What can you do with both ethernet and wireless??

It's just weird that you've had those experiences when I can't recall more than maybe one experience like that of my own, even having reformatted all of my personal machines upon receiving them and reloading my own image. I have seen it before on occasion, but it's never been the point where I've considered it a common or default action.

Anyway, I like the OP's thinking of how to maximize two separate connections (I would imagine this is how the person who created Wireless-N began the project), but unfortunately I can't think of much to be done other than being able to act as an access point with internet connection sharing but that's useless if there's already a wireless router. It does provide the ability to monitor wi-fi traffic while not losing an internet connection, though, if that's worth anything. That's probably all I'd use it for.

Benjamin Hall said:

Unfortunately, you cannot do both. Once hooked up to an Ethernet cable, a computer will disconnect itself from a wireless network.

no, you still get to choose which connection you want. it's just in most case the wired will be faster, unless you have a really slow connection.

SouthParade said:

Benjamin Hall said:

Once hooked up to an Ethernet cable, a computer will disconnect itself from a wireless network.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Mine remains happily connected to both.
But as SledgeDG wrote, the speed will remain the same.

Ahh, mine disconnects. Of course, there's something weird with my LAN driver anyway... lol... (Dream Edition is a tad bit screwy at times)

There's a couple things to point out, Orpheous. First, both wired and wireless connections are faster than what comes to the typical house, so the week point in the chain is going to be the actual internet connection. I have a decent to high-end speed of 25 Mbps through Comcast at home, and that still can't come close to the bandwidth a wired 100/1000 MB connection or a wireless G or N connection can offer. So, using the internet as your testing point is not a good idea, especially when you factor in other variables, such as server load, traffic, etc.

If you really must still test the difference between wired and wireless, you'll have to do it all internally, using the same router. For example, I have a Windows Home Server. I could copy a DVD image file, roughly 4 GB in size, to the server using either wired or wireless connections, and record the time it took to fully copy the file up to the server. If I did so, I'd see a big difference in the wired and wireless speeds. For further testing, I could repeat the copy process several times, and each time move farther and farther from the router, such as moving one room away, then two, then another floor, etc. You'll see how those times vary greatly.

The reason I suggested that it wasn't worth testing is because a wired connection was available...and will always provide a better, more consistent connection than wireless. The general rule in networking is that wireless is only used when wired isn't available or practical, but it is never a replacement for wired.