On my previous notebook, the Dell/Broadcom wireless adapter had an option to automatically disable wireless when a wired network is connected, so I never dealt with multiple active interfaces. My current system has an Intel wireless adapter, and they apparently haven't figured out how to turn it off when there is a wired connection. Unless I explicitly remember to disable wireless when docked, the connection is active.
That shouldn't be a problem (in theory), since the route metric will cause traffic to go over the fastest network (as indicated by the lowest metric in the routing table).
Apparently not - I'm running a backup and seeing the throughput at 25Mbps or so (which is consistent with 802.11g) when a perfectly good Gigabit Ethernet interface is also connected.
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.104 10
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.109 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
Windows has correctly identified the Ethernet interface (.104) and assigned it the lower (preferred) metric. So the Ethernet interface should be used exclusively, right?
Why is the Ethernet connection not being used? What other factors are involved? (This is with Windows 7 if it makes a difference)
Entire output of "route print" command (see comment below):
C:\>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
11...00 18 de 3e 53 82 ......Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
10...00 15 c5 af 80 0e ......Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
17...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
12...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
===========================================================================
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.104 10
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.109 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
192.168.1.104 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
192.168.1.109 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None
IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination Gateway
12 58 ::/0 On-link
1 306 ::1/128 On-link
12 58 2001::/32 On-link
12 306 2001:0:4137:9e76:3005:82a:b3a3:1099/128
On-link
10 266 fe80::/64 On-link
11 281 fe80::/64 On-link
12 306 fe80::/64 On-link
11 281 fe80::11ad:fcef:18ff:97a9/128
On-link
12 306 fe80::3005:82a:b3a3:1099/128
On-link
10 266 fe80::9524:5f90:dd0:86fb/128
On-link
1 306 ff00::/8 On-link
12 306 ff00::/8 On-link
10 266 ff00::/8 On-link
11 281 ff00::/8 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.104 266
and192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.109 281
. It should take the route with the lower metric for destination these routes cover, which is 192.168.1.x -- and that's the interface with the address ending in.104
, which is the wired Ethernet. In other words, the routing table looks correct and says to prefer the wired interface for other machines in your local network.