I was having a heck of a time with my little tablet connecting to some wireless connections using the same SSID. Here’s how I fixed it…
If you need to change a wireless connection profile, you can usually do it by following these steps:
- Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. (If you’re using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
- Tap or click Network, tap or click Connections, and then tap or click the connection you want to change.
- On the page that appears, make the changes you want.
Some tasks, such as deleting a profile, must be done at the command prompt. To do these tasks, open Command Prompt, and then type the appropriate command from the following table.
- Open Command Prompt by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Command Prompt in the search box, and then tapping or clicking Command Prompt.
|
TASK
|
INSTRUCTIONS
|
|---|---|
|
Delete a profile |
At the command prompt, type: netsh wlan delete profile name=”ProfileName” |
|
Show all wireless profiles on the PC |
At the command prompt, type: netsh wlan show profiles |
|
Show a security key |
At the command prompt, type: netsh wlan show profile name=“ProfileName” key=clear |
|
Move a network up in the priority list |
Connecting to a new network and choosing Connect automatically will place it at the top of the list. |
|
Stop automatically connecting to a network within range |
Tap or click the network in the network list, and then click Disconnect. |
|
Stop automatically connecting to a network that’s out of range |
At the command prompt, type: netsh wlan set profileparameter name=”ProfileName” connectionmode=manual |
How Windows determines connection priority
Windows usually connects to networks in this order:
1. Ethernet
2. Wi‑Fi
3. Mobile broadband
When you connect to a new Wi‑Fi network, it’s added to the list, and Windows will connect to that network while it’s in range. If you connect to another Wi‑Fi network while in range of the first network, Windows will prefer the second network over the first one.
Mobile broadband networks are treated differently. If you manually connect to a mobile broadband network when there is a Wi‑Fi network in range, the mobile broadband network is preferred just for that session. The next time you’re in range of both networks, the Wi‑Fi network is preferred. This is because mobile broadband networks typically are metered.
If you want to force your PC to prefer a mobile broadband network over Wi‑Fi, tap or click the Wi‑Fi network in the list of networks, and then click Disconnect. Windows won’t automatically connect to that Wi‑Fi network.