Connect to a local network without accessing the internet.
Connect to a local network without accessing the internet.
In my home or office we have two ISPs because of speed, congestion, and reliability problems. For work and gaming I use a slower, less crowded network, while the rest of the house connects to a faster but more congested one. The printer is wired in another room to the main house connection. I found an inexpensive Wi-Fi extender with an Ethernet port, which lets me switch between networks—wirelessly for the printer and via the extender for the rest of the house. Windows sometimes uses the home network for internet traffic, which I don’t want. I only need to print when the internet is down, so I want all traffic through the other network but still be able to print. I tried disabling IPv4 protocol, but it also turned off network printers because Windows blocks them. How can I set up a way to connect to the network without using the internet, so everything goes through the alternative network while still allowing printing?
I pictured you might be able to achieve that, but I’m not entirely sure how. If you could help me out, I’d really value it.
The straightforward answer is to use two NICs—either physical ones or two VLANs on the same NIC—making sure the second one lacks a default gateway. For a reliable setup, a solid router is ideal. The Cisco RV340 certainly handles this, though I think the Linksys dual WAN works too—simply connect both WAN links into it and assign devices to either connection, creating a unified network with a single gateway and two separate internet links. You could also employ two separate VLANs while keeping traffic isolated, but turn on inter-VLAN routing by setting up a DHCP reservation and using IP addresses for the printer. Beyond this, you might opt for a traditional router positioned between them, each with its own IP address, though that adds complexity.
This depends on your setup a bit, but generally you should give it a fixed IP address. Research how to do this for your operating system, make sure it falls within the secondary network’s range but not its DHCP zone, use the correct subnet mask (like 255.255.255.0), and leave the gateway and DNS fields blank. You’ll need the router settings of the secondary network to complete it, but it should function fine. Another idea is some printers support both wired Ethernet and WiFi; if connected via the wired port, you can simply connect to the printer’s WiFi using auto-assigned IPs.
In short, @jec6613 discussed how to assign a static IP address in Windows. Refer to the provided link for details.
It's better to skip the router setup since it requires a lot of effort and extra costs. Otherwise, you can manage routing more easily by setting up policies for low latency and reliable connections with one ISP while using another for other tasks. This approach works well if you already know the necessary IPs or domains. It’s essentially how my router is currently configured.