Disabling network adapters

Hey rocks911,

Hope this small tutorial can help you and you get what you are desiring to do.

rocks911 said:

I'm running a W7 64 bit machine and was wondering if there is an easy way to temporarily disable Network Adapters on my machine?

archer said:

Hey rocks911,

Hope this small tutorial can help you and you get what you are desiring to do.

In the link that archer posted - below the video - there is a screenshot showing a right-click on an adapter. In that context menu, there is the option to create a desktop shortcut. If you are going to disable/enable one or more network adapters often, then you might want to create a shortcut on your desktop to each adapter of interest.

Once you have a desktop shortcut, you can right-click on that shortcut and select Disable from the context menu. When you want to enable that network adapter, you can right-click on that shortcut and select Enable from the context menu OR simply double click on that shortcut (since Enable is the default action).

If you would rather not have shortcuts like that on you desktop, then perhaps a batch file would be more to your liking.

Enable file extensions - if need be:
File Extensions - Hide or Show

Create a new text file in whatever folder you like.
Open that new file in notepad.
Paste in this code.

Code:

netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" disable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 2" disable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 3" disable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 4" disable

Replace "Local Area Connection" with the exact text for each adapter of interest.
Save the text file.
Exit notepad.

Rename the text file and the extension to this disable.bat

Create a shortcut to that batch file and set it to always run with elevated privileges.
(See option six of this tutorial Run as Administrator)
If desired, place that shortcut on the desktop or in the Start menu.
If desired, assign a Shortcut key to the shortcut. (e.g.Ctrl-Alt-D)



Repeat the steps above using the code/text below for enable.bat

Code:

netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" enable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 2" enable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 3" enable
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection 4" enable

edit:
I have seen parents use this to keep children offline at times.
If the children use standard user accounts...
...and if the children do not know the password to an admin account
...then they cannot (easily) enable the network adapters.
IE10 and IE11 offer to enable one of the network adapters via the network troubleshooter, but it still requires an admin to do that. The parent might also have to password protect BIOS and prevent booting to CD/DVD/USB.