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Connect to ethernet and wi-fi simultaneously
I'm currently running Windows 10 Enterprise on my Dell Studio 1555 laptop.
This is not the first time I'm using Windows 10 Enterprise. Before I format my laptop to reinstall a fresh version of Windows 10 Enterprise, I can connect and receive connections from both ethernet and wi-fi simultaneously. However, after I install a fresh version of windows, instead of receiving connections from both ethernet and wi-fi, i only receive connections from ethernet while the status of connection for both is listed as "connected". If I plug out the ethernet cable, the wi-fi connection will be working fine. I had gone through forums and the possibility of a altered BIOS setting is one of them. If so, how do I fix it in BIOS setup, if not, what are the other options? Please help. Thanks.
jphughan
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August 8th, 2017 08:00
This definitely isn't a BIOS issue, and in 15 years doing various types of IT support and engineering for Windows and teaching a technical course on (among other things) IP addressing, subnetting, and routing along the way, I have not found a Windows setting that would achieve what you're talking about for general use. There are only a few ways to do what you're talking about:
- Protocols specifically designed for it, such as SMB 3.0 as mentioned above, in which case this happens automatically.
- Mess with routing tables to direct traffic destined for certain IPs out of certain interfaces, but this isn't practical for Internet access.
- If the application you're using supports binding itself to a specific network interface/IP address, or you find an external application to force certain applications to do this, you can achieve this, but a Web browser for example would still have to use one interface rather than switching between them, and if that interface became unavailable, you'd have to reconfigure all of the applications that were bound to it. I can also see this introducing a variety of undesired issues.
- You can disable the "Automatic metric" setting for each adapter and manually specify the same metric value for both of them, which MIGHT get what you want, but it could also cause Windows to rely on Wi-Fi even when wired would be FASTER, so you might not like the result overall.
But taking a step back here, how exactly were you determining that both interfaces were able to "receive Internet access at the same time" before? What specific tool/interface are you looking at that's showing different results now compared to before? And just out of curiosity, if you're only focused on Internet access, why is this even an issue? Is your Internet connection actually faster than your wired Ethernet connection?
jphughan
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August 8th, 2017 08:00
And here, this is a Microsoft article explaining how the scenario of multiple network adapters on the same network is designed to work: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/258487/configuring-multiple-adapters-on-the-same-physical-network
And if you Google things like "Windows use Ethernet and Wi-Fi simultaneously", I think you'll find that what you're trying to achieve isn't feasible except for the methods I've described above. A few people also suggest setting up a network bridge, but that's intended to have your PC connect two completely separate networks, so I wouldn't recommend that, and it doesn't seem to work quite as expected in this scenario anyway, which doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure what you were seeing before compared to now (although I'm hoping you'll explain it in greater detail), but general purpose load balancing between Ethernet and Wi-Fi for regular Internet traffic doesn't exist in Windows.
jphughan
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August 7th, 2017 16:00
Every version of Windows going back at least to Windows 2000 has supported having multiple network adapters being connected simultaneously. Try connecting both interfaces and then going to Command Prompt and entering "ipconfig". If you have an IP address on both adapters, they're both connected. That said, Windows will dynamically choose which interface is more appropriate at any given time, which will almost always be your wired connection unless maybe you have an ancient 100 Mbps wired connection and a fast 802.11ac WiFi connection. It is very rare for any protocols to be able to support using both interfaces simultaneously for the same traffic. SMB 3.0 can do this, but that's only used for Windows File Sharing to Windows 8 / Server 2012 or newer hosts.
mikelee2601
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August 7th, 2017 22:00
Both interfaces are listed as "connected", but the ethernet is the only one receiving connection(internet access), which is not what I want and certainly not what I had experienced before. When I was still running the same copy of the Windows before formatting, both interfaces are listed as "connected" and are able to receive internet access at the same time. So, does this mean that there are any way of fixing this with BIOS setup settings? Or is this a Windows issue or a mere Windows-based settings issue?
mikelee2601
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August 8th, 2017 23:00
A vague answer would be I feel that the overall internet speed (browsing speed or the internet download speed from ISP) is faster. I used my laptop quite often to watch videos that have an average length of 20-30 minutes, so I have a rough estimation of how much the video should load at that period of time by observing the buffering cursor.
Of course, that answer would not be really reliable. If I would to give a solid evidence, it would be the status shown when hovering to the network icon at the right side of the taskbar. When the mouse pointer rest at the icon, the name of the network connected will be shown and below that network name, the term "Internet access" could be found. In my case, I can see 2 of them(ethernet and wifi) when I rest my pointer on the icon. Also, when I go to the "Performance" tab of the task manager, I could see the graphs for both "Ethernet" and "Wi-Fi" spiking instead of the "Ethernet" only when strong internet activity (playing videos or playing songs on Spotify Free) was being carried out.
My ethernet is faster than my wifi connection, but the internet download speed that I sign-up from the ISP is 512 kbps, so it's a slow connection. Normally, the speed fluctuates around 1-30 kbps so my speed will drop to around 480 kbps(the speed often drops instead of increase). I wanted to boost the speed, so one day, without any knowledge about the possibility of connecting both interfaces together, I connect to both interfaces and found that, although not so much of a difference, the internet speed is faster. The speed now will at least stay at 500 kbps or higher. At high, which is rare, I would manage to reach 600 kbps. [These are average results from fast.com]
After reading the explanation, it might just be my misconception on how the network and configuring works, so I'll give a try on the solutions and, for the better or worse, make do with whatever results that I will get. Thanks for spending time to reply to these questions.
jphughan
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August 9th, 2017 06:00
If your Internet connection is only 500-600 Kbps, then frankly that is an absolutely trivial amount of bandwidth even for WiFi, and that entire bandwidth is probably within the statistical margin of error that could be affected by something as simple as a driver version. Using a pretty sweet 802.11ac router, I'm able to get over 300 MEGAbits over WiFi from the other side of my house. I might be able to get even more if I were testing against a local LAN system, but my Internet connection tops out around 320 Mbps.
I really wouldn't recommend tinkering with the options I mentioned above. You're not going to be rewarded with any extra bandwidth, and you might make things operate less efficiently than they should in scenarios that involve more bandwidth, such as when using a local LAN or when using your system at a local with a faster Internet connection.