Question How to get an uninterrupted internet connection ?

[smalltech]

Hello,

I have a home internet and a sim card that has mobile data. I have plugged in the lan cable into my PC motherboard and my PC has internet connection using wired lan cable. I switched on my phone mobile hotspot and connect phone mobile hotspot to my pc. At the Windows 10 "Internet Access" panel, I see the word [Connected] at lan cable row and [Connected] at wifi row

https://imgur.com/7qXmDrk

View: https://i.imgur.com/7qXmDrk.png


Q1. Does my PC get the internet signal from lan cable or mobile hotspot?

Q2. If the lan cable internet source is faulty (e.g. modem/router/ONT is faulty), does my PC automatically switch to use my phone mobile hotspot to get internet signal so I will not experience any disconnection?

Q3. What is the best way to have uninterrupted internet connection? I want to use lan cable to get internet at home and if my lan cable internet source is faulty or disconnected (due to equipment faulty or internet maintenance) I want my phone mobile hotspot to automatic supply internet signal to my PC so the internet connection is uninterrupted.

Thanks

 

[Aeacus]

Q1. Does my PC get the internet signal from lan cable or mobile hotspot?

Q2. If the lan cable internet source is faulty (e.g. modem/router/ONT is faulty), does my PC automatically switch to use my phone mobile hotspot to get internet signal so I will not experience any disconnection?

Q3. What is the best way to have uninterrupted internet connection? I want to use lan cable to get internet at home and if my lan cable internet source is faulty or disconnected (due to equipment faulty or internet maintenance) I want my phone mobile hotspot to automatic supply internet signal to my PC so the internet connection is uninterrupted.

All these can be answered easily;

Pull the network cable from your PC and look if internet connection remains.

But to answer the questions;
Q1 - Probably both. If so, then PC uses only one at a time (most likely defaults to wired connection).
Q2 - Pull the cable and see for yourself.
Q3 - Best way... hmm... direct connection to the satellite. While the dish you have at your house, is backed up by UPS/batteries, so, when power goes out in the area, your dish is still powered and you still maintain the internet connection directly to the satellite.

 

[cruisetung]

There is no such thing no interrupt internet, there is always a delay to let the pc /router to detect internet failure, it takes time (probably over 10 seconds to a minute) to fail over and switch to the other still available internet. If you are downloading a file, you definitely will have to start over since your IP will change.

Ethernet in theory has higher priority than wifi by default but not guaranteed.

To set priority manually
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-priority-order-network-adapters-windows-10

Alternatively, I would suggest to get a ethernet dual wan router (tplink has several) and a wifi extender.

1. connect dual wan router's wan port A to internet ISP
2. connect the pc to the wifi extender and set it up so it will connect to smartphone's hotspot automatically
3. unplug wifi extender and connect it to dual wan router's wan port B

 

[kanewolf]

Hello,

I have a home internet and a sim card that has mobile data. I have plugged in the lan cable into my PC motherboard and my PC has internet connection using wired lan cable. I switched on my phone mobile hotspot and connect phone mobile hotspot to my pc. At the Windows 10 "Internet Access" panel, I see the word [Connected] at lan cable row and [Connected] at wifi row

https://imgur.com/7qXmDrk

View: https://i.imgur.com/7qXmDrk.png


Q1. Does my PC get the internet signal from lan cable or mobile hotspot?

Q2. If the lan cable internet source is faulty (e.g. modem/router/ONT is faulty), does my PC automatically switch to use my phone mobile hotspot to get internet signal so I will not experience any disconnection?

Q3. What is the best way to have uninterrupted internet connection? I want to use lan cable to get internet at home and if my lan cable internet source is faulty or disconnected (due to equipment faulty or internet maintenance) I want my phone mobile hotspot to automatic supply internet signal to my PC so the internet connection is uninterrupted.

Thanks

The simplest way to determine where your PC is getting data is to use the task manager. Start a download. which network device shows traffic ?
"Faulty" is a difficult question. There are LOTS of degrees of faulty. The router's power supply fails and it is OFF, then the PC would use the hotspot. If the link from the router to the ISP has issues? No, the PC won't use the hotspot.
The best way to get uninterrupped (although as above, it may still have a few second interruption) is to have a router that can have multiple WAN connections. Let the network hardware deal with it. That is what it is designed for. Windows is not designed for smart network management.

 

[bill001g]

By default pc should prefer a ethernet connection. It is based on what is called a metric. Generally the fastest connection has the lowest metric but it can be confusing.

It is technically impossible to uninterrupted internet connection....unless you are some huge company. The problem is the 2 different internet connection have different IP addresses. If you change the IP it causes all kind of issues. Key would be any site you log into would detect the IP change as some kind of hacking attempt and terminate the session. Even sites that you don't log into has cookies hidden on the machine that will detect the change. You will generally see those stupid captcha challenges when this happens.

The only way to accomplish something like this if you are not a corporate user who can own IP addresses is to use a vpn site. You would form 2 vpn tunnels to your own vpn server. This server would hide the fact that your real ip changed. Both sessions would use the vpn servers address. If you really want to do something like this it is possible using routing protocols but is not a beginner project. It would still cause a couple second outage even in the best case but the IP address would not change which is much worse issue.

 

[Aeacus]

There is no such thing no interrupt internet

It is technically impossible to uninterrupted internet connection....

Not impossible.

As i said above, direct connection to the satellite is only way for uninterrupted connection.
E.g Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/

All that is needed for Starlink internet connection, is user side hardware, which consists of user terminal with a dish. Power it on and point it towards the sky. As long as user terminal and dish are powered - there is uninterrupted internet connection.

Only 2 ways where the internet connection would be interrupted, are:
1. User terminal and dish looses input power.
That is remedied easily by UPS and/or backup generator.
2. The satellite falls from the sky.
Since there are thousands of Starlink satellites in the sky, one dropping down won't affect the connectivity. Unless all of them drop down. But how likely that would be?

With direct connection to the satellite, OP isn't bound by the ground based ISP and it's issues.
E.g power goes out in the ISP terminal switch (e.g natural disaster or power outage in wide area) - no internet connection to OP's house, despite OP's house having the power. Or when ISP does maintenance and brings down the internet for few hours.
Even mobile/cellular internet (via SIM card) isn't safe for interruptions. It is slower than broadband (cable) and uplink (satellite), and natural disasters can bring down the cellular network as well (knocking over cellular masts). Then, there's the jamming issue with cellular internet. There are jammers out there, that disrupt the mobile signal, and thus, break the connection to the cellular network.

Uplink to the satellite is the most secure/robust way, since it eliminates all the problems of cellular and broadband internet connection. Sure, it costs more than other two, but convenience costs money. Uplink to the satellite can be used even in the most remote places on Earth. In the middle of desert or sea, far from civilization. Or in other words: in the middle of nowhere, next to nothing, in a godforsaken place.

 

[USAFRet]

Not impossible.

The "impossible" relates to switching between different providers, with zero interruption.

If you accept a singular provider in LEO, then...maybe.

 

[Aeacus]

The "impossible" relates to switching between different providers, with zero interruption.

If you accept a singular provider in LEO, then...maybe.

As i've read the topic, OP is trying to get uninterrupted internet connection and currently is looking to use both, broadband (cable) and cellular (mobile), whereby one backs up another. I just presented 3rd option, which gets rid of land based internet connection issues and achieves what OP is looking for, the most efficient way.

Natural disaster is one likely option, that can ravage the area near OP, bringing down cellular masts and cutting power, thus, OP would be without internet connection regardless (since both networks are down). But with Low Earth Orbit satellites, natural disasters doesn't affect those and would give OP the result they need.

 

[USAFRet]

As i've read the topic, OP is trying to get uninterrupted internet connection and currently is looking to use both, broadband (cable) and cellular (mobile), whereby one backs up another. I just presented 3rd option, which gets rid of land based internet connection issues and achieves what OP is looking for, the most efficient way.

Natural disaster is one likely option, that can ravage the area near OP, bringing down cellular masts and cutting power, thus, OP would be without internet connection regardless (since both networks are down). But with Low Earth Orbit satellites, natural disasters doesn't affect those and would give OP the result they need.

Sure.
If you want to be subject to the cost and speed of satellite....uninterrupted.
Until something weird happens, that we've not yet forseen.

 

[Aeacus]

If you want to be subject to the cost and speed of satellite....uninterrupted.

Thing is, for not all people the high internet down/up speed matters. For others, uninterrupted connection is far more important. E.g when trading on stock market - there, you need to have uninterrupted connection at all times, so you can buy/sell whenever the price is right. Internet speed doesn't matter.

 

[USAFRet]

Thing is, for not all people the high internet down/up speed matters. For others, uninterrupted connection is far more important. E.g when trading on stock market - there, you need to have uninterrupted connection at all times, so you can buy/sell whenever the price is right. Internet speed doesn't matter.

If you are trading at a level where a short term interruption counts, speed absolutely counts.

But we've gone far afield of the original question.

 

[cruisetung]

Fact is if Starlink satellite falls from sky or malfunctions, the Starlink dish will have to realign itself to another satellite and it takes several minutes. you are going to experience a lot of data loss during this period.

A single Starlink connection with UPS will not solve the problem.