How do I tell Windows to use 802.11 in preference to 3G?

I have a Samsung NC-10 netbook which I take to work every day. Most of the time I use it just on the train/bus, but I also use it at work and home.

It has a built-in 3G card which I want to use when travelling, but I'd prefer to use wifi when I'm at work or home, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, if the 3G connection is up, Windows appears to use that in preference to wifi.

Starting up and shutting down the 3G modem is a bit of a pain - it's not hard as such, just a bit inconvenient. Ideally I'd like it to always be up, and even have the connection itself up all the time, but without routing traffic through it if there's a wifi connection up. This is what my Android phone does, for example.

Is there somewhere in Windows which lets me express an ordering for network interfaces? I suspect the routing table may be relevant, but it's a bit of a pain to mess around with. I'd really expect there to be a simple GUI way of setting this up - after all, it would equally be useful when dealing with wired vs wifi connections.

I'm currently using Windows XP Home, but Windows 7 answers would also be useful as I'll be migrating soon.

Solution 1:

You need to change the metric of the routes for the adapter. If you do 'route print' at a command prompt you should see the metrics for the various routes for your adapters. The route with the lowest metric will get used first when sending out traffic.

If you go into the networking control panel and into the TCP/IP settings for your wifi adapter and then to advanced their should be an option called 'Automatic Metric' you need turn this off and asign a metric yourself. Just set it lower than your 3G adapters metric

Solution 2:

In Windows Vista:

• Open Network and Sharing Center
• Manage network connections
• Alt-N S (Advanced -> Advanced Settings)

You can change the provider order in here, however I am not sure if it affects routing to be honest. The other option would be to bridge the two connections, but then you don't have control of which connection is being used.

I did this on my Acer when I didn't have ADSL and only 3G and it worked, but there is no fine grained control I am aware of.

Solution 3:

How to change the binding order of network adapters in Windows XP and in Windows 2000 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894564)

It's useful also when you want to decide weather your VPN connection should be the first or not.