[OSX Yosemite] Should I disable wifi if I'm connected via ethernet?

[rvs007]

Hi, I'm new to the Mac environment. Just set up my first Mac (Mac Mini) and I noticed in OSX, the has wifi enabled even though I have an ethernet cable connected to the Mac Mini. Should I be disabling wifi since I have a Gigabit ethernet connection to my home network already? Or are there features in OSX Yosemite that requires the wifi to be enabled?

Thanks!

 

[yukyuklee]

Hi, I'm new to the Mac environment. Just set up my first Mac (Mac Mini) and I noticed in OSX, the has wifi enabled even though I have an ethernet cable connected to the Mac Mini. Should I be disabling wifi since I have a Gigabit ethernet connection to my home network already? Or are there features in OSX Yosemite that requires the wifi to be enabled?

Thanks!

Yes you should disable wifi

 

[Weaselboy]

Hi, I'm new to the Mac environment. Just set up my first Mac (Mac Mini) and I noticed in OSX, the has wifi enabled even though I have an ethernet cable connected to the Mac Mini. Should I be disabling wifi since I have a Gigabit ethernet connection to my home network already? Or are there features in OSX Yosemite that requires the wifi to be enabled?

Thanks!

There is no need to disable the wifi. If you have Find my Mac enabled for example, the wifi needs to be on the locate your machine. I would leave it on.

To make sure your iMac is actually using ethernet rather than wifi open System Prefs and go to the Network pane. Then click the cog at the lower right and select set service order. Then drag the ethernet to the top of the list and apply the change.

This way the ethernet and wifi will both be connected, but all network traffic will use ethernet.

 

[rvs007]

Thanks so much for the explanation!

 

[glenthompson]

Keeping the wifi on is also handy if you use airdrop with other macs on your network.