How do I disconnect from Wireless to use wired connection?

Question

Hi - I'm new to this and I apologize if this question is ridiculously easy.
I am using a cable modem in which I have plugged my WRT160Nv2 wireless router. I am supporting three computers here in my home; my laptop (both wired and wireless), my daughters laptop (wireless only), and my desktop (wired only).
Everything works great and I have to give all the credit to CISCO and the excellent software which automatically solves every connection problem that comes up.
My laptop and desktop are connected to the wireless router via cable.
My question is strictly about my laptop. When I leave my office in the house and go into another room, I establish the wireless connection. Now I am back in my home office room, I want to use my wired connection. How do I do this? Do I need to disable my wireless connection so that my wired connection takes over? Again, I do have my laptop connected to the wireless router via cat5.
I want to do this strictly for the speed of the connection. I've read that a wired connection is double if not more in Mbps.
This laptop is running Win XP Pro, SP3.
I hope this furnishes enough info to assist in an answer.
Thanks in advance.
John
P.S.. I really do want to educate myself regarding the equipment I am using and not have to ask such basic questions. Are there any books or websites you can recommend that can start me out and go as technical as I choose to?

Answer 1

Windows by default uses the fastest connection possible. If you have a wireless and wired connection active at the same time it depends on how fast both connections are rated. Wireless connections tend to change depending on the distance. Wireless 802.11g goes up to 54 Mbit/s. Wireless 802.11n can go up to some 300 Mbit/s. Wired connections are usually either gigabit ethernet (1000 Mbit/s) or fastethernet (100 Mbit/s).
Thus, which is picked depends on your computer. You should check the connection status of both connections in the network connections control panel. It shows you the current wireless and wired speed (the latter won't change of course). Very often, the wired connection is preferred to the wireless connection. Now with 802.11n connections the wireless connection is preferred if your wired connection is only fastethernet.
As your WRT160Nv2 has only FastEthernet LAN ports you have to check how fast the wireless connection is. If you have a 802.11n wireless adapter in your laptop it may show up the wireless connection faster then 100 Mbit/s. Depending on the setting it may change occassionally between 54 Mbit/s and speeds higher then 100 Mbit/s which would lead Windows to swap connections. If you see that problem it is better to switch off the wireless in the laptop while you have a wired connection...
A wired connection is more reliable and stable then a wireless connection. With wireless you can have interference. Thus, even though a wired connection may be slower then a wireless one you may prefer to use the wired connection anyway. And some people prefer to turn off the wireless to avoid radiation.
To sum up: usually you don't have to switch off the wireless, unless you experience problems because of the mentioned changing speeds of the wireless connection. The computer will always only use one connection. Not both.