Are all Airport Extremes working on gigabit WAN/LAN speed? I have an older non dual band, I am wondering about the speed of the ethernet ports for both WAN and LAn as well as the speed to the USB port too where my NAS is connected. thxs.
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 6 gig RAM
There are four generations of the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations. Only the 1st generation model (Model# A1143 / Part# MA073LL/A) did not have Gigabit WAN/LAN ports.
The USB port is version 2.0 and supports a peak 480 Mbps data rate.
clarification please. I just looked at my Airport Extreme router, says model A1143 which from above would indicate that it is NOT a gigabit ethernet output..
but yet the airport utility says:
"Airport Utility found an Airport Extreme with 802.11n (Gigabit Ethernet)
hmmm..
is there a way to test ethernet 'line' speed? thxs
There are two versions of the Airport Extreme Model # A1143.
The earlier version with order number MA073LL/A did NOT have Gigabit Ethernet Ports
The later version with order number MB053LL/A DOES have Gigabit Ethernet Ports.
Check the label on the back of your device to see which order number you have.
You can fault Apple's sometimes quirky numbering system for the confusion.
is there a way to test ethernet 'line' speed?
On your Mac, open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilitiies > Network Utility
Click the Info tab
Select Ethernet
If AirPort Utility says you have a Gigabit Ethernet model, you have a Gigabit Ethernet model.
Bob,
the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Network Utility app will tell you what the port speed of your Mac Computer is correct? Not the port speed of the Airport Device. Or will it show the port speed of whatever device it's connected to versus what it's capable of?
As far as I know, it will tell you the theoretical bandwidth of the connection between your Mac and device that it is connected to. In real life, the actual throughput will typically be about 60-65% of the theoretical bandwidth.
In addition to Bob's comments, just having a Gigabit ports does not necessarily mean you can transfer data across those ports at those speeds for a number of reasons. A better measure would be to verify the actual data transfer rate to between devices using those ports.
One easy test would be to use a pair of Macs (or PCs, or combinations of both) with a command-line utility like iPerf or its graphical interface cousin: jPerf.
You can find a Mac-version of jPerf here: jPerf for OS X
iPerf/jPerf works in a server-client fashion. You would configure one network client as the server and another as a client. You can then run a series of tests to verify the actual data transfer rate. You can then test how changing parameters, like the MTU value, affects this rate.
Gigabit Ethernet LAN/WAN?
