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WiFi and wired lan both connected

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argint

Occasional Visitor
Hi All,

I was asked a simple question that i couldnt answer off the cuff just recently.
We will have wired lan docking stations for laptops, but also a wireless facility preferred by others (not by me due to constant support over dropped signals, refused IP requests, slow connections.....etc).

The question is, if they dock to the wired lan, which will connect instantly and have an IP assigned, what happens with the wireless client that will start up and connect as well? We now have 2 connections. What issues/problems does this cause re connections and IP addresses etc? Surely it causes conflicts?

Any ideas?

Cheers
Argint
 
DHCP assigns IPs based on MAC addresses, and MACs are supposedly unique among network adapters. Apart from running out of IPs, no purely IP-related problems come to mind.

Routing may be an issue. Windows will happily initiate file transfers over a 11b connection instead of a cabled GigE connection due to lousy metric calculation. Since users must share access to the AP (contention), saturation during peak periods is a possibility: having a extra 15 minutes tacked on to your morning/lunch email routine is good for the coffee industry, but not for personal productivity. Delays can also break authentication/scripts, which generates additional problems, the cause of which is often not immediately evident. Pushing updates to clients may be problematic if name resolution binds their wireless adapter's IP.

You can manually set the adapter priority in Network Connections>Advanced Settings, but this only works for outbound connections.
 
Hmm, I see. I personally would just use the wireless shutdown switch to the left of our Dell Latitudes. But, even something like this can cause dirty looks of contempt from non tech savvy people who see it as an inconvenience for them to remember.......

......totally ignoring the wired reliability, quicker connection, faster internet transfers (yes, well below our internet bandwith but via wire, a download from sharepoint was continually twice as fast as wireless, wpa encryption, stron gsignal strength), smaller total cost of ownership in admin, etc..all these things that wired provides. And also ignoring that they are at the same desk for 95 percent of the day, and that when they move with a laptop only 50 percent of that time requires internet access)

And for me? I can actualy use my NAS as it should be when installing software on laptops, with lightning fast logmein remote assitance....on wire)

Hell, but what do I know, and why should all that stuff matter to these guys?

;-)

Thanks for answers!

Cheers
Argint
 

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