Gigabit Ethernet Between 2 MacBook Pros

[High on Life]

I am trying to use a Cat6 ethernet cable to link 2 Book Pros together, both of which are running Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Both 's can reach a Link Speed of 100 Mbit/s when configured Automatically, but when I change the configuration to "Manually" (under System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced > Ethernet) and change the Speed to "1000baseT" (on both computers) the connection drops immediately and I get a "Cable Unplugged" message under Status.

What's the deal? I want to transfer files at 1 gb/s and as far as I know this should work. Anyone know what's going on?

 

[b01189]

I know this could be a simple mistake but your sure you have a cat6 cable, should printed on the cable its self weather it is a cat5 or 6. I have MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and an old PowerMac G4 all on a sub 1Gbps network.

 

[itommyboy]

I am trying to use a Cat6 ethernet cable to link 2 Book Pros together, both of which are running Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Both 's can reach a Link Speed of 100 Mbit/s when configured Automatically, but when I change the configuration to "Manually" (under System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced > Ethernet) and change the Speed to "1000baseT" (on both computers) the connection drops immediately and I get a "Cable Unplugged" message under Status.

What's the deal? I want to transfer files at 1 gb/s and as far as I know this should work. Anyone know what's going on?

Might I ask what you're linking them for? If your end goal is file transferring connect via fire-wire and use target disk mode it's your fastest route. Not to be picky but just so you don't get let down you won't ever really achieve gb/s speeds crossing over as read/write speeds bottleneck.

Also depending on date of your MBP you may need a crossover cable. Either way if your bent on going the Ethernet route check out this article it should prove useful if even just as a double check on your steps.

 

[crazzyeddie]

Sounds sorta like a bad cable to me. You should definitely be able to achieve gigabit using a good CAT5e or CAT6 cable.

 

[High on Life]

I know this could be a simple mistake but your sure you have a cat6 cable, should printed on the cable its self weather it is a cat5 or 6. I have MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and an old PowerMac G4 all on a sub 1Gbps network.

It's definitely a Cat6. And it's definitely not a faulty cable. I bought it from Best Buy yesterday.

 

[High on Life]

Might I ask what you're linking them for? If your end goal is file transferring connect via fire-wire and use target disk mode it's your fastest route. Not to be picky but just so you don't get let down you won't ever really achieve gb/s speeds crossing over as read/write speeds bottleneck.

Also depending on date of your MBP you may need a crossover cable. Either way if your bent on going the Ethernet route check out this article it should prove useful if even just as a double check on your steps.

My goal is basic file transfer. Is fire-wire really faster than a Gigabit ethernet connection? I was under the impression that fire-wire maxes out at 800 Mbit/s while Gigabit reached 1000 Mbit/s.

 

[hypermog]

Are you sure it's successfully connecting in 100baseT? I was under the impression that you need a special "crossover" ethernet cable to connect two machines without a switch, router, or hub device.

Also, you might need Cat 6e, not just Cat 6.

 

[reallynotnick]

Are you sure it's successfully connecting in 100baseT? I was under the impression that you need a special "crossover" ethernet cable to connect two machines without a switch, router, or hub device.

Also, you might need Cat 6e, not just Cat 6.

He might need a crossover cable, and you are thinking of Cat5e which does support Gigabit, Cat6 can do higher than Gigabit.

Also don't waste your money at Best Buy, get some from MonoPrice or any other online retailer basically.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10232

 

[itommyboy]

My goal is basic file transfer. Is fire-wire really faster than a Gigabit ethernet connection? I was under the impression that fire-wire maxes out at 800 Mbit/s while Gigabit reached 1000 Mbit/s.

You're not listening - OP - or others in this thread. You're not going to get gb/s transfer speeds. You get gb/s in theory but you won't actually come near those throughput speeds... plain and simple. You'll end up with the fastest throughput speeds using firewire do to less traffic overhead, packet loss etc. Not to mention HDD speeds bottleneck on both sides with either way of connecting.

Did you completely go through the well written and easy breakdown of an article I linked regarding proper cabling for your specific MBP? Do you have the correct cable? Did you set up your network correctly? Read the article I linked, get a firewire cable, good to go.