Gigabit Ethernet

[runnin17]

If you are mainly concerned with hotels that only have ethernet this really shouldn't be an issue.

Get the USB adapter and deal with it. I have yet to stay in a hotel that has very high speed internet access (wifi or wired). It is highly unlikely that you will be in a hotel that offers greater than 30MB/s download speed.

 

[spinnerlys]

If you are mainly concerned with hotels that only have ethernet this really shouldn't be an issue.

Get the USB adapter and deal with it. I have yet to stay in a hotel that has very high speed internet access (wifi or wired). It is highly unlikely that you will be in a hotel that offers greater than 30MB/s download speed.

Is your post an answer to the OP?

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.

So many people don't understand the difference between internet speed and local network speed?

There is a difference?

 

[runnin17]

Is your post an answer to the OP?

I guess not. I was mainly commenting on the part of the thread where I read about someone worried that most hotels don't have wifi and only have wired internet connections.

 

[gloryunited]

a quick question: what is the maximum speed of MBA wireless connection?

anyone?

I think my wireless router can handle 54Mb/s which should be just under 7MB/s.
So is the wireless speed of the MBA over that?

thanks

 

[miata]

Some real life data:

My gigabit-connected PC can transfer files to my NAS at 72MB/s (measurement from teracopy).

With the Monoprice 'gig' dongle, I can transfer files from Macbook Air to the same NAS at 28MB/s (measurement from ultracopy, and bursting to 32MB at times indicating there is possibly some optimization I could do if I cared). I also got 28 MB/s in PC to MBA transfer (teracopy).

Not as good as a true GigE, but better than the 10/100 dongle would do and better than my Wifi can do.

This sounds very promising. I was reading in some of the customer reviews that DHCP does not work with GigE on the MacOS. is this really plug- and play after installing the drivers?

 

[zartemis]

This sounds very promising. I was reading in some of the customer reviews that DHCP does not work with GigE on the MacOS. is this really plug- and play after installing the drivers?

Yes.

The driver install of the Monoprice drivers requested a reboot, but I had no other issues. It worked immediately after reboot. Both manual and DHCP settings worked (neither manual nor DHCP worked for me without the custom drivers). One minor but convenient feature of the Monoprice dongle is that the MAC address is clearly labelled -- I set up all my devices on my local network with reserved IPs via DHCP and so was able to quickly and immediately configure the connection with my router.

 

[miata]

Yes.

The driver install of the Monoprice drivers requested a reboot, but I had no other issues. It worked immediately after reboot. Both manual and DHCP settings worked (neither manual nor DHCP worked for me without the custom drivers). One minor but convenient feature of the Monoprice dongle is that the MAC address is clearly labelled -- I set up all my devices on my local network with reserved IPs via DHCP and so was able to quickly and immediately configure the connection with my router.

Great news. I've had good experiences with Monoprice on AV cables. Sounds like I have a new palce to shot for computer cables now.

 

[ender21]

Yes.

The driver install of the Monoprice drivers requested a reboot, but I had no other issues. It worked immediately after reboot. Both manual and DHCP settings worked (neither manual nor DHCP worked for me without the custom drivers).

My experience echoes this one with the Sabrent device, which is based on the same hardware. I was unable to get it to work properly with stock drivers, but the 10.4 drivers on the disc got it working just fine. Top speed so far is 24MB/s with a 3GB file.

 

[miata]

Why in the world doesn't Apple provide a gig-e USB dongle?

 

[barmann]

Thanks for this. I had the same problem. The drivers on the CD worked for me. Although accessing the mini CD was an issue because I only have a Super Drive, which doesn't work with mini CDs. I've attached a zip file with the drivers that are on the CD in case anyone else is in the same situation.

Thank you sir !

 

[JimKirk]

I got the Sabrenet one

It does deliver about 20MB/s compared to 13MB/s for the Airport card on my 13 in MBAir.

Not a huge improvement but it is consistently faster.

That's to TC. Maybe to a server or nas would be faster

 

[phairphan]

Why in the world doesn't Apple provide a gig-e USB dongle?

Probably because some sleazy law firm would find some equally sleazy user and cook up a class action suit because Apple offered a GigE adaptor that's incapable of reaching GigE speeds.

 

[mumstead]

My Monoprice adapter works great with the included drivers installed. I get a consistent 30.8 mb/sec from my Mini server.

 

[ender21]

Hmm.. My Sabrent from TigerDirect needs me to reinstall the driver anytime I power down and back up again. Otherwise it doesn't connect at all.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

 

[macbook123]

Can somebody please summarize what the difference is between the Apple Ethernet dongle and 3rd party ones, a) theoretically, and b) in real life?

 

[mumstead]

Hmm.. My Sabrent from TigerDirect needs me to reinstall the driver anytime I power down and back up again. Otherwise it doesn't connect at all.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

My Monoprice adapter does not do that. Since I installed the driver it is plug and play.

 

[mumstead]

Can somebody please summarize what the difference is between the Apple Ethernet dongle and 3rd party ones, a) theoretically, and b) in real life?

In theroy a USB gigabit adapter could transfer at 480mbits (the max transfer speed of USB) vs the apple adapter at 100mbits. In reality I am getting 30.8MB/Sec or 246 mbits with my Monoprice adapter. In reality the monoprice adapter is cheaper too. It was about $24 with shipping.

 

[macbook123]

In theroy a USB gigabit adapter could transfer at 480mbits (the max transfer speed of USB) vs the apple adapter at 100mbits. In reality I am getting 30.8MB/Sec or 246 mbits with my Monoprice adapter. In reality the monoprice adapter is cheaper too. It was about $24 with shipping.

That's pathetic that Apple would sell the bad adapter. Has anybody confirmed that the Apple one is indeed limited to 10MB/sec? Just wondering if this is indeed a hard limit...

Is this the monoprice one you got:

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

? Thanks.

 

[jfulcher]

That's pathetic that Apple would sell the bad adapter. Has anybody confirmed that the Apple one is indeed limited to 10MB/sec? Just wondering if this is indeed a hard limit...

Is this the monoprice one you got:

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

? Thanks.

The apple adapter is 100Mbit/sec instead of 1000Mbit/sec so in the case of the apple adapter you are limited by the 100Mbit/sec. With the monoprice adapter you are limited by the USB speed. It should be at least 2x as fast if you are running a gigabit network. If you are only using a 100Mbit network it won't matter.

 

[mumstead]

That's pathetic that Apple would sell the bad adapter. Has anybody confirmed that the Apple one is indeed limited to 10MB/sec? Just wondering if this is indeed a hard limit...

Is this the monoprice one you got:

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

? Thanks.

That is the one.

 

[ender21]

My Monoprice adapter does not do that. Since I installed the driver it is plug and play.

I haven't seen it happen again, but I also haven't done a hard powerdown/reboot. I've just let the MBA sleep. We'll see.

 

[alexcf]

Thanks guys. The Monoprice one can be bought unbranded, so I've managed to track this down for people in the UK to the Startech.

Vendors who sell it here in the UK are:

Ingram Micro UK V931192
EntaTech STH-USB21000S
UPC Code 065030840064

I've just bought my MBA, really happy with it, rather nice and zippy, a little heavier than I thought... My girlfriend got the 11" which is a rather sweet piece of kit. The screen real-estate was the crunch point for me, so went for the 13".

I'm planning on ordering 4 of these adaptors, so will post back probably on Wednesday/Thursday to let you know if they're working or not!

Thanks again guys, much appreciated for the info etc.

 

[aberrero]

I'm just looking for something that will do 5MB/s sustained(which my n router will not)

Does anyone know if this will work without needing to install drivers? http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180565138569&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

[aberrero]

Probably because some sleazy law firm would find some equally sleazy user and cook up a class action suit because Apple offered a GigE adaptor that's incapable of reaching GigE speeds.

I doubt that. Apple doesn't advertise anything of the sort, seeing as how they just come up with their own random names for everything anyway. They will just call it Ethernet Adapter Extreme or something.

I doubt you could sue them for not having an "extreme" enough network connection

 

[gb1631]

Wow! This discussion is getting too techie for me! I bought the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter with my MBA 11 to use where they only have Ethernet connections at hotels, etc.

I have a content need to be able to use such a connection at my timeshare Condo on the Oregon coast. They supply free internet. One gets a little black bod that plugs into the power socket and then has an Ethernet cable that goes from the black box to your computer.

I haven't been to the Condo since buying the MBA or the adapter; however, I'm hoping it will work just like my 12" G-4 notebook has in the past.

The only test I've done on the adapter is to turn of my WiFi and use my USB Ethernet Adapter connection on my home network which worked just fine!