Are you worried about leaving your computer connected to the internet every time you turn your computer on? Tired of getting up to disconnect your LAN cable from the back of your computer, or to turn off your router just to disconnect your machine from the internet when you are not using it? Here’s a handy tip so you can enable or disable your internet connection right from your desktop.

Here’s how to do it on Windows XP…

1) From the START menu, select Settings->Control Panel (or just open the Control Panel)
2) In the Control Panel, double click ‘Network Connections’
3) In Network Connections, drag and drop the icon for the connection that you want to be able to Enable/Disable onto your desktop. Usually this will be the “Local Area Connection” icon if you connect to a LAN via a cable (if you do not have a wireless connection)
OR
it may say “Wireless Network Connection”, if you connect to the internet using a wireless network.

Which ever connection you want to be able to control, just drag its icon over to your desktop. A COPY of it should be created on your desktop, leaving the original in Network Connections.

Now when you want to disable your connection, just right click the connection icon and select ‘Disable’.
When you want to enable it again, right click the icon and select ‘Enable’.

That’s it!