Windows 7 Is there a way to use a switch to do file transfers, but router to use Internet, with same IP?

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Gene Novak

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I have a wireless router upstairs and I use wifi to get online and switch downstairs for the LAN. Currently I have a separate IP address for the wireless and another for the switch. I would like to use the same IP address for the switch and the wifi (transferring files with the switch). Is this possible? Transferring files over wifi is much slower.
 
Solution
Would need to know more about your setup. The only time a switch has an IP address is if it is a managed switch and that address is used specifically to manage the switch and nothing else. So the question are
  • Is your modem (internet connect) connected to the WAN port on the wireless router
  • Does the switch connect to a LAN port on the wireless router
  • Are the IP addresses from your wired and wireless connections in the same network segment for example 192.168.0.X with a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask

If they are on the same segment then Windows will use auto metrics to determine which connection (Wireless or Wired) to use. Windows will typically automatically use the faster connection as ussnorway stated. You can...
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yes and no... by default a router will give one ip address out for each Mac address that asks to join the network so if your laptop joins by wifi and Lan (at the same time!) then they will get different ip addresses... normaly on the same sub-net but thats not set in stone.


  • a system with both wifi and lan will always default to the faster network anyway unless some bright git puts a proxy server rule in to bugger the system up.

  • some isp service providers lock in the mac address of the customers router to stop priates so modern routers allow you to clone a mac address but this has no real effect on speed of file transfer upless you have typed a setting in wrong in which case, slower (or no at all) is the most likly outcome.
 
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Can a router know that 2 computers are using a switch between them to transfer files if it doesn't communicate with the switch?
 
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Would need to know more about your setup. The only time a switch has an IP address is if it is a managed switch and that address is used specifically to manage the switch and nothing else. So the question are
  • Is your modem (internet connect) connected to the WAN port on the wireless router
  • Does the switch connect to a LAN port on the wireless router
  • Are the IP addresses from your wired and wireless connections in the same network segment for example 192.168.0.X with a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask

If they are on the same segment then Windows will use auto metrics to determine which connection (Wireless or Wired) to use. Windows will typically automatically use the faster connection as ussnorway stated. You can determine what your interface metrics are set to by typing the following command. Lower is higher priority

  • Open a command prompt
  • Type, wmic nicconfig get caption, ipconnectionmetric
  • You will see a lot of adapters these are for creating different types of VPN connections. The ones that actually have metrics are interfaces
 
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Solution
  • I'd also like to know the dhcp settings i.e, is the upstairs wifi running its own dhcp, getting dhcp from downstairs switch or just using a passthrough system?
  • if the wifi and lan are giving out the same address range that can really slow the system down... how many devices (phones, tablets and laptops) are we talking about here because you can speed transfers between devices up a lot by useing a central nas box.
 
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