Network iMac & laptop?

[discofuel]

I live in a shared house and connect both my iMac and PC laptop to the internet via Wifi.

This is fine for the internet, but I'm constantly transferring large volumes of files between my laptop and iMac and it's unbearably slow. I can't connect to the router via ethernet because it's in the living room.

Can I connect my laptop and iMac up with an ethernet or USB cable for fast file transfer?

 

[spinnerlys]

An Ethernet cable will work fine, make sure to get an Cat5e or Cat6 Gigabit capable cable if both computers have a Gigabit Ethernet port.

I don't know if USB allows to network to computer devices.

 

[discofuel]

Ok great. Both computers have gigabit connections so I'll got for the Cat6.

Do I need to get a specific cable (crossover?) because I'm connecting computer-to-computer rather than a router, or is that what Cat6 cable is?

 

[spinnerlys]

It doesn't matter what cable you use, as Macs have Ethernet ports, that can switch internally, if either cables are used.

Cat5e and Cat6 are just Gigabit capable Ethernet cable names.

 

[discofuel]

Thanks. Just ordered one

 

[discofuel]

Works great! So much faster than Wifi.

Just out of interest... both computers are networked to each other by both Wifi and ethernet. File transfers are taking place over ethernet - is that because it automatically chooses the fastest route?

 

[spinnerlys]

Works great! So much faster than Wifi.

Just out of interest... both computers are networked to each other by both Wifi and ethernet. File transfers are taking place over ethernet - is that because it automatically chooses the fastest route?

In my experience it uses the fastest route when connected via two protocols, but I have no proper knowledge on how and "why" it does that.