Switch between Wireless and Wired

[wiseowl]

OK, not sure this is the correct forum but....

A local school has a number of Win2k based laptops with wireless cards. These laptops also have a standard 10/100 NIC built in.

They have asked for the abililty to switch, on-the-fly between using the wired and wireless network.

So is there any utility that will allow me to tell Win2k to use either the wireless card for network connections or click a button and then use the wired NIC for network connections?

searching the forums here, I notice the netsh command but so far have been unable to produce the required results using it.

Anyone ?

 

[bcastner]

If these are PCMCIA adapters, use the 'Safe Removal' icon to indicate the device you plan to remove, and remove it.

If it is an internal adapter you should see if there is a 'radio disable' feature. Many internal wireless adapters offer either a hardware switch or a software tray icon to disable the device.

In any case, after the device is removed/disabled, plug in the cable to the ethernet port and do the sequence:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

You could create a batch file containing these two commands on the desktop, or somewhere else and create a desktop link to the commands.

You do not want Netsh in this situation.

 

[wiseowl]

Many Thanks for your quick reply!

Yes, these are PCMCIA wireless adapters. i can see how using IPCONFIG in a batch file would be simple enough. I just want to disbale the wireless card, without removing, so the laptop using the internal wired NIC.

I'll invesitage the 'radio off' button.

The method needs to be as simple as possible for the teachers to use as they have...basic knowledge... of computers as well as half a class of 5 to 7 year olds to contend with !!

Thanks again!

Jamie

 

[bcastner]

If you use the 'Safe Removal' icon, but not remove the card, this would work as well I believe, depending on card drivers. Essentially it would turn off the cardbus service and support to the PCMCIA adapter.

So the step would be:

1. Right-click the tray icon, select to 'remove' the wireless adapter.

2. Plug in the cable

3. Run the batch file.