Selecting cable versus wireless connection

I have a wireless home LAN that works fine through a router. Sometimes when
I wish to backup my laptop to an external drive on a desktop, I use a cable
connection from the laptop to the router and then to the desktop. I do this
because the backup is much faster and less error prone than if I did it over
the wlan. Both computers are using XP-SP2. I cannot connect the external
hard drive directly to the laptop because the laptop is an old one with a
slow USB1 port.

Question:
The laptop's wireless adapter is through a PC card adapter. When I connect
the wired cable to the laptop, I usually need to first remove the adapter PC
Card to ensure that the backup (using Acronis's True Image) uses the cabled
connection and not the wireless. Is there an easier way to force the
connection to go through the cable (or) through wireless connection? A
desktop shortcut or macro I can click on?

Thank you.

Jeff

Hi, Jeff -

I sometimes use a similar setup and there are a couple of options. One, on
both the laptop and the desktop system, after you connect up the Wired
connections, you can open the Network Connections window, right-click on the
Wireless Connection, and select Disable. This will prevent the O/S from
using the wireless until you Enable it.

Another option I use is a little more involved. This involves connecting the
two systems directly to each other with a crossover cable and then using the
IP addresses to communicate. A crossover cable is slightly different from a
regular Ethernet cable. Instead of all the wires going straight through, in
a crossover cable two of the pairs are crossed: 1 to 3 and 2 to 6. This
allows it to connect directly between the laptop and the desktop systems
without using a hub or switch between them. A crossover cable should be
available at the local computer store. Using this technique you also have to
manually assign the IP addresses in the network setup app.

On my network the Wireless LAN uses 192.168.1.x IP addresses. On the Wired
LAN I use 10.10.10.x IP addresses. The IP address I use for my desktop
system on the Wired LAN is 10.10.10.5 and the external drive on the desktop
system is drive E:. I share the external drive as "E". On my laptop Wired
connection I use IP address 10.10.10.6. On both the desktop and the laptop
wired ports I use the Net Mask 255.255.255.0 and I leave the Default Gateway
blank. I map to the external drive from the laptop using the folder name
\\10.10.10.5\E. Using this method the communications use the Wired LAN and
not the wireless while leaving both still active.

Hope this helps,
--
WLW

"Jeff" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a wireless home LAN that works fine through a router. Sometimes
>when I wish to backup my laptop to an external drive on a desktop, I use a
>cable connection from the laptop to the router and then to the desktop. I
>do this because the backup is much faster and less error prone than if I
>did it over the wlan. Both computers are using XP-SP2. I cannot connect the
>external hard drive directly to the laptop because the laptop is an old one
>with a slow USB1 port.
>
> Question:
> The laptop's wireless adapter is through a PC card adapter. When I connect
> the wired cable to the laptop, I usually need to first remove the adapter
> PC Card to ensure that the backup (using Acronis's True Image) uses the
> cabled connection and not the wireless. Is there an easier way to force
> the connection to go through the cable (or) through wireless connection? A
> desktop shortcut or macro I can click on?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Jeff
>

You can just disable the wireless connection when you do not want to use it,
you do not need to unplug it. If you click Start > Control Panel > Network
Connections to show your system's network connection's you can drag your
wireless and wired connections to your desktop and a shortcut will be
automatically created. You can then right-click the shortcut corresponding
to the adapter you wish to disable and select 'Disable' from the menu. When
finished you can then rightclick the shortcut and select 'Enable' from the
menu.


--
All the best,

Ryan Younger.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/wirelessnetworking/ - Ryan's Wireless
Networking Weblog

(E-Mail Removed)



"Jeff" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a wireless home LAN that works fine through a router. Sometimes
>when I wish to backup my laptop to an external drive on a desktop, I use a
>cable connection from the laptop to the router and then to the desktop. I
>do this because the backup is much faster and less error prone than if I
>did it over the wlan. Both computers are using XP-SP2. I cannot connect the
>external hard drive directly to the laptop because the laptop is an old one
>with a slow USB1 port.
>
> Question:
> The laptop's wireless adapter is through a PC card adapter. When I connect
> the wired cable to the laptop, I usually need to first remove the adapter
> PC Card to ensure that the backup (using Acronis's True Image) uses the
> cabled connection and not the wireless. Is there an easier way to force
> the connection to go through the cable (or) through wireless connection? A
> desktop shortcut or macro I can click on?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Jeff
>

Thank you both. Appreciate the help.

Jeff

"Ryan Younger" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> You can just disable the wireless connection when you do not want to use
> it, you do not need to unplug it. If you click Start > Control Panel >
> Network Connections to show your system's network connection's you can
> drag your wireless and wired connections to your desktop and a shortcut
> will be automatically created. You can then right-click the shortcut
> corresponding to the adapter you wish to disable and select 'Disable' from
> the menu. When finished you can then rightclick the shortcut and select
> 'Enable' from the menu.
>
>
> --
> All the best,
>
> Ryan Younger.
> http://spaces.msn.com/members/wirelessnetworking/ - Ryan's Wireless
> Networking Weblog
>
> (E-Mail Removed)
>
>
>
> "Jeff" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I have a wireless home LAN that works fine through a router. Sometimes
>>when I wish to backup my laptop to an external drive on a desktop, I use a
>>cable connection from the laptop to the router and then to the desktop. I
>>do this because the backup is much faster and less error prone than if I
>>did it over the wlan. Both computers are using XP-SP2. I cannot connect
>>the external hard drive directly to the laptop because the laptop is an
>>old one with a slow USB1 port.
>>
>> Question:
>> The laptop's wireless adapter is through a PC card adapter. When I
>> connect the wired cable to the laptop, I usually need to first remove the
>> adapter PC Card to ensure that the backup (using Acronis's True Image)
>> uses the cabled connection and not the wireless. Is there an easier way
>> to force the connection to go through the cable (or) through wireless
>> connection? A desktop shortcut or macro I can click on?
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>
>