How to create a network profile shortcut in Win7 Pro??

PepeDepp · 08 Jan 2014

I am trying to setup something for the company I work for that makes it easy for staff to change the network settings when our ADSL goes down and we want to use wireless broadband as a backup. BUT we still need to have access to the LAN which would mean different gateway settings for the different adapters.

I was wondering if it is possible in Windows 7 Pro to create a shortcut to a pre configured network profile in windows 7?

Thanks in advance.

TanyaC · 09 Jan 2014

Welcome to seven forums.

PepeDepp said:

I am trying to setup something for the company I work for that makes it easy for staff to change the network settings when our ADSL goes down and we want to use wireless broadband as a backup. BUT we still need to have access to the LAN which would mean different gateway settings for the different adapters.

I was wondering if it is possible in Windows 7 Pro to create a shortcut to a pre configured network profile in windows 7?

Sure it. Create your two network connections in network and sharing (wired and wireless, or whatever). Then create two shortcuts on your desktop, with the following code.. Simple batch files..

If both profiles have LAN access, why would you need to change the gateway? It's disable one profile/enable the other. We use DHCP so for us, with a home lan of 20 or so devices it works seamlessly. LAN access is always available, and the Internet profile is all that gets changed..

Wouldn't you only need to change gateways if the individual connections used different routers?

Code:

@echo off
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" admin=disabled
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 2" admin=enabled

Code:

@echo off
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 2" admin=disabled
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" admin=enabled

Save those as .bat or .cmd files and place on the desktop or startmenu..

chev65 · 09 Jan 2014

PepeDepp said:

I am trying to setup something for the company I work for that makes it easy for staff to change the network settings when our ADSL goes down and we want to use wireless broadband as a backup. BUT we still need to have access to the LAN which would mean different gateway settings for the different adapters.

I was wondering if it is possible in Windows 7 Pro to create a shortcut to a pre configured network profile in windows 7?

Thanks in advance.

You can easily set up a single NIC to use both gateways by using the advanced settings for IPv4. You could also keep both routers on the same subnet by turning off DHCP on the secondary router.

I'm not sure exactly the details of the required set up but the Admin may be able to use these two settings to get this set up.

You can also set up Windows using the local group policy to connect to both of those connections at start up. By default Windows should choose the wired connection but if the wired connection cuts out then Windows would automatically use the wireless connection. You can also adjust the metric if required. This would enable automatic connection to the other network so there would be no need to set up a short cut.

The Local Group Policy setting in the picture needs to be disabled for dual connections to start automatically at start up, only one connection is actually used by Windows.

PepeDepp · 09 Jan 2014

Thanks heaps. I'll give that a go.

Cheers