Network Adapter priority settings not working!

[mrp04]

Annoying. My first problem with Windows 7 after months.

I have a desktop computer with 2 ethernet ports.

Adapter 1 is directly connected to the internet (gets a public IP)

Adapter 2 is connected to a router that an Xbox 360 is also connected to (router gets a public IP)

In the adapter settings I have the adapter connected directly to the internet set to higher priority than the one connected to a router, but it doesn't do anything!

It works fine when only adapter 1 is plugged in, but when I plug adapter 2 in, it starts using that for internet over adapter 1. I do not want this, I don't want to cause any lag on my Xbox.

I also have noticed this on my laptop. I have hamachi installed on my desktop and my laptop so that I can have a virtual home network to easily copy files back and forth. Sometimes hamachi is given preference even when it can't connect to the internet, so my laptop just won't work online until I disable the hamachi adapter.

Any way to fix this? Is there a new way to change priority and they forgot to remove this? It is an ancient dialog box.

[voidpharoh]

Another alternative would be to manually set the metric values of the network adapters.

Microsoft Support: An explanation of the Automatic Metric feature for Internet Protocol routes

I actually don't have a Windows 7 machine at hand right this moment, so I'm not certain if the instructions below are 100% accurate. If they're not the process should be very similar and easy to figure out on your own.

When more than one network connection is available, Windows uses the one with the lowest metric value. By default, it automatically assigns a metric value based on the network connection's rated speed. See An explanation of the Automatic Metric feature for Internet Protocol routes .

To force Windows to use a specific network connection, assign a metric value to each one, giving the lowest value to the desired connection:

1. Open the Network Connections folder (Start > Run > ncpa.cpl)

2. Right click the desired connection.

3. Click Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4.

4. Click Properties > Advanced.

5. Un-check "Automatic metric".

6. Enter a number between 1 and 9999 for the "Interface metric".

Source: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...c8-db57d927b62e

[+BudMan MVC]

'Adapter 1 is directly connected to the internet (gets a public IP)

Adapter 2 is connected to a router that an Xbox 360 is also connected to (router gets a public IP)"

Not understanding why you would have this setup?

For starters why don't you just put everything on you private network behind the NAT router.. You only need 1 interface then and you don't have to use freaking hamachi to share files with other machines on your network, etc.

But if you don't want your inteface connected to the private network to be used for internet -- simple don't put in a gateway and it wont be used to go anywhere other than the private network.

But yes void is correct the proper to determine which interface is used when both on the same network, or both have gateways off the network is to adjust the metric.

As to use of hamachi to copy files between each other -- that just seems completely asinine to me.. Your both able to connect to the same local network -- USE that to copy files back and forth and simple file sharing!

[mrp04]

Each computer gets its own 100 Mbps connection this way vs sharing 1.

Hamachi is for when I'm not in the same room as the desktop.

Don't worry about it, its working fine this way other than not having the priorities set correctly.

[+BudMan MVC]

And how are you connecting to the internet that you feel they each have a 100mbit connection??

So you have 3 machines connected all at 100mbit -- so the internet connection how ever your getting? Is 300Mbit??

If you don't want your PC to use the connection that is connected to the router private network -- then dont put in a gateway for this connection - simple!

So vs using dhcp from the router for this connection - just setup a static and don't put in a gateway. So lets say your routers private network is 192.168.1.0/24 -- then your pc without a gateway on this 192.168.1.99/24 interface would only use it to connect to devices on the 192.168.1.0/24 network

[Joel]

Each computer gets its own 100 Mbps connection this way vs sharing 1.

How fast is your Internet connection?

[mrp04]

I'm in a college dorm. Each ethernet port gets 100mbps.

And thanks, I didn't think of putting a static IP for some reason...

Still annoying that the priorities don't work, I wonder if Hamachi will still work if I put a static IP in with no gateway?

[Joel]

I'm in a college dorm. Each ethernet port gets 100mbps.

:blink: Is that how you think network traffic works? The highest speed of the port is your Internet speed? Crap, that means I have 1 gigabit per second download speeds at work. :rolleyes:

I also doubt that your college gives you a "directly connected to the internet (gets a public IP)" port.

[mrp04]

I'm not dumb. Using JDownloader and downloading something using multiple connections I have attained a max speed of 12MBps, multiply that by 8 and you get 96 Mbps.

And yes, I get a public IP for each of my computers. Why is this so hard to believe?

EDIT: I JUST downloaded a 135MB file in about 15 seconds. Peaked around 11 MBps, which is 88 Mbps.

Edited December 4, 2009 by mrp04

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

:blink: Is that how you think network traffic works? The highest speed of the port is your Internet speed? Crap, that means I have 1 gigabit per second download speeds at work. :rolleyes:

I also doubt that your college gives you a "directly connected to the internet (gets a public IP)" port.

And that helps the issue, how? Perhaps you should have refrained from posting if you had nothing to post but unnecessary assumptions and questions. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I'd set the interface metric values for each connection (lower=higher priority). That might help things.

[dacm]

I'm having the same problem both -- before and after -- manually setting the metrics for both IPV4 and IPV6 (I see no reason to set IPV6 metrics but I'll try anything) on every network connection in the house. I have a wired (Gbit) and a wireless (WRT54G) network. The wireless network is used to distribute the internet gateway throughout the house. The GBit LAN (wired Cat-6) is used to distribute various media (HDTV, etc) throughout the house using four network tuners (2x HDHomerun) and two Gbit switches (Linksys SLM2008). The wireless and wired networks cannot be physically connected without drilling through several walls, etc. And they shouldn't have to be physically connected if I can get the Windows 7 metrics to work as advertised.

All machines (3) are running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

I'm using the following metrics:

Gbit IPV4: 20

Gbit IPV6: 25

WiFi IPV4: 40

WiFi IPV6: 45

I've disabled(NIC)/enabled/rebooted dozens if not hundreds of times. No matter what metrics I use (auto or manual; IPV4 and/or IPV6) , Windows 7 immediately overrides and selects the slowest connection which is too slow for even a single HDTV distribution. If I disable the WiFi devices (loosing internet and TV-program guide updating for Windows Media Center 7) then Windows 7 is forced to accept the fastest connection and lowest metric so everything works great...except that my shows don't record because the Program Guide isn't properly updated without internet access.

Any ideas?

[+BudMan MVC]

Your problem is NOTHING like the OP thread..

If you want to use wired network for local file transfer and media streaming, etc. Thats fine -- just use 2 different network segments and don't put a gateway on the wired interfaces.

So for example your wireless network is 192.168.1.0/24

Make your wired networked 192.168.2.0/24

Either run a dchp server for your wired that does not hand out a gateway - just went over this in another thread, or set them static, or for that matter just use APIPA with 169.254 addresses on your wired interfaces.

Now your machines will have 2 interfaces on 2 different networks. Say for example 192.168.1.100 for your wireless network that points to your wireless router at say 192.168.1.1 --- which it will use to go to any other network other than 192.168.1 and 192.168.2 which it has a wired interface in.

So your pc's wired interface is say 192.168.2.100 -- if sharing files with 192.168.2.101 it will only use the wired interface to access this.

BTW -- unless your specifically using ipv6, I would just freaking disable it completely.

[dacm]

Thanks for the suggestions BudMan!

I already have separate networks by IP/Subnet as you've outlined:

wireless G: 192.168.1.x/24

Gbit wired: 169.254.x.x/16

I think I've got it working now...

Your post motivated me to look through each device and verify the IP/Subnet/Gateway/metric settings. I found one wireless adapter with the metric set to "auto" so I changed it to manual: "40" and rebooted, and now everything is working great. I also disabled IPV6 on all adapters (thanks for the suggestion). Streaming a Blu-Ray movie now reports about 4% network utilization over the GBit-wired network. HDTV is under 3%, and SDTV is under 1% per stream. It seemed to come down to IPV4 metrics settings because the networks were already separate. Any thoughts?

[+BudMan MVC]

So on your wired your just using APIPA addresses - or did you manually set them to the APIPA range?

There is no need to set the metric -- auto would be fine.

Metric does not come into play unless there are multiple interfaces with access into the same network.. Or gateways off each network.

With the way I understand your setup -- you don't need to mess with the metrics of the interfaces.

The wired network being on a different network than your wireless, and NO gateway! would only be used when accessing devices that are on that network -- ie 168.254/16 addresses.

If going to a 192.168.1/24 addess would use wireless - if going to say neowin, or any other network other than 192.168.1/24 or 169.254/16 it would have to use a gateway -- you only have 1 interface with a gateway.. ie a 192.168.1.? So the computer would always use the interface on that network to access the gateway.

If you don't have a gateway setup on the wired interfaces - then you can leave all your metrics on default (auto).

[dacm]

Thanks again for the comments/suggestions.

So on your wired your just using APIPA addresses - or did you manually set them to the APIPA range?

Well I've setup the wired network using APIPA addresses both manually and using auto. In the past, I've tried forcing 192.168.2/16 but I lose access to the network tuners. The (3) NICs are currently set to auto IP assignment which seems to be driven into the APIPA range by the network tuner devices (HDHomeruns). The two HDHomerun tuner boxes seem to be firmware-limited to the APIPA range, which then drives the wired network to APIPA addresses in auto.

There is no need to set the metric -- auto would be fine...

...you can leave all your metrics on default (auto).

I agree it should work in auto, but each computer has a NIC and a wireless adapter with shared folders. So that's really two ways (networks) to access the shared folders on each computer. The internet-gateway is available only on the wireless adapters; when I check IPCONFIG/ALL only the wireless adapters have an entry for the default gateway (192.168.1.1) while the gateway entry is blank on the NICs.

Each computer requires internet-gateway access (for Program Guide updates). Likewise, each computer requires wired network access (for tuner access and file sharing/streaming). So, while the tuners can only be accessed using the wired network, the computers themselves offer their shared folders and streaming services on both networks.

Windows 7 is supposed to pick the fastest network but it in my experience (so far), it always chooses the slower network unless I set the metrics manually for each computer NIC and wireless adapter (3 of each total). As soon as I set a wireless adapter to auto-metric, that computer reverts to sharing/streaming media with the other two computers using the wireless network exclusively. That computer (with the wireless auto-metric) maintains exclusive-wired access to the tuners because that's the only network available for tuner access, but shared folders are another matter.

Am I missing something or are the manual metrics the only way to prioritize folder sharing/streaming (as necessary for bandwidth) over the wired network, while simultaneously providing internet-gateway services exclusively over the wireless network? Again, I cannot physically connect the wired network to the wireless router (LAN ports), nor would I want to do so given the APIPA network tuners. And, Windows 7 seems to misprioritize slower connections in my case.

[+BudMan MVC]

"I've tried forcing 192.168.2/16 but I lose access to the network tuners"

Well that's because that network is 192.168 -- which would look like its on the 192.168.1/24 -- you have the mask wrong.. if you would make it /24 or 255.255.255.0 then it would be a different network 192.168.2.0 and you would be fine.

"So that's really two ways (networks) to access the shared folders on each computer"

Ok -- that has nothing to do with it when you access the shares by IP \\ipaddressofcomputer \\169.254.x.x

If you want to use names - then setup your name resolution to use the 169 addresses, ie you could put the host names in your hosts or lmhosts file to force this if you want. If your machine is using the wrong interface to access the share, its because it resolved the name to the 192 address - so it uses that interface. You can adjust that.

You could also just turn file sharing off on the wireless interface. Under advanced setting under your network connections.

As to the hdhomerun boxes not doing static IP? Is yours the tech version? They do

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic...9307744b65a5e90

But you could just run a dhcp server on the wired side to use a better address than the APIPA range, just set the mask correctly ;) You will need a dhcp server you can set to not hand out a gateway -- off the top very easy dhcp server to use windows software that is free is http://tftpd32.jounin.net/

If your working the way your setup - great.. But its always better to understand the how/why something is working the way it is, etc. So I hope this info helps

[dacm]

Sorry for the belated reply. I didn't see that the thread had more than one page so I missed your reply.

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions...

Ah yes...my 192.168.2/16 experiment was indeed flawed since that network wasn't masked from the 192.168.1/24 network. Thanks for pointing that out.

It would come down to host file adjustments because I don't get to control the share access by IP address in the Windows 7 Media Center interface. The Windows 7 Media Center simply finds the shares you setup using the fastest (slowest in my case -- without manually setting the metrics) network IP connection available to a given share.

I don't think my HDHomeruns are the TECH version, but it's not necessarily a static IP that I'm after. I was under the impression that the HDHomeruns were locked to a 169.254/16 mask but received their specific IP by DHCP. I've observed different IP addresses on a given HDHomerun but always within the 169.254/16 mask. If I can force my HDHomeruns to a 192.168.2/24 network, that would kinda cool.

I've turned off file sharing on the wireless network. I'll have to report back with the results, but thanks for a great suggestion !

So, what's handing out the 169.254/16 DHCP addresses on my current (wired) network? I thought Windows already acted as a DHCP server...? Or are you simply suggesting the freeware DHCP server in order to disable the gateway function? But assuming I already have DHCP function through default Windows function, wouldn't I have to setup internet (gateway) sharing in Windows in order to bridge the gateway from the 192.168.1/24 wireless network to the 169.254/24 wired network? So if Windows is acting as the DHCP, then the gateway would be disabled on the wired network unless I specifically setup internat sharing...right?

But hey, you've been extremely helpful and I've got things working at the moment using metrics. But I did encounter an instance of Windows overriding the metrics recently which caused me to try turning-off file sharing on the wireless network, so this has been a fruitful discussion. I am interested in knowing how each to adjust each component of these networks so I appreciate your inputs.

Edited January 14, 2010 by dacm