Using wired and wireless simultaneously

Question

I am on a FIOS network, and a wired connection is available. However, printer has just moved off-location and is only available (on the same network). I have added a wireless card to the computer (Windows 7) so that I can print. I want the wired connection for speed, but can't use the printer except on WiFi. How can I accomplish both?

Answer 1

You'll need to add a static route for the printer.

Make sure that there is no default gateway defined in the network properties of the wifi card (you may need to use a static IP address to accomplish this, so you'd need to organise one with the administrator).

Now nothing goes out of wifi except what is on the same subnet as the wifi network. To get the printer traffic to go out of the wifi interface, add a static route at the command line:

 route add /p [printer ip] mask 255.255.255.255 [ip of wifi default gateway]

The /p will make the route survive a reboot.

If the printer is on the same subnet as the wifi network, then you won't need the route, you just need to remove the default gateway from the wifi interface.