.
4. Buy a new 802.11n router and upgrade your wireless card to 802.11n. This is faster and is even recommended for gaming consoles. 802.11n (max 300mbps) is currently faster than fast ethernet (100mbps) and is almost as fast as gigabit lan (1000mbps) when the signal is excellent.

But remember this, there is always a big advantage of ethernet over wireless. Wireless (especially 802.11n) is fast when the signal you are getting is excellent. You might not notice the big difference between them when using internet but when you transfer files you would find out. And I know that is what you are experiencing right now.

I used to work as technical support rep for one of the router manufacturers and I do manage the wifi system in the office. LAN would always out perform WLAN But WLAN is more convenient than LAN.

I hope I was able to help you.

johnmarkcausin, thanks, but I'm not interested in upgrading the hardware on this aging laptop. The only reason I'm still using this laptop is because it has a 1920 x 1200 screen, which seems difficult to find nowadays.

chev65, that's what I expected, that when I plugged the ethernet cable in, the transfer speeds would noticeably increase...but it isn't happening. The transfer speeds are staying at the wireless rate, until I disable the wireless adapter...and only then do they kick up to the Cat5 wired ethernet rate.

Dont you have a hardware switch on your laptop to enable/disable wireless? Very easy to flip that on and off.

Otherwise, create a desktop shortcut to do this instead of having to go to the device manager. Go to control panel->network connections. Right click the wireless connection and click create shortcut. It may say cannot create shortcut here,do you want to place it on the desktop. Click yes. If it doesn't say that,drag the shortcut to the desktop.Then,when you want to disable it, right click the shortcut and click disable. Same to reenable.

You could just, you know.. disconnect from the wireless network while using the ethernet then connect when you want wireless.

Just click the network icon in the system tray beside the clock and select your wireless network, and press the disconnect button.

Do the same to reconnect.