Quickly Change Network Service Order

[art-fanatic]

Hi,
I have an ethernet connection to my Macs dock when I work from home. Unfortunately, sometimes my home internet has too much latency for smooth video conferencing. (NBN in Australia uses a butchered mix of old and new infrastructure. For some homes who are on the old ADSL or coaxial networks it can be pretty dodgy, especially when it rains and the pits fill up with water like it has been in Sydney). If I am having difficulty with my connection, I can use a pocket wifi 4G router or tether off my iPhone via wifi or usb. The issue is that my Mac will still prioritise ethernet. It would be a pain to manually disconnect the ethernet cable. Currently I manually go into Network preferences and re-arrange the service order. However, I am wondering if anyone has seen or used a menu bar tool that could let me quickly re-order the network service order or select a specific connection to use? I saw that Ethernet Status can show me which connection I am currently using, which would be helpful, however I am keen to see if I can quickly switch on the fly.

 

[kryten2]

Don't known about a menu bar tool. You can do this yourself.

 

[chabig]

What you want is already built in to macOS. In System Preferences > Network, you do this by creating "Locations".

Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support

Use the network location feature in macOS to quickly switch between different sets of network settings.

support.apple.com

 

[DJLC]

You should be able to do this by using "Locations." These can be quickly selected in the Apple menu at the top left.

To create — go to System Preferences > Network. You'll see a Location drop-down at the top, and it's likely set to "Automatic" right now. Consider "Automatic" your default with Ethernet prioritized. Click the drop-down and select "Edit Locations" to add a new location. I'd suggest creating a new one named "4Gonly" or something like that. Once the new Location is created, switch to it in that same drop-down. Edit your service order (or even remove Ethernet entirely from the list of services). Click Apply to save + apply. These changes only impact the Location you have selected.

Once this is done, you can use the Location selector in the Apple Menu to quickly change your service order from any app. Keep in mind this may disrupt your network connection for 5-10 seconds. Zoom and Teams will drop briefly before reconnecting you to an in-progress meeting.