Connecting a Mac to two internet connections

[Giuly]

Hi,
I have two internet connections here, one via GBit-Ethernet to my Mac Mini and a slower one connected to my WiFi router. I just bought a wireless printer, thus I need to connect the Mini to the WiFi to print.

I think this is not explicitly specified, but which connection will be used to route to the internet? It would be unfortunate to use the WiFi, as it's about 5 times slower.

Can I set the wired connection to be default for all connections, and route only the traffic that really has to go into the WiFi? All that comes to mind at the moment is removing the gateway/router address.

Better ideas?

 

[miles01110]

Err... perhaps you could be a bit more clear. If you actually have two connections to the internet, both of them connect to the internet...

 

[Matty-p]

Hi,
I have two internet connections here, one via GBit-Ethernet to my Mac Mini and a slower one connected to my WiFi router. I just bought a wireless printer, thus I need to connect the Mini to the WiFi to print.

I think this is not explicitly specified, but which connection will be used to route to the internet? It would be unfortunate to use the WiFi, as it's about 5 times slower.

Can I set the wired connection to be default for all connections, and route only the traffic that really has to go into the WiFi? All that comes to mind at the moment is removing the gateway/router address.

Better ideas?

i take it your taking static routes you could bond them together but thats hard and kinda pointlesss id get rid of the dsl conection stick the gige line into the router bridge that to wifi and wire in the pc/mac to the same router done

 

[Giuly]

i take it your taking static routes you could bond them together but thats hard and kinda pointlesss id get rid of the dsl conection stick the gige line into the router bridge that to wifi and wire in the pc/mac to the same router done

Try that with a router which has a 100MBit ethernet switch. Everything seems to work fine by doing nothing, though.

However as far as I can see, Mac OS X manages itself, and my bandwidth even increased a little bit - problem solved.

 

[Transporteur]

I really don't understand your setup / question.

Why exactly do you have two separate internet connections?
Are you actually talking about internet or do you just mean ethernet?

 

[Darwin]

If you visit the Network settings in System Preferences using the 3rd button next to the plus and minus you can tell OS X which connections to prioritise over others.

 

[jtara]

Get a gigabit switch. They're cheap. As well, many/most currently sold WiFi routers and cable modems/DSL routers have a built-in gigabyte switch.

To use the WiFi printer, the device that is printing does NOT have to connect to the WiFi router via WiFi. It can connect hard-wired. That means if the WiFi router has a gigabyte switch, the connection to other hard-wired devices will be gigabyte (assuming gigabyte capability in the other device.) So the WiFi speed is not an issue, except when printing. And the WiFi speed will be more than sufficient for printing. You'll also be able to print from both machines.

 

[Giuly]

Get a gigabit switch. They're cheap. As well, many/most currently sold WiFi routers and cable modems/DSL routers have a built-in gigabyte switch.

To use the WiFi printer, the device that is printing does NOT have to connect to the WiFi router via WiFi. It can connect hard-wired. That means if the WiFi router has a gigabyte switch, the connection to other hard-wired devices will be gigabyte (assuming gigabyte capability in the other device.) So the WiFi speed is not an issue, except when printing. And the WiFi speed will be more than sufficient for printing. You'll also be able to print from both machines.

It's hooked up to my cable modem, the Mini and the router. Both the Mini and the router get external IPs, however the Mini is connected full speed, while you can't get more than 20% of the bandwidth through the router, doesn't matter whether you're connected via Ethernet or WiFi-n to it. I guess the Mini is somehow prioritized by the modem.

And no, I can't connect the router to the modem and the mini to the router - because this is a 110MBit/s DOCSIS3 connection and as stated, the router only has 100MBit/s ethernet ports. I could however connect the router to the Mini via the USB2.0 ethernet adapter intended for the MacBook Air, but I don't really want to dedicate any CPU to that at all.

Darwin: This is exactly what I wanted, and Ethernet was already on top of WiFi. Thanks.