 jaaPremium
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1 edit | Thunderbolt ethernet adapter issues I bought the thunderbolt gigabit ethernet adapter for my daughter's macbook air. She is at college, and the wireless is flakey sometimes - so she wanted a way to be wired when in her dorm.
She said it did not work. All she did was plug it in. Should it have just worked that way, or would she need to download a driver?
She sent it home, and I tried it in a Macbook Pro that is 4 years old running 10.7.5. The adapter says 10.7.4 is required. I plugged it in, and no new connection showed up in my network settings. I tried to download the 1.2.1 thunderbolt update, and it said it was not supported on my system. Is the hardware too old?
I wish I had the Air so I could see what the problem was, but that is not the case. I'm thinking of returning the adapter - I guess the adapter could be defective.
Edit: She tried to install the 1.2.1 update on her Air that has 10.7.5, and it says 10.7.4 is required. I'm guessing 10.7.5 already has that update in it?
When I plug it into my Pro, nothing shows up in the network settings - just the Wireless, Wired, firewire - no new adapter.
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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| Are you sure that you're using a Thunderbolt and not a mini display port? |
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 skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 | Yeah, 4 year old MBA's didn't have T-Bolt (that rolled out in the 2011 MBA). They use a USB to ethernet adapter. |
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jaaPremium
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| reply to tango_bob
I was using mini-display port. There is no thunderbolt on the macbook pro. I put my glasses on and can see that the port is a display port. I guess they saved money by using the same physical connector.
The Air only has thunderbolt, right - no mini display port? So I think she plugged it in correctly on the Air.
Did she need to do anything other than plug it in - drivers?
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
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| That older MBA is also DP only. She needs the USB adapter, plug it in and it will just work.
»store.apple.com/us/product/MC704···fnode=58 |
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 not quite rightI'm not cool enough to be a Mac person
join:2001-06-23
Puyallup, WA
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| reply to jaa
Could be a flakey unit, it's not working on 3 different computers. The reviews showed quite a few people having issues with that adapter. Return it for exchange, and field test the new one before sending it back to your daughter. Definitely should be plug and play, with a small update from software update being the worst case scenario.
I have a friend that uses one with her MBA with no problems what so ever. If you still have issues after exchanging go for the USB adapter instead, I realize it's only T10/100, but not everybody needs a Gigabit ethernet connection.
*opps got distracted mid-typing and 20 people beat me to the punch*
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Not many people know this, but I happen to be quite famous... |
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jaaPremium
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| reply to jaa
Well, only had problem in one Air. The other computer was a pro and user error (no thunderbolt).
Her Air is about a year old. I looked at the current Air and it has USB and Thunderbolt - no display port. It is possible her Air does not have Thunderbolt?
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 | Ah, I misread your post. T-Bolt rolled out for MBA in mid-2011, so if she bought it right before that, or from the refurb store around that time it wouldn't. Otherwise it will. |
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jaaPremium
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| The Air was purchased from Amazon 12/28/2011.
Apple MacBook Air MC965LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop.
It seems this has Thunderbolt. »www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m···ecs.html
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 | Perhaps the NIC has to be registered with the school's admin or something. Pepperdine was like that but I would hit a walled garden saying I had to register the device. |
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jaaPremium
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| That is possible. She went through tech support with the school, and they said they registered it...
Would be a lot easier if it were here with me!!
I do understand a lot more about Thunderbolt now, and I really appreciate everyone's help.
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
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| She can't get on with wireless then you use back to my mac to TS the ethernet side? You wouldn't be able to verify Internetz connectivity from ethernet but you would troubleshoot and see that it pulls and IP, gets valid DNS, etc. I think you can screen share through iChat and Messages too. |
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jaaPremium
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| She can get on with wireless. I guess I could screen share with her to try to figure it out...but the adapter is here with me now. 
I think I'll bring the adapter and a router with me when I see her in about 2 weeks. I'll see if the adapter will pull a DHCP address from the router, indicating that is working ok - and then see what happens when connected to the school network.
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
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kudos:2 | You could mail it back. The 2 weeks of wondering would drive me crazy. |
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jaaPremium
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| Me too - but I'm so busy, and so is she, so by the time we actually coordinated schedules I think I would be there. And I have not done screen sharing before; her wireless is a little flakey (which is why I got the adapter) - so I think we'll just have to wait.
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
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| »www.youtube.com/watch?v=raTts-iGixU |
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 CodyBob Vance, VRPremium
join:2002-05-28
Mukilteo, WA | reply to jaa
said by jaa:I do understand a lot more about Thunderbolt now, and I really appreciate everyone's help.
I just learned the "difference" between DP and Thunderbolt last week, too! My biggest surprise was that apple actually used the same connector for something else, since that's kind of the opposite of their business model. But it's a welcome change!
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Blame it on the C2H5OH |
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| said by Cody:My biggest surprise was that apple actually used the same connector for something else, since that's kind of the opposite of their business model. But it's a welcome change! Thunderbolt is actually an Intel technology developed in collaboration with Apple, and is not unique to Apple devices.
The decision to use the same connector as mini-DP was intentional, and thunderbolt is compatible with mini-DP (IE: you can connect a thunderbolt port to a mini-DP port on a display that does not support thunderbolt and it will still work). There are constraints such as the DP-only device would need to be last in a chain, if multiple devices are connected.
Thunderbolt is to be thought of as an extension to display connectivity and not as yet another connector. |
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kitsune
join:2001-11-26
Sacramento, CA | reply to jaa
On the MBA was the adapter at least showing up in Network Preferences? If not then open system information and check the thunderbolt section to make sure that the adapter is being detected. Also you can bypass the OS by booting to recovery mode (command-r at boot) and check network utility to see if it gets an IP there. |
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CodyBob Vance, VRPremium
join:2002-05-28
Mukilteo, WA | reply to Shady Bimmer
I didn't know it was a collaboration with Apple, but I did know about the backwards compatibility with MiniDP (that's what I had encountered this past week while helping a friend set up dual monitors).
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Blame it on the C2H5OH |
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