Do the majority of iMac owners use the "Ethernet cable" or connect wireless?

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the theory, but in practice wired is much snappier.
Big files of speed-checking sites give a very distorted image.
Try a big Pinterest page with 1000+ HTTP requests and time the difference.

That may be your experience, but I've never found any noticeable internet performance difference between wired and wireless, no matter how many times I've tested both over the past few years. Use whatever works for you, but most ISP speeds don't come close to matching either wireless or wired network speeds, so for purely internet usage, either is fine.

 

[KaraH]

Times my wireless network has gone down = 0
Times my ISP's service has gone down = too many to count

You are comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. Your ISP has nothing to do with the wiring in your home. Of course, if you want to bring ISPs into it ... well, do you REALLY want to compare it to how many times *per day* I have a mobile device lose connectivity to either 3G or wifi?

Unless you're in an area with significant interference or you have hardware problems, your wireless network should be as stable as a wired network. The only unstable factor I've ever experienced is my ISP, which affects both wired and wireless internet connectivity. As for my wireless network apart from the internet, it's never failed to deliver consistent high-speed performance.

No, it is not as stable. As I said before, ask someone who uses online applications that require constant connectivity. Particularly if they are in an area like an urban setting where the spectrum is not exactly smooth sailing.

I use Second Life (their system specs are at http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/ .... note the network reccomendations). The times I have tested a wifi connection with it my packet loss goes up from the 0 it almost always is with ethernet and then I get disconnected when the server finally throws up its hands. That is with the wifi router only a few feet from my iMac.

 

[MegaSignal]

Both Ethernet and wireless networks are faster than any internet connection you may have. You won't see any difference in internet performance between the two.

I would have to agree. Well said.

 

[talmy]

Two iMacs here, both wired, the Mac mini server and the sole PC here are wired as well. And I have a wire here for my Macbook Pro for transferring files. Sure Internet access is the same speed with either wired or wireless, but accessing other systems on the LAN is much faster over wire.

 

[MegaSignal]

It's a nice change coming over from a bulky old windows PC the iMac can actually connect to the Internet wirelessly. I was thinking at the same time speeds obviously areceffected by being wireless though right? Do most people just use their Ethernet cable?

It is a desktop afterall I think once I get it moved into my office ill hook it up via the Ethernet cable.

I have both a Mac Pro as well as PC running Windows7 that I built last year; a major difference between the two platforms is with how each machine re-establishes itself after either waking up from sleep, or from a cold boot.

With the Mac Pro: wireless connections are re-connected immediately; no need for USB peripherals.

My home built PC: Hey, I love this machine (I built it), but it's got USB antennaes hanging out everywhere (wireless, bluetooth, keyboard/mouse interfaces), and I find that I always have to unplug/plug-in my wireless adapter to get it to work after waking from sleep or even a cold boot.

As for speed: according to my ISP's speed test, I haven't seen a difference...and finally, while I'm not a gamer, my son is who uses a beefed-up Dell, and, after converting that machine from wired to wireless he reports no noticeable gaming differences, at least with Combat Arms.

Hope this helps!

 

[GGJstudios]

You are comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. Your ISP has nothing to do with the wiring in your home.

Actually, it does, since the ISP installed the wiring. But that's irrelevant. My point is that the speed of the internet service is much slower than the speed of either the wireless or wired network, so the bottleneck is the internet service, not the wireless or wired network.

No, it is not as stable. As I said before, ask someone who uses online applications that require constant connectivity. Particularly if they are in an area like an urban setting where the spectrum is not exactly smooth sailing.

My setting is as urban as it gets (near the center of downtown in a top-10 city), and I've never had a single problem with my wireless network's performance or reliablility.

Sure Internet access is the same speed with either wired or wireless, but accessing other systems on the LAN is much faster over wire.

Exactly. I agree that wired is faster for other LAN traffic. My point relates to internet traffic alone.

 

[aggri1]

Wired if at all possible. Copying files over the wireless is tediously slow - and last time the MacBook Pro totally froze for more than half a minute at a time when copying from the iMac (not even mouse motion! Why?! So much for 'multi-tasking OS X'). Sometimes videos won't even play smoothly over the wireless. I also found that both Macs didn't reliably re-connect to the wireless network when waking from sleep if the router wasn't broadcasting SSID, so I've had to turn that on again. And finally, both Macs had trouble printing to the network printer which was connected to the router via ethernet when the Macs were on wireless-only.

I never got iPhone wireless syncing working either, it always started and then froze or lost connection.

Wireless is a nice idea, but just isn't reliable in my experience. Perhaps it's the particular router, but since that router came with the internet service, I don't feel like buying another one just to try it.

 

[pudgeyredfox]

Wireless normally, only time I used the ethernet port was with a crossover cable to connect to my old computer and transfer files over. It was fast cuz both the iMac and my old computer have gigabit ethernet

 

[blueroom]

Wired GigE on all stationary devices, save the WiFi for the portable stuff.

 

[AndiS.]

It's a nice change coming over from a bulky old windows PC the iMac can actually connect to the Internet wirelessly. I was thinking at the same time speeds obviously areceffected by being wireless though right? Do most people just use their Ethernet cable?

It is a desktop afterall I think once I get it moved into my office ill hook it up via the Ethernet cable.

Wireless, as with all devices, except for my Xbox 360 which doesn't support wireless (old version).

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Actually, it does, since the ISP installed the wiring. But that's irrelevant. My point is that the speed of the internet service is much slower than the speed of either the wireless or wired network, so the bottleneck is the internet service, not the wireless or wired network.

My setting is as urban as it gets (near the center of downtown in a top-10 city), and I've never had a single problem with my wireless network's performance or reliablility.

Exactly. I agree that wired is faster for other LAN traffic. My point relates to internet traffic alone.

I've had the same experience as you, maybe it's a bit of a "placebo" effect for some Ethernet users ; )

 

[filfortugno]

It Depends really

Personally I can say that unless you are gaming and need improved latency and ping times than wireless should do just fine. In my situation my rMBP, according to speedtest.net, connects at 62 mbs down and 5 mbs up when my service i pay for is only supposed to be 60 mbs and 3 mbs. So obviously in my situation using an airport extreme works well for me.

 

[seanm9]

I just tested. Download speed: 24.49Mbps (ethernet) 24.50Mbps (wireless).

20.90 wireless

20.80 wired

I bet dollars to donuts Mac2133 has a a configuration issue with his wireless. I had terrible speed for a while and then I decided to reset my gear to factory and reinstall and it works MUCH better now.

i bet dollars to donuts that you ISP is the bottleneck... i only see about 60mbps on my firstgen time capsule on 2.4 ghz band and the full 105mbps i pay for when i go wired.

 

[iWaiting]

i bet dollars to donuts that you ISP is the bottleneck... i only see about 60mbps on my firstgen time capsule on 2.4 ghz band and the full 105mbps i pay for when i go wired.

I too get similar results isp gives me 103 d 10 u soon to be 120 d 12 u
wired i get 99.9% of the speed wireless wether 5 or 2.4 if the MBP is on the same desk as the TC the result is as wired but move away and the speed drops to 50 mbs I live in a older house with solid brick internal walls and these cause a serious attenuation of the signal , but if you have to move about the house then wireless is the only option but the iMac is wired at all times

 

[Hasn'tbeensober]

Question for all of you use wired!
Is the Air Drop function still work when you are wired?

 

[lordgaino]

With a good signal, wifi is fine. But ethernet is better.

 

[iWas]

My experience has always been a better connection with a wired connection. Less packet loss and better transfer speeds within the LAN. I wouldn't use a wireless connection if a wired connection was possible.

 

[KaraH]

Actually, it does, since the ISP installed the wiring. But that's irrelevant. My point is that the speed of the internet service is much slower than the speed of either the wireless or wired network, so the bottleneck is the internet service, not the wireless or wired network.

My setting is as urban as it gets (near the center of downtown in a top-10 city), and I've never had a single problem with my wireless network's performance or reliablility.

Exactly. I agree that wired is faster for other LAN traffic. My point relates to internet traffic alone.

Since we are talking about LAN traffic I still do not know what your experiences with connecting beyond your house have to do with the discussion. As I said though, if you want to bring such into the convo my wireless devices have lost connectivity MUCH more often than my wired ones.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I was thinking at the same time speeds obviously areceffected by being wireless though right? Do most people just use their Ethernet cable?"

IF you have easy availability to Ethernet where your iMac is located, I would ALWAYS choose wired before wireless.

Faster throughput, more secure, one less element in the "internet equation" to go wrong on you.

I can only laugh at those who would reject wired because they believe wireless "looks better" (i.e., no cable).

 

[Foggy]

Both Ethernet and wireless networks are faster than any internet connection you may have. You won't see any difference in internet performance between the two.

I get 44.68Mbps wireless, 99.02Mbps wired.

Even more importantly, shifting a few gb of data over cat6 gigabit is a LOT faster than shoving it over wifi. When 802.11ac is readily available and in all of my machines I will consider using wifi on the desktops.

 

[randy98mtu]

I wire everything I can. I have wired connections on my desk, in my living room and in my basement. My iMac is the server for iTunes. I have Apple TV's in the living room and downstairs that are wired, as well as bluray players and other devices. The laptops and iDevices are wireless, as well as the Apple TV and PS3 in my bedroom, as I have no wires there. I find wires are always more reliable.

 

[GGJstudios]

Since we are talking about LAN traffic I still do not know what your experiences with connecting beyond your house have to do with the discussion. As I said though, if you want to bring such into the convo my wireless devices have lost connectivity MUCH more often than my wired ones.

The OP did not ask which is faster for purely LAN traffic: wired or wireless. It's well known that wired is faster for that. The OP specifically asked about internet traffic, which has everything to do with the connection beyond your home or office. Since both wireless and wired LANs are more than double the speed of most internet connections, there will be no difference in internet connection speed between them. While a minority have internet service at speeds faster than WiFi delivers, the OP is not likely in that group, or they likely wouldn't be asking the question in the first place. If your wireless LAN is not operating up to specs, that's another matter entirely. The OP did not ask, "Which is faster? Internet access via Ethernet or via a wireless network with major signal loss or other technical problems."

 

[26139]

Yep

Wired whenever possible, wireless for convenience.

I plug in my laptops for large file transfers all the time, but the desktops are all wired.

 

[Maxx Power]

I would have to agree. Well said.

My pings are more erratic with wireless, I don't think I would game seriously on wireless. On wired, I can do gigabit+jumbo frames to my NAS and other computers to transfer hundreds of gigabytes without worrying about dropping out due to interference.

I have also serviced a lot of routers that seems to overheat without a heatsink. Prior to having them serviced, they were periodically suffering dropouts when large amount of load was placed on them. Wired was never affected (different switching logic, I guess in those models), but wireless dropped dead.

I also have a topology at home that puts the gigabit switch directly connecting several computers, and the wireless connects to the lower through-put devices on a secondary node.

 

[Mac2133]

20.90 wireless

20.80 wired

I bet dollars to donuts Mac2133 has a a configuration issue with his wireless. I had terrible speed for a while and then I decided to reset my gear to factory and reinstall and it works MUCH better now.

Would appreciate if you could throw some light on how to ideally configure my wireless. I just used a top of the line Netgear N900 out of the box with no adjustments to any settings. Have not had a single hiccup using that router. BTW, I do use wireless for my iMac

 

[Razorhog]

Both Ethernet and wireless networks are faster than any internet connection you may have. You won't see any difference in internet performance between the two.

While I agree with that, one must be aware of a few things when making the decision to go wired or wireless. Wireless has a lot of variables involved that will affect performance. Building construction, interference, capabilities of both the access point and wireless device, etc. In my house, we use video baby monitors for our twins. They run in the 2.4GHz spectrum and reek havoc on wireless, and even my wireless mouse. The wireless access point I was using up until a few weeks ago was only capable of 802.11n on the 2.4GHz side, so the wireless performance in the house was spotty at best (if the baby monitors were plugged in, which they are 24/7). I got a better access point (aerohive) that is capable of 802.11n on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I set up a separate SSID for the 5GHz and it works great.

Having said all that, GGJ's comment holds true. Especially if the variables I mentioned above are taken out of the wireless side of the comparison.