When connected both ethernet and WiFi, which does it choose?

[rasmasyean]

How do you know which one is it gonna choose when you're connected with both wired and wireless? Is there some type of "test" it does to take the better connection? Or does it like pick randomly? Alternate?

 

[wanchoo]

If you are using the same ISP to connect to the Ethernet and WiFi then you should choose one of them only. Ethernet would be my first choice if the Router is nearby and the computer is not connected by a very long wired cable.

 

[F5ing]

How do you know which one is it gonna choose when you're connected with both wired and wireless? Is there some type of "test" it does to take the better connection? Or does it like pick randomly? Alternate?

Well, we know the machine knows the maximum speeds of each of the connected networks, but I know it doesn't always pick the one with the highest rated speed. So I think there's some 'smarts' behind it, and recall reading about it before, but can't remember what all it is able to look at.

I know I've seen preference to a lower speed network, with quite a bit of other traffic on it, even while it had access to a higher speed network with absolutely no current traffic. Then after a little while it decides to use the higher speed network.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
I'm pretty sure the order here defines the order used (as that's how Macs do it), but I could be wrong.

 

[Zepher]

With the laptops I use, when I am on the wireless and then plug in the Ethernet cable, it switches to the Ethernet.

 

[Duzzy]

Generally it chooses the fastest adaptor but that's not always the case as sibbil mentioned.

If you find that it is using a slower adaptor when a faster one is available then under TCP/IP settings for each adaptor there's a checkbox called Automatic Metric the lower number is the preferred network adaptor if not set to auto (I think, might be the higher number) and there is also a metric setting for the Default Gateways if you have more than one Gateway including Gateway's on different adaptors.

To check which adaptor is being used open Task Manager and check the Network tab.

I played with the metric settings for another thread and I'm pretty sure this is correct. I don't know if it alternates or pick randomly when set to auto.

 

[rusher]

If you want to set up manually which adapter will be used, look at metric field: TCP/IP settings > Advanced. Less metric is higher priority. Or you can also use route command line utility for setting up which network interfaces (connections) will be used for different destinations (ip ranges).