No ethernet port

slowburner

2 little questions. On average, does a hardwired connection via the ethernet port perform better than airport ? My ethernet port stopped working after lightening struck very near by (for the 2nd time). It's still under the applecare warranty - should it be covered?

Greentree_uk

No. Apple won't cover this under warranty. you should be claiming this under your house insurance.

slowburner

Greentree_uk wrote: »

No. Apple won't cover this under warranty. you should be claiming this under your house insurance.

That saves a wasted journey, thanks. I rang Apple and said I had an ethernet port which wasn't working (didn't mention the lightening) and they said I would have to deliver it at my expense to the nearest Apple people - that's 60 miles + away. It's great to know that I would have been wasting time and money.

NullZer0

slowburner wrote: »

On average, does a hardwired connection via the ethernet port perform better than airport ?

It does:)

Greentree_uk

if you want an ethernet port for connectivity to say a router then you can get an apple usb to ethernet adapter for €29

slowburner

Greentree_uk wrote: »

if you want an ethernet port for connectivity to say a router then you can get an apple usb to ethernet adapter for €29

Does that mean I'd be converting a usb port into an ethernet port, and connecting to the router from the usb? Would performance improve?

greglo23

This would work as a new ethernet port. http://store.apple.com/ie/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

Look at the answer at the bottom

Greentree_uk

Performance will improve if your wireless signal is poor. and if you require low latency. but if router is beside mac, little point. unless for the latter.

slowburner

Thanks Greentree. Surely low latency (I had to Google the term!) is worth achieving? The router is beside the mac but I think I'll try the usb adapter anyway and see how it goes. Thanks all - appreciate your input.

Liameter

For the record, "lightening" is something that reduces weight. The noisy electrical phenomenon is called "lightning" (no "e").

acous

slowburner wrote: »

Surely low latency (I had to Google the term!) is worth achieving?

The difference between wired and wireless latency for me is about 0.001 seconds, not much Throughput is a different story, you should get better speeds copying files between computers in the house using a wired connection.

slowburner

Some months later........I picked up an ethernet to USB adapter.
Trying to set it up, these are what I get






When I switch off Airport, I have no connection at all. I configured IPv4 manually and it seemed to work briefly. I've checked all connections and changed cables - all seem ok.
What does this dummy need to do?
Help :eek:

mathepac

slowburner wrote: »

...

...

"Private Account, No Access" on clicking either link

Stainless_Steel

Are you sure the adapter you bought is mac compatible?

Check the box.

mathepac

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Are you sure the adapter you bought is mac compatible? ...

It's just a dumb adapter surely, no software and no drivers needed, USB 2 female connecter at one end, RJ45 socket at the other, ne c'est pas?

Stainless_Steel

mathepac wrote: »

It's just a dumb adapter surely, no software and no drivers needed, USB 2 female connecter at one end, RJ45 socket at the other, ne c'est pas?

No it cant be just a dumb adapter. A dumb adapter would not give a working Ethernet port. It's a different hardware interface.

OP what is the make and model of the adapter? I know for example that most USB WiFi adapters are not mac compatible.

mathepac

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

No it cant be just a dumb adapter. ...

Of course not silly me, thanks. Apple pre-install theirs in the OS which threw me as they ship no software with their adapters. This link might help OP or others - http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html

Stainless_Steel

Thats a good and interesting link.

If it were me and that workaround failed id get the apple adapter.

But I do dislike such adapters. You can't convert a 480mbps USB port to a Gigabit Ethernet port. But sure better than noubt.

SouperComputer

All depends on how busy your wireless network is, how often you move big files (across computers in your network) and how much you care about the time it takes to move them.

In terms of outright performance the difference is night and day between a wired LAN and even the best of N connections. Consider 100Mb wired nets you about 70Mb after protocol and other overheads are considered. With wireless, if you have encryption and a couple of other clients on the network you could be looking at only moving 40% "real data" compared to the quoted bandwidth. Meaning that N, in a vacuum with no other interference is probably going to get you 40Mb/s, half duplex, on a good day, maybe, if you are lucky.

Stainless_Steel

I've actually achieved about 90Mbps with my wifi setup. That's real throughout when copying large files.

slowburner

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

No it cant be just a dumb adapter. A dumb adapter would not give a working Ethernet port. It's a different hardware interface.

OP what is the make and model of the adapter? I know for example that most USB WiFi adapters are not mac compatible.

This one

slowburner

mathepac wrote: »

"Private Account, No Access" on clicking either link

Oh sorry, these are not supposed to be links - I upload photos etc. using Pix.ie. Is that what you mean?

slowburner

mathepac wrote: »

Of course not silly me, thanks. Apple pre-install theirs in the OS which threw me as they ship no software with their adapters. This link might help OP or others - http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html

Many thanks mathepac for the link. And thanks to everyone who helped
I downloaded and installed the driver from sustworks and the USB ethernet is now working.
Happy Days.

mathepac

Phew. I'm glad we could team together to help a fellow poster and keep our strike rate up.

slowburner

Bleedin' thing went again - I'm back to the Airport

mathepac

Have you tried running Software Update with the adapter plugged in?

slowburner

Yep.
Software's up to date.
It's working again now - could there be a problem with the ISP with all these high winds?

Stainless_Steel

If you're getting the "network cable unplugged" message in the network config then it's not an ISP issue.

The link to the adapter you bought wont load. Is it an apple one?

slowburner

Strange that the link wouldn't load. Yes it's the Apple USB Ethernet adapter.

Stainless_Steel

Then it shouldn't require anything to be installed for it to work.

Are you running Lion? What laptop model? Are you sure the USB port works consistently?

SouperComputer

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

I've actually achieved about 90Mbps with my wifi setup. That's real throughout when copying large files.

So you saw 11-12MB/s in finder when moving the files?

slowburner

I'm using a 2.66GHz iMac with OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

NomadicMe

Since you had an ethernet port, it means you are not using Air and I think the Apple adapter is configured to only work with the Air. Perhaps the best thing to do is get a techie friend to change the ethernet port itself? I got a mate of mine to do it and it worked perfectly after that!

Stainless_Steel

SouperComputer wrote: »

So you saw 11-12MB/s in finder when moving the files?

Not in finder. In windows yes. Airport extreme router running on the 5GHz band.

slowburner

NomadicMe wrote: »

Since you had an ethernet port, it means you are not using Air and I think the Apple adapter is configured to only work with the Air. Perhaps the best thing to do is get a techie friend to change the ethernet port itself? I got a mate of mine to do it and it worked perfectly after that!

The network preference panel tells me I am using airport - that's the only way I can get online now.