Dual Ethernet using 2 TB3 to Gigabit adapters ? Any advantage ?

[4sallypat]

So at work, I use wired ethernet for everything intranet and internet - even my 12" Retina Macbook is using a USB-C to Ethernet adapter.

I just received the MBP 16" from B&H and since it's more a desktop use - I wanted to try this out.

Since it has 4 TB3 ports, I thought why not connect 2 of the TB3 ports to 2 ethernet ports at the same time - the other 2 ports will be for power and external display...

Ethernet ports are on 1GBps individual lines while they ride on a 10Gbps backbone to the ISP.
Each ethernet port has effective data at about 500Mbps each..

Any advantage to doing this is it a waste of ports ??
Can I configure the 2 ports to increase throughput or separate incoming/outgoing data ?

Anker & Belkin Ethernet adapters connected to the MBP 16:

 

[profcutter]

If your work lets you configure them that way, give it a try, I suppose. The question is if you can create a bonded connection in network preferences. This will be dependent on your network switch, if it supports bonded connections.

 

[littlepud]

You can’t use one adapter for upstream and one for downstream specifically. The details of “why” are a little bit too involved for most people who are not network engineers, but it involves how the Ethernet and ARP protocols work.

That being said, it is possible to combine multiple adapters so that they appear to the system (and to the network) as a single 2 Gbps adapter, provided your network infrastructure (adapters, network switching) support it.

Combine Ethernet ports into a virtual port on Mac

If you have a Mac with more than one Ethernet port, you can combine them into one virtual Ethernet port.

support.apple.com

 

[4sallypat]

Instead of using 2 Gigabit Ethernet adapters for the MBP 16", has anyone used the Sonnett
Twin10G (Thunderbolt 3 Edition)
Dual-port 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt 3 Adapter

 

[robvas]

10G is expensive, you need 10G adapters in your servers, you need a 10G switch...

You can team/bond/LAG the connections, Apple even has an article on how to do it - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/combine-ethernet-ports-a-virtual-port-mac-mchlp2798/mac

The catch is that a single connection can only use one of the ethernet ports. So if you were just downloading a file from a server, you would still be limited to 1GB even if you had two adapters.

However, you could have one program download over one connection, and then another program download over the other ethernet connection! Of course, you would need to download from two different servers or a server that also had dual connections.

 

[littlepud]

What are you running on a laptop that would require (or benefit from) a 10 Gbps LAN connection?

 

[profcutter]

Why does it matter? If they’re transferring large files, faster is better. If they’re trying to edit video or audio files over a network, that’s another use case. Or maybe they’re just curious?

 

[littlepud]

Why does it matter? If they’re transferring large files, faster is better. If they’re trying to edit video or audio files over a network, that’s another use case. Or maybe they’re just curious?

As @robvas mentioned earlier, LACP can only send a TCP connection down a single physical interface. Total available bandwidth goes up, but throughout for a single TCP connection remains at 1 Gbps. Only tasks that use multiple TCP streams can leverage the increased bandwidth.

For some workflows, this will be fine (ex: running multiple VMs). For other workflows, this will not accomplish the OP’s goal (ex: large file transfer, video editing off a NAS).

In the latter case, the OP would be better off by using a single 10 Gbps adapter.

There may also be switching considerations, depending on the infrastructure the OP is attempting to connect to.

I work as a telecom/networking sales architect, and when a client tells me "I want X device or Y technology", quite frequently the most productive response is "Mr. Customer, what's your use case and what are you trying to accomplish?"

If @4sallypat is able to share more details about the intended use case, we'll be able to provide a better recommendation that will satisfy his needs.
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Instead of using 2 Gigabit Ethernet adapters for the MBP 16", has anyone used the Sonnet Twin10G (Thunderbolt 3 Edition) Dual-port 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt 3 Adapter?

I obviously haven't used it, but based on the product page on the Sonnet site, it should generally work without any issues provided you have the 10GbE network infrastructure to support it. The device appears to be a small TB3 to PCI-E chassis (much like an eGPU, but bus-powered) that includes a typical Aquantia-based or Intel-based 10GbE PCI-E adapter.

 

[profcutter]

Well, that’s a well reasoned and appropriate response! Thanks for the detailed explanation.

 

[mikerahl]

You can’t use one adapter for upstream and one for downstream specifically. The details of “why” are a little bit too involved for most people who are not network engineers, but it involves how the Ethernet and ARP protocols work.

That being said, it is possible to combine multiple adapters so that they appear to the system (and to the network) as a single 2 Gbps adapter, provided your network infrastructure (adapters, network switching) support it.

Combine Ethernet ports into a virtual port on Mac

If you have a Mac with more than one Ethernet port, you can combine them into one virtual Ethernet port.

support.apple.com

Is it possible to configure, in Mac OS, an etherchannel/port-channel? Some routers I think do support that.

 

[littlepud]

Is it possible to configure, in Mac OS, an etherchannel/port-channel? Some routers I think do support that.

I think we’re talking about the same thing.

 

[jagooch]

1) Buy a 10G ethernet adapter
2) Buy a really , really long ethernet cable
3) Buy 10Gb ethernet adapter for your NAS
4) Run cable from your laptop to you NAS.

Mission accomplished!

Some actually did this in another thread. They added a non-routable IP to the interfaces on both ends, so that traffic to/from the NAS only went through the 10Gb interface.