Gigabit Ethernet

[alexcf]

So with the lack of Gigabit ethernet options on the Macbook Air, I'm kinda hoping that some bright spark on here is going to shower me with suggestions on what 3rd party adaptors are available/been used...!

I've had a real good hunt around, and the only adaptor which I can find that people have got excited about (back in 2009!) was the Buffalo one... Annoyingly, this is pretty much nowhere to be found...

I'd really appreciate any suggestions from people here! The one thing stopping me from getting an MBA is the gig-e problem. As I use time-machine for backups, and transfer relatively large files around between offices<->datacentres<->home, it's rather important!

Thanks in advance!

A.

 

[maflynn]

Look for a usb/ethernet adapter.

To be honest, why did you buy a computer that did not have an ethernet port, when you had a requirement of such a port

 

[Hellhammer]

Remember that USB 2.0 tops out at ~35MB/s in real world while Gb Ethernet can do up to ~100MB/s in real world so USB will be bottlenecking the performance.

 

[jav6454]

You won't see more than 30MB/s even with Gigabit Ethernet, USB doesn't support it.

 

[spinnerlys]

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB442Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDEyMQ&mco=MTA4NzI5MTg

Though hat will limit you to USB speeds (25 to 35 MB/s).

And the above posts ....

 

[RanEnRui]

So with the lack of Gigabit ethernet options on the Macbook Air, I'm kinda hoping that some bright spark on here is going to shower me with suggestions on what 3rd party adaptors are available/been used...!

I've had a real good hunt around, and the only adaptor which I can find that people have got excited about (back in 2009!) was the Buffalo one... Annoyingly, this is pretty much nowhere to be found...

I'd really appreciate any suggestions from people here! The one thing stopping me from getting an MBA is the gig-e problem. As I use time-machine for backups, and transfer relatively large files around between offices<->datacentres<->home, it's rather important!

Thanks in advance!

A.

No 802.11n support for connectivity where you backup?

 

[jfulcher]

You won't see more than 30MB/s even with Gigabit Ethernet, USB doesn't support it.

Which is 300Mbit/sec which is 3x faster than what the apple USB dongle does.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB442Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDEyMQ&mco=MTA4NzI5MTg

Though hat will limit you to USB speeds (25 to 35 MB/s).

And the above posts ....

That's a 10/100MBIT adapter which will only get ~10 MegaBYTES/SEC.

 

[spinnerlys]

You won't see more than 30MB/s even with Gigabit Ethernet, USB doesn't support it.

Which is 300Mbit/sec which is 3x faster than what the apple USB dongle does.

30MB/s is 240Mb/s.

That's a 10/100MBIT adapter which will only get ~10 MegaBYTES/SEC.

I just noticed. Thanks. But 10/100Mb/s will actually get you 11.25MB/s. Even in real life.

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[jfulcher]

No 802.11n support for connectivity where you backup?

802.11n won't exceed 100Mbit wired speeds. (even though theoretically it is supposed to)

 

[ender21]

Which is 300Mbit/sec which is 3x faster than what the apple USB dongle does.

I've ordered this from TigerDirect. Sabrent has a 10.5.x and above driver that I'll be using for it.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...No=3504463&sku=M501-1330&srkey=sabrent g-1000

It's Gigabit, which even with the USB2.0 bottleneck should still be ~3x faster than 100BaseT. For the price it's definitely worth a shot.

I just noticed. Thanks. But 10/100Mb/s will actually get you 11.25MB/s. Even in real life.

Hence his "~" in front of the 10MB/s. "~" means "about as much as", "close to," "plus or minus," or any number of other synonyms meaning on or about the same thing. ;-)

 

[spinnerlys]

Hence his "~" in front of the 10MB/s. "~" means "about as much as", "close to," "plus or minus," or any number of other synonyms meaning on or about the same thing. ;-)

Ah, I was never good in astrology anyway.

 

[jav6454]

Which is 300Mbit/sec which is 3x faster than what the apple USB dongle does.



That's a 10/100MBIT adapter which will only get ~10 MegaBYTES/SEC.

You need to do some serious research on to what I meant.

 

[rkahl]

Why do you need it? My MBA is faster than my 2010 iMac i3 which is pulled into the ethernet port.

iMac (wired) = 26Mbps
MBA (wireless) = 28Mbps

 

[cluthz]

Which is 300Mbit/sec which is 3x faster than what the apple USB dongle does.

Not it's not.
300 mbit/sec is a number on a paper...

Arstechnica had a huge test featuring several different n-routers and from 1 feet from the router the fastest one managed 81.8 mbit/sec. At normal distance people actually sits from the router you'll get even less. 100mBit ethernet is faster than 802.11n wireless in the real world! (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/reviews/2007/11/802-11n-router-roundup.ars/)

I have network storage at home, connected thru GBit-ethernet, and I guess there is about 5m with cables from my MBP to my storage server. You would think that the bottleneck here would be the disks, but no, fastest thought put i can get over the network is about 30MB/sec.

So in real life, how does this compare?
Gbit ethernet is about 3-4 times faster than 100Mbit, which is slightly faster than 300Mbit 802.11n wireless...


edit: found this article too:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...heoretical_speed_vs_practical_throughput.html

notice theoretical vs real world speeds for 802.11n vs 100MBit ethernet

 

[spinnerlys]

Why do you need it? My MBA is faster than my 2010 iMac i3 which is pulled into the ethernet port.

iMac (wired) = 26Mbps
MBA (wireless) = 28Mbps

Are those internet speeds or the speeds when you connect to your network server (if you have one?)

If it is the first, then even the Ethernet adapter I linked to with its 11MB/s will be faster when connecting to a local network.

The speeds you posted would mean, a 1GB file would take 5 minutes to transfer, 10GB would take 50 minutes. With a wired 10/100 Ethernet connection, it would take 1m 30s for 1GB or 13m 36s for 10GB (estimates). With 30MB/s it would take less than 40 seconds for 1GB and less than 7 minutes for 10GB.

 

[kamui]

I bought this one at monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10311&cs_id=1031102&p_id=5345&seq=1&format=2

USB has a theoretical max of 480Mbps though, but hopefully it's better than 10/100. I haven't tried it yet though, it says it supports Mac OS X and the reviews say it's worked with theirs.

 

[rkahl]

Are those internet speeds or the speeds when you connect to your network server (if you have one?)

If it is the first, then even the Ethernet adapter I linked to with its 11MB/s will be faster when connecting to a local network.

Yeah, internet speeds.

 

[spinnerlys]

I bought this one at monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10311&cs_id=1031102&p_id=5345&seq=1&format=2

USB has a theoretical max of 450Mbps though, but hopefully it's better than 10/100. I haven't tried it yet though, it says it supports Mac OS X and the reviews say it's worked with theirs.

USB 2.0 has a theoretical throughout of 480Mb/s, but it real life it will only deliver 25 to 35 MB/s, sometimes it will have bursts of 38MB/s.

Yeah, internet speeds.

The OP was talking about connecting to a wired network, which is almost always faster than a wireless connection.

 

[Westyfield2]

I came into this thread ready to do the whole ZOMG USB WILL BE THE BOTTLENECK thing, but evidently have been beaten!



One idea though.... just like my gaming PCs and servers at work have multiple NICs, would OSX know how to load balance if a MacBook Air had two of the Apple USB NICs thanks to it's two USB ports?

 

[ender21]

One idea though.... just like my gaming PCs and servers at work have multiple NICs, would OSX know how to load balance if a MacBook Air had two of the Apple USB NICs thanks to it's two USB ports?

That would be cool! I would have a use for that.

I bought this one at monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10311&cs_id=1031102&p_id=5345&seq=1&format=2

That's the same Asix hardware as the Sabrent I purchased, but $8 cheaper! Diabolical!

 

[neteng101]

Waiting on the Monoprice one too myself, hasn't gotten to me yet.

 

[SidBala]

Why do you need it? My MBA is faster than my 2010 iMac i3 which is pulled into the ethernet port.

iMac (wired) = 26Mbps
MBA (wireless) = 28Mbps

This is really dumb. You are comparing internet speeds.

I can easily get ~300-400mbps from my NAS to HTPC over GigaE. On N-wireless, maybe 50 mbps, if I am lucky.


As for the OP: It is probably not a good idea to buy a MBA, if you need the GigE.

 

[spinnerlys]

I can easily get ~300-400mbps from my NAS to HTPC over GigaE. On N-wireless, maybe 50 mbps, if I am lucky.

I don't use an NAS, but I get around 50 to 70 MB/s when connecting two Gigabit enabled Macs or via a Gigabit capable router.

 

[jfulcher]

You need to do some serious research on to what I meant.

I know what you meant, USB would be the bottle neck. However with the ethernet adapter that Apple is selling the bottle neck is the 100Mbit (which is only ~10MB/sec - 11.25ish to be exact for some people in this thread, but still the same point) USB is capable of up to 480Mbps, but does seem to only sustain speeds a little less than that or about 30-35MB(bytes not bits) per second. So if apple sold a 10/100/1000 adpater which costs just pennies more you would still move stuff at about 3 times faster than you would with the 10/100 adapter they are selling you.

Not it's not.
300 mbit/sec is a number on a paper...

Arstechnica had a huge test featuring several different n-routers and from 1 feet from the router the fastest one managed 81.8 mbit/sec. At normal distance people actually sits from the router you'll get even less. 100mBit ethernet is faster than 802.11n wireless in the real world! (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/reviews/2007/11/802-11n-router-roundup.ars/)

I have network storage at home, connected thru GBit-ethernet, and I guess there is about 5m with cables from my MBP to my storage server. You would think that the bottleneck here would be the disks, but no, fastest thought put i can get over the network is about 30MB/sec.

So in real life, how does this compare?
Gbit ethernet is about 3-4 times faster than 100Mbit, which is slightly faster than 300Mbit 802.11n wireless...


edit: found this article too:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...heoretical_speed_vs_practical_throughput.html

notice theoretical vs real world speeds for 802.11n vs 100MBit ethernet

First off - I was talking about gigabit speeds, not 802.11n - just so we are on the same page. I run gig-e at home with Windows Home Server & several HTPCs in the house. I routinely copy blurays around between the HTPCs and my WHS and sustain 60-70MB/s (~600ish Mbits/sec) and if I used jumbo frames I could sustain even faster than that. My server is on the 3rd story of my house and one of my HTPCs is in the basement. Distance of wired networks isn't as critical provided you use the correct rated cable for the speed.

I came into this thread ready to do the whole ZOMG USB WILL BE THE BOTTLENECK thing, but evidently have been beaten!



One idea though.... just like my gaming PCs and servers at work have multiple NICs, would OSX know how to load balance if a MacBook Air had two of the Apple USB NICs thanks to it's two USB ports?

While it's still the bottleneck gigabit over USB would still be faster than 100Mbit over USB.

 

[alexcf]

OK, so to give you some idea of actual throughput and various bits and pieces which need to be taken into consideration (funnily enough, it's my day job ). The distance of cabling, the quality of cabling, the type of hardware you're using, and much more. Most desktop switches will handle a good whack of bandwidth, but don't really expect 125MB/sec (or 1Gb/sec).

The main reason for me wanting Gig-E rather than going down the wireless route is exactly what someone above has said, you don't get the true speed. If I can get 150-300Mb out of a USB adaptor, great! Means I'll be able to do my transfers a hell of a lot more quickly. Generally, to speed up a majority of my transfers, files are "archived" into a zip, as trying to transfer many small files vs. fewer larger failes will be much quicker.

Additionally, what I do when I move stuff from home to my girlfriends place (iMac QuadCore i7) I use a crossover with my (pleased to say) almost 3yo MacBookPro. From that I get around 10-30MB/sec, which is fantastic in my opinion. To actually max out 1Gb/sec requires some fancy disks.

I haven't actually bought the Air yet, and was looking to see if people had any first hand experience in products/solutions to the problem. Problem I have is, my poor MBP has been dropped, dented, dropped again so needs really to be replaced. The HD is going, and I can't bring myself to buying ANOTHER battery as it's showing "Service Battery" again. I think this would be my 4th battery! So, maybe time for a change...