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Extend thunderbolt with ethernet
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Encinitas, CA
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Does anyone know if it is possible to extend a thunderbolt cable with ethernet? What I would like to do is connect my computer to a hard drive with: iMac -> thunderbolt ethernet adapter -> ethernet cable -> thunderbolt ethernet adapter -> thunderbolt hard drive.
I'd like to use something like this: Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter - Apple Store (U.S.)
Thanks for any help.
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2.2 i7 MacBook Pro 8GB Ram 1TB HD
16 GB iPhone 4
Apple TV 2 x3
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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No, it doesn't work like that.
If 10ft isn't long enough, you need an optical Thunderbolt cable. They're not cheap.
How long of a run do you need?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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mduell has it right.
Thunderbolt has a bunch of crap running on the same cable. Video, hard drives, USB, and Ethernet.
That adaptor kills all those other things and makes it just carry Ethernet.
Yes, that's as wasteful as it sounds.
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Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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Originally Posted by subego
mduell has it right.
Thunderbolt has a bunch of crap running on the same cable. Video, hard drives, USB, and Ethernet.
That adaptor kills all those other things and makes it just carry Ethernet.
Yes, that's as wasteful as it sounds.
True, but you would probably always just put ethernet at the end of a Thunderbolt chain.
Steve
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Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Originally Posted by subego
mduell has it right.
Thunderbolt has a bunch of crap running on the same cable. Video, hard drives, USB, and Ethernet.
That adaptor kills all those other things and makes it just carry Ethernet.
Yes, that's as wasteful as it sounds.
That's not really what happens, but it doesn't change the conclusion.
Thunderbolt is a video signal - DisplayPort - and a PCIe signal for connecting various devices - like expansion cards but outside the box. A Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter is the same as an Ethernet card inside your computer, or the integrated Ethernet port - all of them connect to the rest of the system through PCIe. You might as well ask if you can convert the integrated Ethernet port to Thunderbolt.
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The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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I don't want to be argumentative, but I'm confused at how not mentioning the bus invalidates the statement.
"It carries those things"
"It carries those things over PCIe"
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2000
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What is at the very least misleading is that you are putting those signals on an equal footing. The video signal is generated in the computer, is always there in any legal Thunderbolt connection, does not require a driver and is strictly defined by the interface itself. Ethernet, USB, "hard drives" (presumably SATA) are not in the signal at all. They can be generated by a device at the other end, but that device requires a driver (that may be included with the OS, but still) and can be just about anything under the sun.
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The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Originally Posted by P
Thunderbolt is a video signal - DisplayPort - and a PCIe signal for connecting various devices - like expansion cards but outside the box.
Saying this is about as wrong as saying Thunderbolt is the USB/Firewire/Ethernet/SATA signals all muxed together.
Thunderbolt is a thunderbolt signal, which encapsulates DP/PCIe data. The Thunderbolt controllers at each end handle the encapsulation and de-encapsulation. More details here.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by P
What is at the very least misleading is that you are putting those signals on an equal footing. The video signal is generated in the computer, is always there in any legal Thunderbolt connection, does not require a driver and is strictly defined by the interface itself. Ethernet, USB, "hard drives" (presumably SATA) are not in the signal at all. They can be generated by a device at the other end, but that device requires a driver (that may be included with the OS, but still) and can be just about anything under the sun.
Here's the problem though. I need to explain the Ethernet adaptor, which is like taking out a fly with a nuclear missile. It's such a horrible use of the interface, it's much easier to explain what it's doing if you put all the different things which run through it on equal footing.
To put it another way, mentioning there's always a video signal is information which actively harms the OP in terms of the pursuit of understanding what the adaptor does.
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