The behaviour you're seeing is likely because there's a router handling
DHCP on the wired network, and that DHCP packet also has a default
gateway. When you plug in the cable, the computer receives a DHCP
response from the router saying that it's a valid connection, and most
of the time Windows prefers physical cables to wireless.
It may work with the router is still plugged into the LAN network
(without the Internet connection plugged in) if you go into adapter
settings on the computer and set the metric of the wireless NIC to 1,
and the wired NIC to 100. (Settings -> Network & Internet -> Network and
Sharing Centre -> Change adapter settings, right click on network
connection -> Properties -> IPV4 settings -> Advanced -> metric text
box). The problem with leaving the router in play is it will do DNS
also, and that may confuse the computer or servers if they don't get
responses or gets bad responses back from the router.
To get rid of the router (or if the above doesn't work) you'll need to
follow through a few things here to make this work. This sounds like one
of the rare cases to use static IP addresses on the wired network - make
sure like Thane said that the two networks have separate IP ranges, and
there's no default gateway set for the wired LAN devices. I would
statically set the IP addresses on the devices on the wired network and
add if you use names for them then add them to your hosts file.
You should end up with something like following structure:
* Wireless - 192.168.1.0/24
o handled by DHCP - actual IP range doesn't matter so long as it's
different then the wired
* LAN - 10.0.0.0/24
o 10.0.0.X (where X is unique for each device)
o netmask 255.255.255.0
o no gateway
o no DNS
In the %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file on your machine add a
line like this for each server (the printer software will likely figure
it out once the printer is assigned a static IP address, though it may
take a reinstall). You may have to turn off the Windows Firewall for the
connection or set it to Private if Windows prompts to ensure you have
full connectivity to devices on the LAN.
10.0.0.X server1name
10.0.0.Y server2name
I do something like this when I want VMs in a separated network (with no
Internet access) for testing. The biggest difference is that I do use
DHCP on the split network, but there's no gateway defined so it works
without having to configure each host. That means having a DHCP server
and the knowledge to configure it though.
Jamie
On 2017-11-21 6:12 PM, Steve Tomporowski wrote:
We're dealing with Win10 here. We are trying to get rid of an extra
cable internet connection at my house. The downstairs currently has
it's own internet with a wired network that includes two servers and a
printer. What I need to do is keep the wired network without internet
and access the internet wirelessly and still be able to access the
servers and the printer. Can I get some guidelines on how to get this
done? I've got a good wireless adapter on my desktop now and it
works, but when I plug in the network cable, internet access goes back
to the wired network. Still searching the web for something coherent
about this, but with this group, someone has done it at sometime, right?
Thanks...Steve
--
Jamie Furtner
