Hello! I'll try to be concise: I have an SMC wireless router, a laptop with wireless card (802.11b), and a docking station with ethernet port. I want the laptop to use the (faster) ethernet connection when docked, but I want the wireless card to kick in when I undock. I thought I could "bridge the network connections" but that causes the wireless to not work. The docking station ethernet works fine bridged or unbridged. Wireless works fine unbridged. However, wireless does not receive any packets when bridged even though it is getting a wireless signal with 99% strength/quality. The setup actually works unbriged--ethernet is used when docked and wireless is used when undocked--*but* I'd prefer exactly one IP address and one network icon in the tray rather than two.... Am I expecting too much? Any advice is appreciated! Other info: I have Admin priviliges, I'm (currently) using DHCP, I have disabled my router's firewall/MAC filtering, and I'm not using XP's firewall. WEP is enabled though, and I'm (currently) using Windows to "handle my wireless connections."

Why don't you just go into Internet Explorer (seems like an odd place to make this distinction) and click through tools, then options, and finally the Connections tab. Once there you should be able to tell the computer to use (presumably) the wireless card when there is no network connection.

Those Connections listed only include dial-up and VPN. Thanks for responding, though! I think the issue the large speed difference between the two connections or my not fully understanding what it means to "bridge two connections." The original network bridge had a speed of 100 Mbps (docking station speed). I deleted it and recreated it and got a brigde with a speed of 11 Mbps (wireless card speed). Not sure how it (arbitrairly?) chose the speed. I'll just not use the bridge. The only annoyance it hiding/showing the network tray icons the way I want :-)

I need a clarification. Do you want to use the wireless connection only when you undock your laptop (and loose the ethernet connection), and not until then OR do you want to use both the wireless connection and ethernet conenction? The only reason for doing this (bridging) I can see is, assuming the wireless access point is on a different network, and there are important network resources that you cannot do without from your ethernet network. Otherwise the ethernet will transfer data, work better, bla bla bla than the wireless. Sounds like ditching the bridge is a good plan, unless like I said you need both networks available.

Hi, awball. I want to use (only) the ethernet when docked and (only) the wireless when undocked. I read more about bridging and it appears bridging is designed for connecting two different networks. I didn't realize this at the time. (I just have one small home network.) XP automagically does what I want when unbridged, and I have no complaints (except for hiding/showing multiple network tray icons).

I (finally) found an answer to my own quetion. I'll post it for the archives: Use Hardware Profiles