Windows 10: Wifi network disconnects when wired network is attached

Hi,

I am currently struggling with the following problem:

I have a Windows 10 Pro computer that has wired internet connection to the office network.
And on top of that I need the computer to ALSO connect to my Sonoff Relay (ESP8266 Soft Access Point) over WiFi.

So I have put custom firmware into the Sonoff so that the ESP8266 acts like a hotspot on the network 192.168.4.x. The ESP itself has 192.168.4.1 and when I connect to the hotspot my computer gets 192.168.4.2

Ok - all good! I can talk to the wired Office connection (With Internet access) and I can access the little webserver on the ESP8266.

Suddenly the WiFi connection closes down for no reason...

It seems like Windows 10 is judging that I do not need that connection any more since I have a much better Wired connection...

I have tried all sorts of things - changing interface Metrics, keep pinging the ESP, changing interface order, disabling power save on wifi and so forth!

If only I could disable this annoying automatic feature in windows 10!

Hope there is help out there

BR Flemming Dahlhof Jensen

:)

 

Windows 10; Network Name

I have the same problem.

I have both WiFi and Ethernet on my home network. I use Ethernet in my home office as its out of range of my WiFi but for some strange reason my Ethernet Network Name has now been renamed to be the same as my WiFi SSID name?

This is what I would usually see in Network Sharing Centre:-

When connected to Wired Network

Network Name = HomeNet

Connections = Ethernet

When connected to WiFi Network with SSID (HomeWirelessNet)

Network Name = HomeWirelessNet

Connections = WiFi (HomeWirelessNet)

However, for some reason I now see the following:-

When connected to Wired Network

Network Name = HomeWirelessNet

Connections = Ethernet

When connected to WiFi Network with SSID (HomeWirelessNet)

Network Name = HomeWirelessNet

Connections = WiFi (HomeWirelessNet)

No matter if connected by Ethernet or WiFi my Network Name seems to show as the SSID of my WiFi network?

I can use either secpol.msc or regedit to change my Ethernet Network Name to what I want, but as soon as I re-connect to my WiFi network in the evening when I'm in the living room, the Ethernet Network Name is immediately overwritten again with the SSID
of my WiFi Network as before, I'm right back to square one again. FRUSTRATING!!

So is Microsoft saying I have to edit the registry to rename my Ethernet Network Name every time I disconnect from my WiFi network?

This is ridiculous, come on Microsoft, get this fixed asap.

 

Switching Between WiFi and Ehternet Connections

Thank you for your reply, but NO I'm not having a wireless connectivity problem on my Windows 8 computer.

As I stated my computer is running Windows 10 Pro and the problem comes when I change between wireless and wired connections on my Surface Pro 3 computer. I 'normally' use WiFi for internet connectivity, but on occasion I want to use a wired connection.
Using my USB Ethernet Adapter I'm able to make a wired connection to my network, but cannot get the computer to switch back to WiFi when I'm done using the wired connection. As I stated when I disconnect my 'wired' connection (that's a USB Ethernet Adapter)
WiFi shows no networks available even though I know my WiFi setup is working as expected and available. When I restart the Surface it immediately reconnects to my WiFi system. I commented further that this didn't happen when using Windows 8.1 on the same
Surface computer - that arrangement would seamlessly switch between wired and wireless networks with no problems.

I checked out the links you provided and non of them seem to address a problem of switching between wired and wireless networks, unless, of course, I've missed something. If the later is the case, perhaps you can enlighten me further.

Thanks

 

Welcome to the TenForums @jensenflemming

In a number of organizations what you doing is considered a Security risk and in the case where I worked we implemented Group Policies to do exactly what Windows is doing. Any chance this is a corporate laptop with corporate policies, maybe new policies?

The reason it is consider a risk, you logged in your corporate network passing through all the security checks and then you "Bridge" to what could be a rogue network. Not saying this is the case, just how we viewed from a Security perspective.

If no group policies you could check...

• Right click on your network icon in systray, Open Network and Sharing
• Click "Change Adapter Settings"
• Right-click the wireless adapter you're using
• Left-click "Properties"
• On the Networking tab of the Wireless Network Connection Properties window, click "Configure"
• That will display the properties window of the wireless card.
• Click the "Advanced" tab and see if there's an option for "Disable on wired connected" or similar language.
• If there is, and it’s enabled, disable it.

In some recent laptops there is a setting in BIOS (HP's) under System Configurations.

If these don't work you could also search based on the security angle / bridging.

 

There is no group policies...

I cannot find an option under advanced that disables wifi if wires network is connected I afraid...

BR Flemming

 

You should also check wired connection to see if option is there. Did you check BIOS?
.

 

Yes I have now checked advanced settings on the Wired network interface as well.

Nothing...

So if Only I could get this super advanced Windows 10 Network behavior disabled I would be happy.

So stuck for now - any other suggestions????

 

Do you have any software, other than windows that controls your connections? Something like HP Wireless Assistant or Intel Proset/Wireless.

If so these need to be audited. (In proset it is on Application tab, Adapter switching)

See if you have a service called Wireless_Autoswitch?

Is this a company laptop managed by an IT department. You said no group policies. Can you tell us specifically what wired and wireless adapter you have?

 

The computer is an Lenovo E550 i think. Maybe Lenovo has some fancy management software.... This computer is used only for development of the solution

In production we use Intel NUK's and also Late 2012 Mac Mini's

As of now I am actually going for a different solution where I am using 433Mhz relay switch with an Arduino as 433 mhz transmitter. We already have an Arduino board attached to the PC over USB so this way we can control a relay.

This is the plan as of now... Thanks for your help anyway *Smile