Mac mini: Airport or wired?

[asmack]

I have a new Mac mini on the way, and it'll be the first Mac I've owned that came Airport ready (I never bothered with an Airport card for my G4 MDD tower).

I have a simultaneous dual-band Airport Extreme which I bought for my Windows laptop and iPod Touch. I like the idea of operating the mini wirelessly as well, in order to eliminate yet another wire and keep things as uncluttered as possible. However, I was wondering if there are any performance benefits from having it wired direct to the Extreme. Will it be faster, more stable and more secure having it wired as opposed to wireless? The Extreme and mini will be in the same room and only a few inches away from each other.

[curt]

Congrats on the new Mac mini! I would probably go with Gigabit Ethernet if you are going to be that close to the AirPort Extreme. It's a faster and more consistent connection.
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1.42GHz Mac mini
1.66GHz Intel Mac mini
2.0GHz 2009 Mac mini
46" Sony LCD
50" Sony KDS-50A2000
EyeTV 250 Plus
My Setup

[macmini2010]

Will it be faster, more stable and more secure having it wired as opposed to wireless? Yes, Yes, and yes*

How about a wired connection until you need that port for something else? Try the wired for a week, try it wireless for a week to see what you like. If your network cable is bright blue and your desk is beige, get a light grey cable to blend in better. I'd go wired since it's up 99.999999% of the time.


* a network is only as strong as it's weakest link so as long as you use the strongest encryption etc it's reasonably secure. The only reasonable way to ensure higher security is to have an entirely wired network where someone would have to plug in to access the network. Then again it's only as strong as it's firewall etc is for outside "attacks".
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My cat themed collection:
- Mac Mini - Core 2 Duo 2.26/2/160/SuperDrive Snow Leopard
- iLamp 15" - 800/256/60/DVD Tiger
- Power Mac - G4 "Sawtooth" 450/2/80/DVD/ZIP! Panther
- Mac SE/30 192/30/SuperDrive Ocelot

[mooblie]

Another vote for wired, especially as the boxes are next to each other.
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Martin at HeadSpin HD now on Blu-ray

[Cypher]

I'd always go wired where ever possible.
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Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[zedtvl]

[asmack]

Thanks, everyone. Wired it is!

[fiat]

Hi, Sorry, this is a late late cut in to the thread. It seems Airport Extreme would provide ONE wired Ethernet connection to a computer and wireless network for all other computer/device. Is this a basic/standard feature for all or most other wireless routers in the market? Or the basic is "wireless only" without even "one" wired connection? I am looking for a wireless router that provides at lest one wired connection and then fast, reliable, secured wireless (Airport Ext seems bit expensive). Any recommendation?

[philiparcario]

yeah d-link has one. I will try to find a link.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127215&cm_re=d-link_router-_-33-127-215-_-Product


this will work. has 1 in and 4 out along with wireless. really good sale around 65 bucks normally 100
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2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

[jb]

[fiat]

Phil: Thanks for the d-link router link. (How do you compare with Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless N Router - 300Mbps, 802.11n, 4-Port on sale for $40 by Tiger direct?)

jb: Thanks for correcting my out of line knowledge. Airport Ext does have 4 wired ports and Airport Exp has none.

[philiparcario]

[edgardito]

I would buy a router supported by DD-WRT.com
This firmware is awesome. It allows you to tweak several router parameters (like Power) and several other things.
You can check if the router you intend to buy is supported at the dd-wrt.com website.