If I plug my laptop into a network via an ethernet cord, and have my wifi off, can I mess up the network?

The internet occasionally goes out while im on my laptop, and the office tech says its because im using a laptop. Is this true?
If I plug my laptop into a network via an ethernet cord, and have my wifi off, can I mess up the network?
It's not supposed. I use my laptop through Wifi however when I have to transfer large files, I simply plug an Ethernet cord and transfer my stuff. Then I unplug the cable and I'm back on WiFi.





No trouble at all. Your office tech is wrong.
If I plug my laptop into a network via an ethernet cord, and have my wifi off, can I mess up the network?
Sometimes... yes...





Your computer can become the master browser and mess up browsing for the workgroup or domain.





If you have internet connection sharing enabled on your computer, it will then broadcast that it is a DHCP server and those clients who get your DHCP address use your computer as their gateway.





Your computer can have a fixed IP that is the same as a DHCP address or some one elses fixed address such as a SERVER which causes problems.





Your computer can have the same name as another on the network which can cause problems.





Your network card could be flooding the network with bad packets which cause network problems.





The tech should look at your computer and solve the problem.
Reply:i dont think it has anything to do.. your wired and wireless connections on your laptop are 2 different connections that are free to connect and disconnect from the router... the router should be able to handle any combination of these connected or not... + other computers...





sometimes some cheap router have tendency to bug once in while... if the internet ever stops working after a connection/disconnection... its not a bad idea to try reseting the router! but if your router does that, it is bugging, change it... mine never really bugged like that... in years...





well of course your router can only support a up to a certain amount of connections, but as long as each network card (wired or wifi) gets a different IP address theres not gonna be any problem... and the router never really gets confused and gives the same ip to 2 different computers unless it only has 100 ips available and you have 1000 different ppl connecting on it everyday, then it would have to *re-use some ips but otherwise, in a normal household situation, the router should remember pretty much all the network cards that ever connected to it and already keep an ip on the side for each network card and always give back the same ip as long as its possible to the same connections...





most normal domestic router will allow IPs bwteen 192.168.0.100 and 192.168.0.199 (allowing 100 IPs)
Reply:Technically not.





But if it happened everytime when your laptop hooked up the network, there may be something wrong with your laptop, and need to check the followings.





%26gt;Scan virus/spyware isolatedly from the LAN. Make sure the antivirus definition file is up-to-date and get fixed any virus.


%26gt;Windows fully updated.


%26gt;Check out network settings. If you were using static IP make sure there is no IP conflict with other computers/routers/IP devices in the LAN, or just simply set to "IP obtain automatically". And also, no same computer name as yours in the LAN.





Alan Yang @ Iron Oak IT inc., Calgary, AB


http//www.ironoakit.com