My laptop has both wireless (802.11G) and wired (10/100/1000) network connections. I have a wireless connection to my home network (WRT54G running Tomato custom firmware) but when I am at my desk I plug in an Ethernet cord. I want to make sure that when I am plugged in, that connection is used for shared files, etc., without having to manual disable the wireless connection. Is this possible? -Ryan Adams http://members.cox.net/rtadams89/

It normally is the ip ranges set both in the the use of ip address along with the subnet masks that determine the correct route. On the lan if you have a private ip you wouldn't need to use a gateway address. For example. On your lan you could use 10.x.x.x with almost any subnet mask but lets use 255.255.255.0. Use ranges of IP's from 10.x.y.2 though 10.x.y.20 and reserve .1 for hub or router. Configure firewalls to have trusted on that range. Wan could use either (prefered) 192.x.x.x and nat'ed or use public ip with correct netmask and gateway. Address shares by \\ipaddress\sharename I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

You could set the metric to a lower or higher value of either network connection.

Windows should default to the fastest interface. That would be your lan connection. Simple test. Connect via both network interfaces. Start a large file transfer to the server. Disable the wireless. If the file transfer doesn't stop you know you are on the wired connection. Since the question you ask pertains to the preferred interface and not routing, metric does not come into play nor does editing your gateway. Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search