I want to use my phone’s hotspot in case my Ethernet connection goes down. Is there any way to connect both, but only use the hotspot when Ethernet is not working?
I live in Turkey where the power goes out a lot. I have a battery for my PC, but the internet cuts out too. When I’m playing games, I don’t want to lose connection and mess things up for my team.
Windows prefers the wired connection. Connect your Wi-Fi after turning on your PC, and keep the hotspot connected. Some apps or games may not work properly when switching between connections and will require a restart. Others like Discord will automatically switch to the active connection.
Windows will switch to Wi-Fi if the Ethernet connection drops out.
@Bliss
Okay, so I started my PC, opened the hotspot, and connected it. Now both Ethernet and hotspot are connected.
Are you sure it only uses Ethernet until it goes down?
Edit: I tested it, and it uses Wi-Fi first even when both are connected.
@Cary
It should be using Ethernet first. You can check your network adapter status for data usage. All data should go through your Ethernet connection.
In the start menu, type ‘Control Panel’, open it, and go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. Double-click both the Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections to check the ‘Bytes Sent’ and ‘Bytes Received’. You should see a big increase in packets for Ethernet when using data, like watching a video.
@Bliss
The bytes on the Wi-Fi connection go up, and on Ethernet, they only go up slightly.
Cary said:
@Bliss
The bytes on the Wi-Fi connection go up, and on Ethernet, they only go up slightly.
Yep, that’s probably just status updates between your PC and Hotspot. It shouldn’t use much data.
@Bliss
But the bytes on Wi-Fi go up a lot—like thousands per second—while Ethernet barely moves. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
I also tried it while gaming, and it connects through the Wi-Fi hotspot even though Ethernet is connected.
@Cary
I must’ve misunderstood. Here’s a tutorial on how to fix that using PowerShell:
Cary said:
@Bliss
The bytes on the Wi-Fi connection go up, and on Ethernet, they only go up slightly.
In Windows 10:
Open Network Connections and right-click on the Wi-Fi adapter. Go to Properties, then Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), click Properties, then Advanced. Uncheck Automatic Metric and enter a number like 1000.
Do the same for Ethernet but with a lower value (e.g., 1).
This adjusts the priority of your connections. If you want to verify it, open Command Prompt and type ‘route print’. Look for the line with destination 0.0.0.0. The adapter with the lowest metric should be first.
@Declan
I did that with IPv4 and it didn’t work. I tried it with IPv6, and now it works. I think the numbers were too low or something. Anyway, it works now. Thanks!
Cary said:
@Declan
I did that with IPv4 and it didn’t work. I tried it with IPv6, and now it works. I think the numbers were too low or something. Anyway, it works now. Thanks!
Yeah, Windows doesn’t always apply the metric values correctly, so I usually set them really high to make sure it works.
Yes, you can do this…
First, connect your PC to both Ethernet and the hotspot.
Go to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings. Identify your Ethernet and hotspot connections.
Set Ethernet as the main connection by giving it a lower metric value. Right-click the Ethernet adapter, go to Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) > Properties > Advanced, and uncheck Automatic Metric. Enter a number like 10. For the hotspot, do the same but use a higher number like 20.
This way, your PC will use Ethernet first. If it goes down, it will switch automatically to the hotspot without needing manual changes.
@Roy4
Still uses Wi-Fi first, even though I set Ethernet metric to 10 and Wi-Fi to 20.
@Roy4
It’s working now. Thanks!
What you’re looking for is a failover connection, which I’ve never really looked into for personal use. Some UK internet providers offer a 4G/5G device for this, but it takes a while to kick in.
I’m not sure about personal devices, but I’ve blocked both LAN and Wi-Fi from being connected at the same time in my work environment for security reasons, so they can’t access both our internal systems and unsecured Wi-Fi at the same time.