Wireless + Wired Network?!

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Ok... I've been a software engineer since '82... and I completely SUCK at setting up networks. Dunno why.

Anyway... here's the situation. I've got all of my computers hooked up to the internet wirelessly through a wireless router. That works fine. Now, I'm using my new laptop to process photos... but I am keeping the images on my main server PC... so I wanted FAST transfer between the laptop and the server so I just plugged in a router/switch and plugged the laptop and the server into it.

That's where the problem is... the laptop is confused by the new wired network connection and won't access the internet via the (connected) wireless network... unless I unplug the network cord. How do I tell the laptop to use the wireless network for internet access only?

Thanks!

- Wil

[Beezwax]

if your laptop has a built-in wireless adapter, Turn off Wireless networking.

[brad]

I don't think you can do that, Wil.... but you might give this a try:

Go into your network setup and assign a "private" IP address and no routing information to the wired card.... 10.0.0.1 I think might work, but don't quote me there.... This should tell the network protocols to use the wireless for routing out to the Internet.

The problem, though, will be in the other routing... if the computer you are trying to reach is on both the "wireless" and wired networks (from the laptop's perspective), it will be very confused.... and if your network is using NetBIOS over TCP/IP (which is the standard, out of the box setup), using the private IP address above will definitely not work to communicate along the wire because it won't know how to reach the desktop box that wan... and will have to get to it via the wireless.

I think your only choice will be to turn off the wireless and do *everything* through the wire when you want to use it that way.

(Now, if your desktop machine is not on the "wireless" network.. but simply plugged more or less straight into the laptop, then giving the laptop's wired card an address like 10.0.0.1 and the PC an address like 10.0.0.2... then that will work and it *should* still use the wireless for everything else.)

Clear as mud? I'm not a network expert.... As they say, I just know enough to be dangerous. LOL

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Brad, yeah, I thought about doing it that way but I figured it would be *too complicated*. What do you think about this: Turn on internet connection sharing from my server (which accesses the internet via the wireless connection)... then disable the wireless adapter on the laptop. The laptop could then get to the internet via the server... via the shared wirless connection. Does that sound logical?

- Wil

[brad]

That may work, but I couldn't be sure without fiddling with it.

Which is why I don't on my own network.. I just use the wireless and be done with it. LOL

[crazeazn]

make sure your router is set to DHCP,

turn off wireless on your notebook (by default it should always be on)

make sure ethernet adpater is enabled on your notebook, in many cases its disabled.

do the exact same for the pc

try that.

[Concisus Cognatus]

For your situation I would consider blue tooth, which would be 802.15 and would not interfere with your regular wireless (802.11) connectivity.

[12stones]

Just go into Network Connections and Disable your Wireless Connection. Make sure your Ethernet/LAN connection is enabled. That's all it takes.

[SCone]

Originally Posted by nikonhobbyman

consider blue tooth

Far too slow for data transfer. It's better than a serial or parallel port, easier to use than USB sometimes, but no where near the speed of a 802.11b/g wireless network.

[Beezwax]

most laptops LAN will automatically enable of the wireless netorking is turned off when you plug in a Cat5.

at least that is what I do when I'm setting up the laptops for my company.

<---IT and HR guy... bad combo though

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I think people aren't getting the situation... both PCs are on both the wireless network and the wired network... so, AFAIK, there is no way to specify that the wireless network be ONLY used for internet access.

And Ben is correct, once I plug in a CAT* cable, the wireless network gets dropped/ignored and I no longer have internet connectivity... but I do have a fast wired network... which I only need to xfer files back and forth between the PCs.

- Wil

[Hanky]

How would a serial cable do?
I'm considering that option.

[Dobick]

There are a few ways to accomplish what you are trying to do.

If you want to stay with the current set-up, then you need to assign an address to both the server and the laptop.
Let's say for instance that the wireless network is set up with 192.168.1.x and a mask of 255.255.255.0 then you should be able to assign an address to the wired ethernet device of each of the server and laptop of 192.168.2.11 and 192.168.2.12 with a mask of 255.255.255.0.

Now when you want to get to your server, you will have to specify that you want to go to \\192.168.2.11\photos instead of \\server\photos. That should utilize the wired network address, as well as keep you online with the internet.

The otherway to go about this would be to physically plug the laptop and the server into the router which is handling the DHCP as well as all of the routes in and out of the network.

[bbailey]

Let me put my admin hat on and think about this.

Are you using Internet connection sharing or just sharing folders?

So you want something like this, with the wireless just used for the web, correct?

Forgive the crude illustration:



EDIT: looks like Dobick has something that should work.

[AndrewCCM]

Ben's got it..