[blicked]

Hiyah all... I recently upgraded from a PowerBook G4 1.66Ghz to a Mac Pro 2.66GHz with the Airport and Bluetooth installed.

I have an Airport Express base station for my wireless network, and am currently connected through that to a cable modem.

If I were to cut out the Airport Express base station, connect to the cable modem directly via ethernet, and turn on the "share internet connection" settting, how much of a hit on my processor would I expect?

Also, it _would_ be faster to connect via ethernet than Airport, right?

[Sherman Homan]

Why would you want to do that?! Your Express is going to do a much better job of handling DHCP, routing, NAT etc than your MacBook. Processor load is going to be dependent on how hard you are hitting on the other machines. The perceived speed of wireless versus cable is not going to be different, both the Express and the MacBook are capable of much faster throughput than your cable modem can dish out. In fact, you could get an ancient 10 meg "b" speed router and the bottle neck would still be your cable modem.

The biggest problem with Internet Sharing on the MacBook is sleep mode. Your laptop will be on forever or the connection will be dropped. That is one very expensive router!

[Apfhex]

I bet the processor hit would be negligible.

Unless I'm wrong, Internet Sharing with the Airport card in the Mac Pro only offers WEP security.

Connecting VIA ethernet would only be faster for local file copying (and between the PB and the MP you'd have a sweet gigabit ethernet connection), unless you have a 100mbps+ internet connection!

Originally Posted by Sherman Homan 

Why would you want to do that?! Your Express is going to do a much better job of handling DHCP, routing, NAT etc than your MacBook.

He doesn't have a Macbook. You make a point though, the Airport Express is going to do a better job of being a router than your MP. It would work out though if you're only going to be using internet on your PB a little.

[Xyrrus]

Originally Posted by blicked 

Hiyah all... I recently upgraded from a PowerBook G4 1.66Ghz to a Mac Pro 2.66GHz with the Airport and Bluetooth installed.

I have an Airport Express base station for my wireless network, and am currently connected through that to a cable modem.

If I were to cut out the Airport Express base station, connect to the cable modem directly via ethernet, and turn on the "share internet connection" settting, how much of a hit on my processor would I expect?

Also, it _would_ be faster to connect via ethernet than Airport, right?

If you're talking about internet access speed, consider that Airport Extreme is 54mbps (max theoretical) and regular Airport is 11mbps (again, max), wheras your cable modem is probably only operating around 1.5 - 3mbps (although this can vary by provider, it is seldom near 10mbps). There are latency issues with wireless networking, but if the computers are in the same room as the base station (which it sounds like they are) I think you'd be hard pressed to see a measurable difference.

If there are other computers on your home network and you're filesharing between them, then wired ethernet will be significantly faster.

-Xy

[blicked]

YeeeHaww! Thanks for the quick reply.. I didn't even consider the speed of my Cable modem- You're right. Even with the "premium" connection of 8mpbs (which it rarely ever is), I'm still comfortably within the speed limits of my Airport.

So there would be no advantages for using the ethernet connection vs the airport for strictly internet, with no filesharing within the network?

[Xyrrus]

Originally Posted by blicked 

YeeeHaww! Thanks for the quick reply.. I didn't even consider the speed of my Cable modem- You're right. Even with the "premium" connection of 8mpbs (which it rarely ever is), I'm still comfortably within the speed limits of my Airport.

So there would be no advantages for using the ethernet connection vs the airport for strictly internet, with no filesharing within the network?

Not for tasks that don't depend on latency such as web browsing, downloading, etc. There might be a difference if you were talking about FPS gaming where ever ms of ping counts. But again, if the router is in the same room as the Mac, I doubt you're gonna notice a darn thing. You can fire up a terminal and ping some sites and do speed tests from various web sites if you're that type of person . Otherwise, forget about it and enjoy the freedom from wire clutter.

-Xy