Thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet

Question

Level 1

0 points

Thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet

So I recently got a retina macbook pro, and had to get the thunderbolt to gigibait ethernet adapter because my college dorm only has a wired internet connection. My connection download speed has been about 1.1mbps while my upload has been about 1.3mbps, my roomate is getting up to 8 mbps download on his dell xps laptop. Ive tried using the same ethernet jack as him with no avail, and im starting to think that there is something wrong with my thunderbolt adapter. There is no local apple store so i cant just switch out the adapter, any suggestions as to why im getting such low speeds when the network is clearly capable of delivering faster speeds?

Airport Express-OTHER, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 26, 2012 2:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Shootist007

Level 6

16,709 points

Aug 26, 2012 3:07 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

Stick a Wireless Router into the Ethernet port you are using, Disable the DHCP server on the router and don't use the the WAN/Internet port on the router. That will make the Router a Ethernet Switch with Wireless Access Point then connect to the router wirelessly.

I have no idea what the problem is with the TB to Ethernet adapter. I do know this, even my standard MBP 2011 has slower Ethernet then all my PC computers.

PS, Maybe you should of bought a standard Mac instead of the Cutting Edge model you got or maybe even a PC notebook.

Reply

Answer 2

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 3:46 PM in response to Shootist007

The problem is that every device needs to be registered on the network and routers are not supported on the network, so Id rather not mess with something that isnt allowed on campus. I got the retina pro on a student discount so it turned out to be more affordable than a regular mac with an sdd installed. its a great computer and its worked flawelesly. My only prob is the ethernet speed, which is usable for basic things, nobody seems to be having problems with the TB adapter exept for me so I had absolutely no reason to believe this would be a problem going into the purchase. thanks for the suggestion though.

Reply

Answer 3

mr da

Level 3

510 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:01 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

Sorry I don't have any solution to suggest, but can offer another data point. After reading your post, I connected up mbpr <-> adapter <-> ethernet cable <-> router, and then tested speeds using speedtest.net: got downloads at 24.22 Mbps and uploads at 4.16 Mbps (this through Comcast).

Reply

Answer 4

mr da

Level 3

510 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:11 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

Just out of curiosity, in your System Preferences > Network under Advanced ... > Hardware, what is the configuration? (Mine reads "Automatically", but I got approximately the same speeds choosing "Manually" with "100baseTX", "full duplex, flow control" and MTU "Standard (1500)".)

Reply

Answer 5

rrahimi

Level 3

615 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:18 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

You might just as well have recieved a faulty TB-GE adapter. On a college campus there's gotta be another Mac with TB. Try testing your adapter with someone else's machine.

Also, if your school's IT registers devices then they can and usually will set bandwidth limits on devices. Do you know how they identify you? Is it MAC Address based or do they provide a separate software?

Reply

Answer 6

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:19 PM in response to mr da

mine is set to 10baseT/UTP, half duplex, Standard (1500) and if I change it at all it tells me my cord is unplugged and wont connect.

Reply

Answer 7

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:20 PM in response to rrahimi

will do and if not i may just get a usb to ethernet because campus internet will never exceed 10mbps

Reply

Answer 8

rrahimi

Level 3

615 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:26 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

Oh man. That's some 1980s networking technology you got there. 😉

10 is 10Mbps

100 is 100Mbps

1000 is 1000Mbps capacity.

Half Duplex (ancient Ethernet) means basically one way data transfer at any single time.

Switch to Manual and bump those two up. I don't know why auto detection configured things that way.

Reply

Answer 9

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:36 PM in response to rrahimi

if i change the settings to anything but what it is automatically set at than my connection stops working and the networking options state the cable is unplugged, not sure whats up with it

And to answer your earlier question it installs a program that registers the device and there prob are caps but my roomate is getting 8 times faster speeds and bragging about how great his dell is.

Reply

Answer 10

rrahimi

Level 3

615 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:44 PM in response to Ramsrdebest

Hmm... Did you configure Full Duplex or Full Duplex with Flow Control?

It might be that the switch on the other side doesn't support 802.1x flow control. If turning that off still doesn't allow you to set to 100 or 1000 then it might be that the switch is just incompatible.

Have a chat with your IT. Tell them your device is not registering properly with their switch. They might have seen something similar.

Sorry, don't have any other recommendation.

Reply

Answer 11

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 4:50 PM in response to rrahimi

I configured with and without flow control both times the connection simply shut off, ill definatley have a chat with the IT department and hopefully I can find a fix. Thanks for all the help though at least now I know what the problem is.

Reply

Answer 12

Ramsrdebest Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2012 6:19 PM in response to rrahimi

I spoke with IT and they said 10baseT/UTP is standard for the university, but I was able to reset my network settings by deleting the plist file. I was then able to manually set 10baseT/UTP at full duplex and i am now getting close to 9.5mbps down and 7.8mbps up, which is almost as fast as the connection will get.Thanks for all the help.

Reply