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Level 1

1 points

Gigabit connection to Airport Extreme

Here's a nice one to try and explain: Connecting my Mac Pro 1.1 to my new Airport Extreme (leaving the ethernet settings on "auto") results in both cards connecting at 100mb only. Setting either card to gigabit and the Mac completely loses the connection. It just keeps fluttering between active and inactive in network utility with only packets going out and none coming in.
P.S. All cabling used is cat6 so let's not bring that up 🙂

Now for the heck of it I connected the Mac to the Airport Extreme through a Cisco gigabit switch and low and behold: gigabit connections all the way.
There seems to be no way to achieve that without the switch between the two Apple gems.. PRAM has been reset, networking plists have been deleted and freshly remade, etc etc.

Anybody have thoughts on this? Thanks!

Mac Pro 1.1, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 16, 2011 10:31 AM

30 replies

Mar 18, 2011 5:43 PM in response to BoyHowdyDoo

Does it have a model number on it?

Mar 18, 2011 5:49 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Mine? A1143.

Mar 18, 2011 5:59 PM in response to BoyHowdyDoo

Same model number for both. But that leads to the answer. It looks like iFelix has the dope on that issue, and how to tell them apart:

http://tech.ifelix.net/8020.html

Mar 18, 2011 6:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yeah. Confusing having the same model number. I looked up the number and it said I had 100T OR 1000T. I know mine is the 100T because I got upset when they announced the GigE soon after. And the fact that I can't get 1000T:) Mine says (Fast Ethernet)

Mar 18, 2011 7:03 PM in response to BoyHowdyDoo

He established a gigabit connection with a switch connected so it's not a 100M AE.

Mar 18, 2011 7:28 PM in response to Martin Pace

How would you tell what the speed of the connection to the Airport Express Base Station is?

Is there an actual connections speed read-out somewhere that you can look at?

Mar 18, 2011 7:36 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Many switches have indicator lights that show what the connection speed is for each port.

Mar 18, 2011 8:05 PM in response to Martin Pace

Not sure if OP has hard reset the SMC on the logic board or not. I've had it clear up all kinds of issues a pram zap didn't (Incl. NIC's and USB bus issues). Find another Mac and test the AE. Booting to a fresh OS install would isolate HW from SW.

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 19, 2011 4:13 AM in response to mwille

Looks like I missed quite a bit over night 🙂
Both switches had led speed indicators showing the gig connection to the Airport. Besides that I was logged in to the Cisco's console port whicj allows you to see very detailed port stats, including speed.

@BoyHowdyDoo I haven't tried a SMC reset, that sounds very interesting. Googling how to that on mine as we speak!

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 19, 2011 4:37 AM in response to mwille

Okay, did the SMC reset as described in the KB here. No change unfortunately.. 😟

Mar 19, 2011 6:44 AM in response to mwille

This won't solve the problem but it may confirm if you have a hardware problem. Try using Apple Hardware Test to see if it generates any fault codes. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Most likely it will say everything is OK. Either way I think at this point it's time to take it in to an Authorized Apple Service Center if it is still under Applecare.

Since you're not hooking up to other devices via a wired connection it may not be worth the effort. File transfers between your Mac Pro and a wireless N device shouldn't be significantly by the 100 Mbit connection to the Mac Pro.

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 19, 2011 6:49 AM in response to Martin Pace

I'll have a look at the hardware test when I get back.
Filetransfers aren't the reason I need a faster then 100mb connection from my mac. My WAN connection is quite a bit faster then 100mb so at this moment my LAN is slower then my WAN! Who would have thought that possible 10 years ago huh 🙂

Mar 19, 2011 11:28 AM in response to mwille

Have you booted to a fresh OS on external or tried another Mac yet?

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 19, 2011 11:58 AM in response to BoyHowdyDoo

Still waiting for a friend of mine to finally drop by with his MBP. Getting an external with a fresh OS will take some time but that's a good one, will defenatly do that asap!

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 21, 2011 10:42 AM in response to mwille

Update: Got hold of a fresh OS X 10.6.6 install on an external drive an booted from that: exact same results as with my own installation: no gig connections, no way.
Hooked everything up to the cheapest gigabit switch that Cisco offers (SD2005) and what do you know: instant gigabit with the ethernet card set to auto..
I don't have an explanation though..

Gigabit connection to Airport Extreme