Omg, I appreciate all the help, but still don't know what to buy. I'm not tech savvy and some of the answers are over my head.
Let me explain WHY I want to connect through ethernet. I have wifi signal hogging children in the house. If I'm home alone, my connection is decent through wifi, but once they get out of school my connection is so bogged down that it'll time out or tell me there is no internet access. My bedroom is the farthest from the router and my kids are all upstream from me. I get up and move next to the router sometimes but there are just too many of us using the internet at once.
My son uses his gaming pc and phone at same time for playing games with other people. My daughter streams Netflix on her Ipad while doing whatever on the internet on her laptop. All I want to do is browse but I have to stomp through the house shouting at kids to get off the wifi continually.
I read somewhere that I can connect directly to the router and not have to fight for a wifi signal with them. Lol, if you've ever tried to make a teenage boy quit in the middle of a game while all his buddies are playing, too, then you know my dilemma!
BTW, I'm on AT&T DSL. We've been promised fiber here for years but nothing has been installed. I'm ready to move somewhere that has fiber!
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I agree that making use of the otherwise unused TB2 port is a good idea, but only if an appropriate TB2 adapter can be found at a reasonable price. The Plugable adapter that I'm using is actually a USB-3 hub combo with 3 USB-3 ports and one RJ-45 port for the Ethernet so it actually increases the number of available USB-3 ports instead of reducing them. Here's the Amazon USA link:
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-USB-3-0-Portable-Ethernet/dp/B00M7MYFAU/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3ORNKE1OZ0JA1&keywords=plugable+usb+3.0+ethernet+adapter&qid=1558927126&s=gateway&sprefix=plugable,aps,211&sr=8-5
Thanks for the link! Are you pretty confident this will work with my Macbook Air 2017?
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You don't have access to WiFi? Ethernet ports are becoming the exception these days on portables. If you are spending money for an adapter you might want to consider a dock that gives you more options.
Hi there, yes I have access to wifi, but I'm fighting with too many other devices in my house to get a decent connection. We only have DSL in this neighborhood so I thought connecting through ethernet would get me a better, quicker connection.