Ethernet options for MacBook Pro with retina display

[pearsonnunn]

I just bought a macbook pro with retina display, and I need an ethernet connection for internet at work on monday. What would be my best option?

 

[rocknblogger]

Just get a Thunderbolt dongle. I use one and it works perfectly.

 

[Commy1]

Sadly you'll have to pick up an adapter USB/Thunderbolt. Any brand name electronics store will carry them.

 

[collinmac]

thunderbolt adapter is great, no complaints here.

 

[brand]

Sadly you'll have to pick up an adapter USB/Thunderbolt. Any brand name electronics store will carry them.

I am not sure how you could possible know that as a fact.

 

[gr8tfly]

Apple Thunderbolt <> Ethernet adapter here (rMBP). No problems whatsoever.

 

[brand]

If you want to go all out you could buy a Thunderbolt Display which includes an Ethernet port on it.

 

[KylePowers]

Thunderbolt because I don't think a USB adapter [Apple's, at least] supports gigabit ethernet

 

[opinio]

T-bolt dongle is best. I use it on my Macbook air and also on a Mac mini for aggregated ethernet (dual gigabit) with the in-built gigabit port.

I ran a speed test between a T-bolt gigabit and built-in ethernet on Mac mini. They ran at identical speeds.

 

[maflynn]

I have the TB dongle and it works well. I could go wireless for most of my needs with the exception of backing up by way of TimeMachine. Its much faster with the cable.

 

[brand]

I ran a speed test between a T-bolt gigabit and built-in ethernet on Mac mini. They ran at identical speeds.

What kind of speed test?

 

[sonicrobby]

If you want to go all out you could buy a Thunderbolt Display which includes an Ethernet port on it.

Just to use internet at work? @_@
Seems like a bit overkill for his needs
p.s. I know it was a joke

 

[opinio]

What kind of speed test?

Well it is somewhat rudimentary but it does the job...

Using black magic running on a 2011 MacBook Air (the Mac with the T-bolt gigabit adapter) I ran the test on a networked SSD drive on a 2012 Mac mini. I ran the same test using the built-in gigabit Ethernet on a 2011 mini server across the network on the SSD. And also ran the test on a T-bolt adapter on the 2011 mini.

To maintain similarity in CAT6/switch infrastructure I ran the devices directly through an Apple Time Capsule with 2m of CAT6 on either side.

I received about 103MB/s read/write using all three options.

Although I ran the test purely on the TC, I get about the same speed across the gigabit network (all CAT6) as well when doing the same black magic test on the SSD.

Yes I know these are read/write speeds on the drive at the other end, but the SSD well and truly saturates the gigabit link so it is a good representation of how fast each network link can run. For example doing the same test with the MBA wifi gives me about 20MB/s in black magic. Given that the SSD hits 300MB/s approx in a standard (local) black magic test, the speed limitation is the network connection. This is represented in the result.

But to answer your question in short, I ran black magic through the network adapter to a networked SSD drive. The trick with the test is to make sure you have a network drive a lot faster than the capability of the network connection. That way the result shows the network limitation, not the hard drive.

One might argue it is the CAT6 cable that could also be the limitation but I actually run CAT6a (10 gigabit), although the switch/router is only gigabit so the cabling is limited by the switch/router.

Either way the T-bolt gigabit adapter is very fast and produces the same result (for me) as the built-in gigabit port on a Mac mini.