[CS-FSLUG] Winbooks: Wifi vs Ethernet

[Ed Hurst]

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, sjm wrote:

>> It's as if some system default sets a priority by which standard
>> ethernet LAN is ignored if any wifi is present....
>
> The once or twice that I've touched Win7, I think I remember just turning off 
> the Wifi and the wired LAN worked, but if both were up, it's like Windows 
> didn't know which one to use and just got confused.  So, are you saying that 
> the wired LAN doesn't work even if it's the only one active or when both are 
> active?

The wifi alone works when both are available. If I turn off the wifi,
all of the laptops act as if there is no wired LAN. They complain they
cannot connect and want the wifi turned back on. This happens when I
reboot with the ethernet plugged in; it comes up whining it can't
connect and refuses to list the ethernet port in any of the dialogs.
Again, this is on every laptop I've tried under such circumstances, on
several brands and models of router, etc. It's as if it knows it had
wifi on that router and refuses to recognize any other means of
connecting with it.

On a previous excursion, I was installing Win7 for someone, and the
laptop refused to recognize the ethernet from the very start, even
though I installed it with the cord plugged in.

So far, this has been the case with four laptops this week, some out of
the box, some refurbished, one I had to really clean up the spyware. In
other words, the only reasonable common thread is Vista or later OS.

Ed Hurst
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