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My son is living in the attic, and his internet connection is....terrible, to say the least. I bought expensive Deco4 access points, which has improved matters somewhat, but there are many ups and downs in the network speed. We also have (ethernet) powerline adapters, which are more stable, but have a much lower speed.

I was wondering if there is a possibility to combine ethernet + wifi into one connection, for improved stability. Now it is either wifi or ethernet, and I thought, if we can make Windows 10 think that there is only one (virtual) network adapter that combines both connections, maybe that improves the situation somewhat. Is this possible? Suggestions are welcome.

Albin
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Harmen Mesker
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    Run a hardwire Ethernet up to that room. Add an Ethernet switch &/or WiFi access point. Relax. – Tetsujin Oct 17 '20 at 16:48
  • Combining Wired and Wireless into one connection does not work as far as I know. Can you bring Ethernet up to attic (inside a closet or outside close to the wall.? – John Oct 17 '20 at 16:50
  • You mean with a really loooong cable? I think that must be possible. Wife won't be happy with it though. – Harmen Mesker Oct 17 '20 at 17:02
  • An Ethernet cable can run 100 meters so the only apparent issue would be appearance. I hide cables in closets. – John Oct 17 '20 at 17:10
  • Get high grade cable you could even run it up the wall outside. It will be very future-proof. Powerline is terrible if everything isn't on the same ring-main [same fuse on the fuse box/RCD]. – Tetsujin Oct 17 '20 at 17:18
  • If you have a vent or return in the attic, running along the outside of that should be relatively easy. (If it's a straight shot down) – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 17:50
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    Does this answer your question? [Can I use two different internet connections for more speed in Windows 10?](https://superuser.com/questions/1540128/can-i-use-two-different-internet-connections-for-more-speed-in-windows-10) – davidgo Oct 17 '20 at 18:23
  • Also a DUP of https://superuser.com/questions/989306/can-i-combine-wifi-and-ethernet-internet-connections which itself was closed as a DUP with many candidate answers. – davidgo Oct 17 '20 at 18:27
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    @davidgo The other questions seem to talk about two different internet connections (through different routers), as far as I can see. That is different from my situation where I want to combine wifi + ethernet connections that connect through the same network. – Harmen Mesker Oct 17 '20 at 19:09
  • You are right on to second one. The first link is the same as you are asking. While it is possible to combine Ethernet and WiFi, its generally not practical. – davidgo Oct 18 '20 at 01:19
  • Sorry, but opening up a wall running conduit, and repairing the wall is the best option. You want conduit so you can change wires when the need arises. Bought cat 5 network cable and now want cat 7 well with conduit its no problem. – cybernard Oct 18 '20 at 23:13

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Theoretically this is possible (sort of a universal layer 2 load balancer) but you won't be able to do it from within Windows and I actually don't know any product/software that does that. Usually what you do is you just get a connection that is more reliable and/or has a higher data transfer rate, see existing comments for this. The only thing I can add is to use a WLAN mesh if you don't want to run a cable e.g. a repeater etc. there are tons of products out there (personally I would prefer the Ethernet cable as well although make sure to use good equipment/cable, max lengths are only under good conditions or put switches in between).

What you could do is to write a script that measures the quality of the WLAN and wired Ethernet adapter and which ever has the worse performance gets deactivated. Or you could use an existing software that measures the LAN speed at each new location and activate/deactive and choose the adapter manually (you can still activate/deactivate through a script).

Albin
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