USB ethernet and WiFi

[KennyKW]

I have both an USB ethernet and a WiFi network connection. I'd like to ask,

1) which one is faster?
2) can I use them both in parallel?

 

[omvs]

I have both an USB ethernet and a WiFi network connection. I'd like to ask,

1) which one is faster?
2) can I use them both in parallel?

USB to 100MBit or 1000MBit will be faster. You can theoretically out-do 100MBit with Wireless N, but my experience has shown me that even with wide-5GHz channels & good signal strength its actually slower. You'll also have significantly more packet loss, which can make latency much higher.

You can have both connections active at the same time, but its not going to 'share' the bandwidth in the way you might think. I'm not sure which connection actually gets used when both are active on the same net, but I do my system doesn't lose connectivity when there's a redundant connection.

 

[cooky560]

I've found ethernet is almost always faster, not to mention less vulnerable to dropping out. And if everything in your house is connected by ethernet you can disable your routers wifi function entirely and gain extra security to boot. All in all there are many benefits to ethernet.

Just out of Interest, my network is cat6 compatible (1000mb/s) is my iMac capable of this speed? (I've never checked)

 

[0007776]

Ethernet is going to be faster at least for transferring files around your home network. For Internet most likely your Internet itself will be the slow point so there won't be any noticeable difference.

 

[omvs]

...
Just out of Interest, my network is cat6 compatible (1000mb/s) is my iMac capable of this speed? (I've never checked)

I would expect so unless you machine is more than a few years old. If you go into System Preferences, Network, advanced, Ethernet, you can temporarily select Configure:manually and see what options are under speed.

There's probably easier ways, but not that I found in my 30 seconds of looking.

 

[Badger^2]

Why are doing ethernet over USB?

And "faster" doing what? Surfing the web? Or transferring tons of files?

You could have a 100,000 MBps connection but it still wont make your 3 MBps DSL any faster.

You only need Cat 5e for 1000/gigabit ethernet connections, regardless, all Intel and G5 iMacs are 1000bt. So your iMac is capable, but you will only see the speed when transferring files across a network.