On that machine, you can run with two external displays connected and still use the TBGE adapter.Fast data-transfer speed: this usb 2.0 to ethernet adapter offer a full 10/100 mbps fast ethernet performance over usb 2.0's up to 480 mbps, faster and more reliable than most wireless connections.
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Rather, the new MacBook Pro has no less than two Thunderbolt ports as well as an HDMI port for connecting external displays. On the new high resolution MacBook Pro this isn't a problem-and not just because nobody would want to use an external screen instead of that gorgeous built-in display. With the TBGE adapter connected, you can't connect an external screen. Unfortunately, there is a tiny bit of bad news for MacBook Air users: the TBGE adapter takes up the Thunderbolt port and doesn't have a pass-through connector. Now start your copying and marvel at the speed of it all. Once the Finder has mounted the remote drive, you can turn WiFi back on. (The remote computer needs to have File Sharing turned on in the Sharing preferences.) By turning off WiFi, you're forcing the computers to use the Ethernet cable. Then, turn off WiFi on one of the computers and connect to the other computer from the Finder. (A Gigabit Ethernet switch in the middle is also possible, but make sure the connection is 1000Mbps, not slower.) This is very easy: just plug in the adapter(s) and then an Ethernet cable directly between the two computers. Connoisseurs of quality networking gear will appreciate that the TBGE adapter supports 9000-byte jumboframes and also Energy-Efficient Ethernet, a mechanism to make Ethernet use less power when idle.Ĭonsidering price and performance, I think everyone who has a Thunderbolt-equipped but Ethernet-less Mac should get one of these for those occasions where you need to transfer a file from one computer to another.
The new TBGE adapter supports 10 and 100 Mbps Ethernet like the existing USB adapter, but, obviously, also 1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet.
The TBGE adapter is surprisingly affordable for a Thunderbolt peripheral at $29-the same price as the USB to Fast Ethernet adapter. The bad news is that CPU utilization was quite high the kernel_task process used 37 percent CPU time during these tests, and 70 percent when transferring files through the Finder. I did some additional testing with the iperf tool, which consistently showed "goodput" (actual usable data transferred) north of 900Mbps. (Mind the MBps versus Mbps: MBps is mega bytes per second, Mbps is mega bits per second, so with eight bits to a byte 1MBps requires 8Mbps.) Most applications don't need that kind of speed, but there is one that does: copying files over the local network. But at 1000Mbps, Gigabit Ethernet is 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet and at least 3 times faster than 802.11n WiFi. That's still faster than the 11MBps that the USB Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) adapter supports. For instance, I've seen my MacBook Air do 23MBps over its 300Mbps WiFi connection, but most days I get 16MBps.
On a really good day, real-world performance is two-thirds of that advertised link speed, but half is more common. WiFi speeds top out anywhere between 54 and 450Mbps. Ethernet on the other hand, pretty much always works, and when it doesn't, debugging is straightforward. Wireless networking problems are notoriously hard to debug, even for specialists. Most of the time, WiFi works very well, but sometimes it doesn't, and often there isn't much that you can do about that. Unfortunately, WiFi lacks two things: reliability and speed. Apple later released version 1.2.1 of the update, which turns the TBGE adapter from the world's smallest paperweight into a powerful network interface.īut why do we even need wired Ethernet in 2012? Most of the time, a WiFi network is more than adequate.
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The Thunderbolt 1.2 software that contains a driver for the new adapter created kernel panics and boot problems for many users and was pulled within hours. The new adapter is also compatible with last year's MacBook Air (which was relegated to the USB Fast Ethernet adapter until now) as well as other Macs with Thunderbolt ports. At WWDC last week, Apple released the $29 Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet (TBGE) adapter to go with the new ultra-slim MacBook Pro.