Wi-Fi/Ethernet Screen Sharing

[Yoshimura]

I want to use Screen Sharing between two Mac that are both connected to a router by Wi-Fi and that are both connected to each other using a Ethernet cable.

My problem is that when stating a Screen Sharing session using the Finder sidebar, it use the Wi-Fi connection instead of the faster Ethernet connection.

Why it privileges the Wi-Fi connection? How can I force it to use the Ethernet connection instead?

 

[cruisin]

By default WiFi is higher because most people just want signal, not speed. So if it can connect to WiFi it will.

In System Preferences > Network it will show your connections. At the bottom left it will show a plus, minus, and a gear. Click the gear and then click Service Order. Drag WiFi down or ethernet up so that your first choice is reflected.

 

[Yoshimura]

By default WiFi is higher because most people just want signal, not speed. So if it can connect to WiFi it will.

In System Preferences > Network it will show your connections. At the bottom left it will show a plus, minus, and a gear. Click the gear and then click Service Order. Drag WiFi down or ethernet up so that your first choice is reflected.

Ethernet was already at the top of the list. :-(

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[sevoneone]

The shortcut in the sidebar is likely linked to the IP address of the Wifi interface on the other machine. Are the two Macs linked directly to each other with one Ethernet cable, or via your router? If the former, the Wifi connection will still take precedence for those sidebar shortcuts because that is where the router and structured network is. The ethernet interfaces on the directly linked Macs are going to have self-assigned IP addresses unless you manually configured them. You can still connect across ethernet, you will just need to specify the IP address of ethernet interface on the other computer, not the sidebar shortcut.

You can find the IP address of each machine's ethernet interface in System Preferences > Networking. Click on the Ethernet interface and make note of the IP address. Something like 169.254.xxx.xxx if it is self-assigned.

Go to the Mac you want to use to connect to the other via a screen sharing session. In the Finder select Connect to Server from the Go menu, or press Command-K. Type in: vnc://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the IP address of the other Mac's ethernet interface. Screen Sharing should launch and be running the connection over Ethernet.

A simpler, though less refined way to do it would be to disconnect one of the Mac's wifi connections and then turn on Internet Sharing on the Mac that still has wifi on. Set it up so your connection from WiFi is shared with computers using Ethernet. This makes one machine dependent on the other for internet access, but has the side effect of forcing any communication between the two to be over Ethernet allowing the sidebar shortcut to work.