Wifi or Ethernet?

[Mechinyun]

Hey guys, I have both wifi and the ethernet plug for the new AIR.

Trying to decide which to use based on which method uses less system resources and heat generation.

Recommendations?

 

[Scottsdale]

I would assume that WiFi uses less system resources but maybe more energy??? That's a guess. I know that having a dongle hanging off a USB port makes a good case for using WiFi. As long as you have a secure network, I would say go WiFi and leave it at that.

 

[gustav531]

I would never go back to using a ethernet cord. Wireless is the way to go.

 

[maflynn]

For the MBA, wifi all the way.
My desktop uses ethernet, my Mac Mini and dell mini 10v uses wifi.

Where I can, I use wifi.

 

[kyleen66]

I use wifi when possible, but keep the USB ethernet thing in my bag in case I end up using a crash desk somewhere that only has wire internet.

It happens.

The joys of the mobile workforce.

 

[S.B.G]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I use Ethernet on my desktop machines, iMac, and wireless for portable/mobile devices. The Ethernet is faster, more reliable and secure than wireless can be. But as long as you lock down the wireless with a good suedo random 63 character password you will never have a problem.

With the MBA I'd go wireless. You'll never see the difference in heat or battery life no matter which way you choose.

 

[Rob Philips]

Power consumption-wise, what about WiFi vs. Bluetooth?

Sometimes Im left the choice of connecting to a wireless network or connecting to my mobile phone via bluetooth?

 

[gustav531]

Power consumption-wise, what about WiFi vs. Bluetooth?

Sometimes Im left the choice of connecting to a wireless network or connecting to my mobile phone via bluetooth?

I think that bluetooth is far worse, but I dont really know...

 

[Mechinyun]

Thanks guys, so far sounds like its a toss up, that dongle is ugly though, may go wireless just to have one less piece of junk hanging off the side. Although my OCD about processes, heat, CPU usage being as low as possible is still kicking in.

Anyone else?

 

[bowlerman625]

My preference is definitely wifi.

 

[gwsat]

I can't imagine why anyone would buy a computer as small and lightweight as an MBA and then tether it to a USB dongle and Ethernet cable. The only time I ever connect any laptop, much less an MBA, to an Ethernet cable is when I need to do a particularly large Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule. Otherwise its 802.11n WiFi 24/7 and that includes virtually every incremental Time Machine backup.