Do I have an Ethernet card in my MacBook?

Yes you have ethernet. It is built in it is not a PCI card. Look under network and you will see all it has.

FYI you can't install a PCI card as there are no slots except for RAM.

Mort

Yes.

To be more correct, the Airport Card slot is called a Mini PCI slot, however the software for " About This Mac" must only be programmed to detect the PCI slots which are present in the Desktop Macs, which are full PCI slots.

Doesn't matter what you call it:->
Mini PCI or PCI. It's still not in the MacBook. There is no slot as I said.

Mort

Glad I could help. Thanks for the Star.

Mort

I think if you will look at one of the disassembly videos for the MacBook - and focus on the Airport card, you will see that it indeed is in a slot. That particular type of slot is referred to as a mini PCI slot. There is a company that will replace the "G" Airport card with an "N" Airport card, and they do it by just unattaching the two antenna wires, unscrewing two holding screws, and removing the "G" card from the mini PCI slot to be replaced by the "N" card. Of course there is a lot of work to disassemble the MacBook enough to access the mini PCI slot, but it is in fact there on the mainboard, no matter what I call it.

I stand corrected.

Mort

This has been bothering me and I wanted to ask this. I admit a mini-pci card slot is there and the airport wireless card is in it. Everything I can find states this is the wireless module and only the wireless module. Also FYI the only MacBook that has the 802.11g was the original core duo. All the C2D Macbooks have 802.11g pre-installed. Changing the card out will do nothing for the Base-T ethernet port. It still stays "ETHERNET: 10/100/1000 BASE-T (Gigabit)." The reference you made to 802.11g and 802.11n specs are wireless specs not Base-T specs.

I can find no reference that this is in fact the integrated wired ethernet controller. If you have some info I can't find that says the wireless card is in fact use for wireless networking and wired ethernet I would appreciate it.

Everything I have found separates the two physically. The first post referred to wired ethernet not wireless. The card he mentioned was for a wired
ethernet port. That even if it was mini pci would not work in the MacBook as I still believe the ethernet chipset is sepearte from the airport mini pci card.

I could not imagine designing a wireless 802.11n or g card and right in the middle of the whole thing throwing in a Base-T ethernet chipset. It would not be good RF design nor good digital design. Please point out any data that you have that show me wrong in the two being seperated.

Mort

correction the C2D MacBooks have 802.11n wireless card installed. I miss-typed that it was 802.11g.

Mort

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/AppleHardware-date.html

The Apple hardware docs have very clear diagrams and descriptions of exactly what's installed in each Mac.

Thanks Tele-Player that confirmed what I thought. Appreciate the link. That will be used a lot now.I don't do R&D anymore but still like to keep up with everything:->

Here is the data from the MacBook info. The two are separate.

"Ethernet Controller
The computer has a built in Ethernet port for a 10BASE-T/UTP, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T Gigabit operation. For more information, see Ethernet Developer Note.

AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Module
The MacBook computer has an internal AirPort Extreme module, connected to a dedicated 1-lane PCI Express link and a Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (enhanced data rate) module, connected to the USB 2.0 controller. AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth have independent built-in antennas. For more information, see AirPort Developer Note and Bluetooth Developer Note."

Mort

What in the post led you to believe that I somehow thought the ethernet and wireless cards were connected? A statement was made that the MacBook has no PCI slots - that is not the case. Do I think that the PCI (PCI Express to be exact) slot could be used to put a NIC into the MacBook?, in a word no. The problem with the Mini PCI slot is it has no external access, so if a Mini PCI card was put in, that needed access to the outside of the computer - a problem exists. It could also be that the engineers dedicated that slot for wireless cards only, so a firmware update and drivers would be needed to use the slot for anything else. My intention in posting was to make sure no misinformation was given. If someone says that there are no Personal Computer Interface slots in the MacBook, that is not strictly true - there is one, albeit not the standard desktop type. No attack nor meaning to attack a posting was made, rather just an attempt to pass on some information. I surely do not know everything, but I am in a constant quest for information.

I agree, I am always trying to learn. Keeps my brain active, "what little is left":->

I was stuck on the PCI slot pertaining to the built in ethernet . I also can now see my miss-statement about the slots thanks for the correction. Sorry for taking it wrong.

Mort