Dual Gigabit Speed with two Gigabit Ports?

[eyepea]

I have a current model MacMini and also have an Apple Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet Adapter I use occasionally with my MacBook Air.

I have heard that you can aggregate two Gigabit ethernet ports in OSX so that you get dual Gigabit speed. I heard this from a MacBook Pro user who has two Gigibit ports (totally unreliable in his comments though). I believe the aggregation results in one IP at 2 Gigabit speed? So if I plug a CAT6 cable into the ethernet on my MM and one via the Thunderbolt adapter into the Thunderbolt port will OSX aggregate them automatically?

I don't want to simply have two IPs (on for each) as this would not achieve the desired outcome of '2 Gigabit' speed. Yes?

I use an Airport Extreme (current model) so I would assume if OSX allowed for this then it would at the very least work with the AAE?

My main thought on why this would not work is that my MM goes through a Gigabit switch to get to the AAE even though all the cabling is CAT6a. So I am guessing it would only work (at the very least if the AAE supports this) if I plugged the two CAT6a cables from my MM directly into two of the Gigabit ports on the back of the AAE.

Any ideas if this can work.

IP

 

[itickings]

I have heard that you can aggregate two Gigabit ethernet ports in OSX so that you get dual Gigabit speed. I heard this from a MacBook Pro user who has two Gigibit ports (totally unreliable in his comments though). I believe the aggregation results in one IP at 2 Gigabit speed? So if I plug a CAT6 cable into the ethernet on my MM and one via the Thunderbolt adapter into the Thunderbolt port will OSX aggregate them automatically?

Have a look at PH4156 for some ideas on what to search for for more information.

I use an Airport Extreme (current model) so I would assume if OSX allowed for this then it would at the very least work with the AAE?

I wouldn't be too sure about that... At least the older ones did not support this, even though OS X had the functionality.

 

[eyepea]

Have a look at PH4156 for some ideas on what to search for for more information.


Thanks for that. The Apple Support URL you gave had the details on setting it up and it is working now. It actually looks like you can link even more than two ports.

See:

If you have a computer with more than one Ethernet port, you can combine them into one virtual Ethernet port. This is known as “link aggregation.” The combined Ethernet ports appear as a single IP address to your computer and applications.

Combining ports provides increased bandwidth by merging the bandwidth of the individual ports. Network traffic is also balanced across the ports.

In addition to balancing network traffic, combining ports provides automatic backup if one port or cable fails. All traffic that was routed over the failed port is rerouted to one of the remaining ports. This backup is automatic, and applications using the port continue without interruption.

Not sure if it will (or even can) use the full bandwidth of dual gigabit but its peace of mind to know it is set up that way.

Thanks

IP

 

[itickings]

If both endpoints and all parts in between supports LACP, could give nice speeds. I find the failover part much more interesting than speed though...