Mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad have made wireless networks as common as public bathrooms, leaving the once-mighty wired Ethernet connection a thing of the past. But there are some very good reasons why you should consider keeping a wired connection, so read on.
Apple has been quick to abandon outdated technology, especially where peripheral ports are concerned. Remember ADB for the keyboard and mouse? SCSI? Even FireWire 400? Despite taking the axe to some of our old favorites, there’s one port that Apple has steadfastly maintained on all but the slimmest of notebooks -- for example, the MacBook Air, which is lucky to have any ports at all.
We speak of the Ethernet port, once a vital and robust connection for your home network, including other computers (Windows or Mac), the internet and even printers. Thanks to the proliferation of Wi-Fi, most of us are no longer using Ethernet to network our computers at home -- but here are five very good reasons why you should.
We all remember the first time we saw an 802.11b/g wireless connection in action -- it made us believe in magic, unicorns and Santa Claus all over again. But in everyday use, that aging Wi-Fi standard is simply too slow to push large files around. 802.11n gave us a second chance to believe by significantly upping the data transfer rate on the 5GHz band, but let’s face it -- even that’s too slow for ever-increasing file sizes such as HD video. Meanwhile, the grand old T-Base1000 Gigabit Ethernet connection leaves wireless in the dust with copy speeds nearing that of local storage -- while eliminating the possibility of dropped data packets or other wireless bugaboos.
We’ll admit it: There’s an old Power Mac G5 still lurking in our office that we can’t let go of. Abandoned by Apple with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and many software publishers in the move to an Intel-only world, this PowerPC behemoth is still a worthy asset, particularly for the expensive video and SCSI PCI cards it holds within. Unfortunately, the same Power Mac G5 was manufactured before 802.11n wireless was introduced in 2007 with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, making it painfully slow to connect to other computers in our network and move files between them. Thankfully, the G5 has T-Base1000 Gigabit Ethernet, so we can get a little more life out of this beast with an inexpensive Ethernet cable, and save the slower 802.11b/g for internet access.
If you live in a house that’s a bit too expansive for a single Wi-Fi access point or your location suffers from brick walls and other enemies of wireless, the solution is to extend your range by installing more than one AirPort Extreme. Yes, you can do this wirelessly -- with the second Base Station picking up the signal from the first and carrying it further -- but it’s not an optimal solution. Break out some Ethernet cables, connect them between Base Stations, tweak a few settings in AirPort Utility and you’ve suddenly got a house blanketed in fast, high-quality wireless -- not to mention a couple of extra Ethernet ports in another location, should you ever need them.
It happens to all of us eventually -- our trusty internet connection goes down and we’re forced to whip out a MiFi or tether a 3G connection from our iPhone 4 to get online temporarily. Unfortunately, doing so means that we lose access to other parts of our home network, including media servers, AirDisks, Pogoplugs and the like. But it doesn’t have to be that way -- keep an Ethernet connection attached to your computers and you can have the best of both worlds when your home internet goes dark. You can browse the internet through the tethered connection, while still having full access to network-attached storage devices via Ethernet. If you’re lucky enough to live in an area with Verizon 4G LTE service, you could even use this tip to connect to the internet full-time through their unlimited data plan and still enjoy the spoils of a home network.
Apple’s Time Capsule one-upped the AirPort Extreme Base Station by including ample networked storage on top of its wireless router duties, making the Time Machine backup option introduced with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that much more enticing. But as convenient as wireless storage can be, it’s no match for Gigabit Ethernet when it comes to speed. That means your backups and file transfers will zip along faster than ever before, making the inconvenience of a few little wires a little less of a hassle. Keep the Wi-Fi connection for your iOS devices, but come to Ethernet for the speed and reliability. Who says you can’t have both?
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(Images courtesy of DavidDanielsPhotography.com, HolitnaRiverLodge.com and ianmarmour.wordpress.com)
Philodina
April 12, 2011 at 2:32am
I don't travel a great deal but my experience is that most hotels and motels have crummy or limited wireless networks, but they all still have hard-wired networks with an Ethernet port in the room. This may be a transitory issue but I find it useful to carry along an Airport Express and use it to generate a local wireless network in my room for use with my iPad and iPhone to minimize 3G time, particularly when overseas (OK, Canada). If I had a notebook I'd be doing the same thing and the lack of an Ethernet port eliminated Macbook Air from consideration for me.
YBrammer
April 11, 2011 at 4:08pm
My house has a connection from AT&T Uverse. The modem comes with a battery pack so the phone line can stay on when the power is out. I found that the internet is still provided and that the WiFi will still broadcast while using battery.. Takes away one reason!
