Mac Mini Ethernet Adapter

The ethernet port on my 2006 Mac Mini 1.6Ghz is dying and I am wanting to replace it with a USB ethernet adapter. I see that Apple sells one but it says for the Macbook Air. Just wondering if anyone has found a third-party usb ethernet adapter that works, and if anyone has tried the Apple version on their Mac Mini.
Thanks very much!

I have not found a compatible USB ethernet adapter for the Mac Mini. Some do exist that "might" work but they are expensive and may require extensive knowledge of drivers.

Similar Messages

Mac Mini ethernet read / write speeds different

Hello.
I have a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Mac Mini running OS X Version 10.8.4.
I recently bought a Synology ds212j NAS, and started to transfer some files across my home LAN.
Everything was running fine until I noticed that the transfer had started to go really slowly.
At first I thought it was the NAS, but after exhaustive testing I think the problem is with the Mac Mini ethernet port.
I ran the LAN Speed Test program against the NAS and got the following results (with the NAS plugged directly into the Mac Mini):
Writing (Upload): 54 Mbps
Reading (Download): 689 Mbps
I get similar results when running against my time capsule:
Writing (Upload): 44 Mbps
Reading (Download): 767 Mbps
Can anyone explain what might be going on? Is it a defective ethernet port? Are there any steps I can take to further diagnose / resolve the issue?
Thanks,
Scott

Thanks for replying Johnathan.
I understand that write / read speeds can be different on a hard disk, but the key thing here is that the speeds changed suddenly - I was getting similar write / read speeds and then something changed (I don't have speed statistics for that).
One other thing to note is that if I plug in an external drive via USB I get write / read speeds the same.
This all makes me think that something has changed with the Ethernet port. Either it is malfunctioning or there is a cache issue etc. The problem is that I don't know how to do further diagnosis, or how to resolve.
Scott

Running 10.6.8 on mac mini. ethernet port quick. I can not print using wireless

Can not print using wireless. It printed fine using ethernet
Running 10.6.8 on mac mini. Ethernet port has quit. (lighting strike I think, it fried two routers, did not get anything else)

Nothing to go on here.
Do you have a wifi capable printer? If so, what model? What happens when you try to set it up?

Mac Mini & ethernet issues

Hello, i bought a mac mini just a couple of weeks ago and upgraded it to OS 10,7,4.
it was all running just fine for a start so i made an account for itunes and turned off the computer. But now, the mac mini just does not connect to the internet even when i plug the ethernet cable. I thought it would be a wireless issue but i realized that it happened even by cable.
I'm a little bit confused about this because the network utility says there is no problem (i can ping and traceroute) but safari doesn't open the page.
As a matter a fact, the only browser that works is Chrome, which only opens this forum's page and gmail...
Please help

No it didn't take me to apple's homepage. However, i can ping and traceroute to it without any problem.
I have read discussions about similar problems (on wifi) and tried to boot as safe mode.
Gratefully, it works, i can open every single page... but i still don't understand why does this happen on safe mode and not on the regular mode (i'm not going to log as safe mode every time).
Any idea?
Thanks in advance

Mac Mini Ethernet port gone bad, doesn't show in network preferance pane?

My friend 's Mac Mini was doing fine then he shutdown disconnected everything and brought it over to my house for LAN games. He then couldn't get online through my router. I told him go to his network pane to see what kind of error it was giving, cable errors IP but no internet...etc, and only internal modem was displayed in the list. So I immediately went to his port setting and ethernet was checkmarked. So then I thought well maybe some PMU reset problem so I tried the resets and still not present from the network pane. So then I hooked my external hd to his firewire as a startup drive to eliminate that it just wasn't a software problem and it is still not showing up on network pane. I then skimmed through some online articles and things but to no avail. I just was thinking it was a 5 minute drive from his house to here and he said didn't do anything different from the other times he was here but something must have jarred it or perhaps just a coinseidense that the ethernet port went out when he was coming over. And to top it off he had made arrange for next weekend to sell it to a friend and get a new Intel iMac, which right now has to be put on the backburner until he has a working unit again. Applecare is up so that is out of the question. Any suggestion out there would be appreciated. Or is it just beyond easy fixes and has to either be repaired or keep and save from scratch for a new one?

OMG, guys I feel so dumb the new update to Tiger changed the way network pane worked so that was the whole problem its normal under 10.4.5 so plugged in a good cable and it came up fine go figure right. For being Apple certified for repair I sure looked past such an easy solution.

Mac Mini Ethernet SSL connection issues

Hi,
Up until recently I have been using my Late 2012 Mac mini with a WiFi connection. Recently though I've had reason to switch to a Gigabit Ethernet connection (short version, moved from UK to Canada, living with in-laws and they have a crappy wireless router that can't hold a stable connection for more than a few hours).
However, I'm getting a really odd Ethernet network issue where my mac will "corrupt" SSL connections. This normally manifests itself in web pages not fully downloading, images becoming corrupted, or errors when downloading files. The last one is particularly hurting as I have been doing some heavy downloading of DMG files and other installers, all of which are a 100% guaranteed fail with DMG files reporting as being corrupted if I try to open them.
I have also lost my time machine backup as OSX has reported that this has failed verification and needs to be created new; I accepted creating a new one (reluctantly) and the backup now fails to complete every time it runs - either the wireless cuts out or the SSL connection corrupts the backup.
I have a 16-port GigE Switch (Netgear GS116) with a number of computers and the home modem plugged into this.
I've tried the following to look at this:
I've tried (and tested) a number of different Cat5e and Cat6 cables. These all work fine with other Windows / Linux machines and according to my cable tester all check out. 100% of the cables I own produce the error leading me to believe that it's not a cable problem.
Problem occurs even if the switch is bypassed and the mac plugged directly into the modem.
Problem does not occur (for web pages and small downloads) when plugged into wireless - this is just sloooow and as the router seems to develop issues with DNS over WiFi, I have to reset it every few hours so long term downloads fail.
I found an article (which I have now lost the URL for) where someone suffered intermittent network issues with Ethernet that they resolved by un-checking the "Enable automatic connection" on the 802.1X page of the network settings. This appeared to help for a couple of days and I enjoyed fast Ethernet and downloads once more. However, today the problem is back in force.
I am able to download files from a windows machine (well, except for downloads via the App store) and then transfer them over the network to the mini with no problems at all - the corruption issue only seems to occur when SSL is involved.
So I'm wondering what it could be and how I would go about diagnosing the issue. I'm more familiar with Windows / Linux systems, having not owned a Mac since the days of System 7 - the mini was bought so I could play with learning XCode and try my hand at Mac software development.
Thanks in advance,
~MrBasset.
Machine specs:
Late 2012 Mac Mini running OXS Mavericks 10.9.3
2.5Ghz Intel Core i5
16GB Ram

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Mac mini ethernet speeds cut in half by snow leopard?

I upgraded an old mac mini (2,1) of mine from Leopard to Snow leopard this weekend. Same physical hardware and setup results in a dslreports.com speed test of the ethernet at about 50% of that of the leopard speeds (about 11.5Mbps over ether). I have another slightly newer C2D mini on SL that is doing 10Mbps on the same network. When I change startup disks to the SL disk, I end up with a max of about 4.5-5.5Mbps. Any ideas? I ran "Tune for High speed" on MLCC to open up the MTU size and such on both machines. Same results. I didn't try to update the existing partition (working Leopard) to SL, I scratch installed it on a new partiition.
Any ideas on what I should tweak to get the SL side to get to the same performance? I can always upgrade (painfully) the Leopard side and test it and then revert if it has the same poor results)...
Thanks,
Jim

Sorry, I checked all the obvious. The ifconfig shows both ETH0 running with the same parameters.
Wifi is off on both partitions.
Sadly no obvious issue as to the 50% loss of throughput.
Any other ideas out there? I also made sure IPv6 was off where possible. Again another Mac Mini on SL is also on the same ETH network doing 13Mb+ to the dslreports.com/stest sites...(the good partition is the same, bad is doing about 5-6Mb/s).
jim

Mac Mini Ethernet dead.

The title is pretty self-explanatory--I have tried installing the restore discs and it didn't help any. I can't go to the Apple Store or any authorized Apple repair people because they're in Utah, or because they're insanely far away from my town. I tried creating a new "port", but that also never helped any. Help is greatly appreciated.

While not helpful in a direct sense, I would urge you to post as much detail as possible in terms of what you have done and what the result was, because you are the only eyes we have in trying to deal with the problem, and small details matter a great deal with networking problems.
Thus, have you tried a new cable? Have you tried connecting to a different port on the router? These are important troubleshooting tests because this will help identify where the problem lies, and then what the likely cause(s) might be.
In a broad sense, your mini does not need to be running MacOS 10.5 to have a functioning ethernet. Indeed, for the purposes of troubleshooting the system it is probably better to have a clean install of the original MacOS (10.4.7 in your case I suspect) from the install disk that came with the system. With no additional software and no updates applied, your mini's ethernet port should be active. It doesn't really help to add more complications to the troubleshooting, such as installing later versions of MacOS etc - indeed, doing this can actually hinder troubleshooting because it means we also have to figure out if there are any issues with the updated installations which could be affecting discernible symptoms.
Could you explain what you mean by: +I'm getting barely any activity on the port+ because it isn't clear (to me at least).
Additionally, you mention you have upgraded the RAM and ask whether the memory could be part of the problem. The answer is no, in itself it can't. The ethernet port is a hardware device for which MacOS has an inherent driver loading up at startup. As long as the system boots at all, RAM doesn't play a role in the failure of hardware devices such as this. However, did the ethernet port issue arise directly after the RAM upgrade, or was that done some time ago and the system has run correctly since?
Has there been any other work done recently on the system, prior to this fault arising?
and so far, I had a self-assigned IP, but for some odd reason, it disconnected, and reverted to the same thing.
When you get a self-assigned IP, it means that either the port is not working, the cable is damaged, the router is not set to hand out IP addresses, the router is faulty, a firewall is blocking all connections or the Network preference pane is not set to get IPs via DHCP. If the router shows a light for the port into which the mini is connected, it means that it can 'see' the mini, though it does not mean it can correctly communicate with it.
However, it is not clear what you mean by +but for some odd reason, it disconnected, and reverted to the same thing+ .... what disconnected? From what? How do you know? and what same thing did it revert to that was different to what it had briefly done?
Right now, I'm using it via Target Disk and getting updates for it. Hopefully, things can get working.
Assuming you have the mini in FW target disk mode while connected to one of your other systems (the MacBook perhaps?) then unless you have the mini set as the startup drive in the host system you aren't updating anything on the mini's setup in terms of MacOS, because the mini is only acting as an external drive for the (presumed) MacBook.
If this were my mini, I would first perform a PRAM reset on it (a wired USB keyboard which is not an Apple aluminium model is needed for this):
-Shut down the computer.
-Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in the next step but one.
-Turn on the computer.
-Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
-Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
-Release the keys.
After that, reboot the system as normal, and open the system profiler (Apple menu>About This Mac), then click on the More info button. Click the 'Network' heading in the contents list on the left and on the right, look at the list of devices. It should contain Airport, Bluetooth, Built-in Ethernet, Built-in Firewire and perhaps Internal Modem. If you click on the Built-in Ethernet entry, below you should see the device configuration - if so that will tell you that the system sees the hardware correctly. If the built-in ethernet entry is missing from the list, it means the system no longer sees the hardware port.

I am having trouble with my Mac Mini's ethernet connection. Defining a new network interface shows no ethernet adaptor. Reloading SL from DVD repaired. But SL update lost ethernet again. Will Lion Fix?

I am having trouble with my mac mini ethernet. It had been working for weeks after an update to SL 10.6.8.
Once it went out and i repaired it by defining a new connection from System Preferences ->Network->(left panel service, +).
But yesterday, after a power up. my ethernet was not working again. I tried this old trick to repair it, but the interface choices
listed for '+' a new service did not include Ethernet any more. And the Utilities->System Profiler->Ethernet Cards shows
no ethernet available.
As a last ditch effort i reloaded my original SL from DVD. (I think it was version 10.6.4 but i could be mistaken on the version).
The ethernet worked! But KeyNote wasn't going to work because apparently the version i purchased depends on 10.6.8.
So I upgraded again to SL 10.6.8 (Plus some other updates like AirPort which i don't use).
Now the Ethernet is not working again. I see the same symptoms as before with the Ethernet seeming not installed.
Is this a problem seen by others?
Would going to Lion fix the problem?
Could AirPort actually be the culprit and not SL?
If i stay with my original SL, would i need to repurchase a version of KeyNote for the older version of SL?

Have you reset the SMC?
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
While you're at it, resetting the PRAM won't hurt anything and 'might' help is SMC reset didn't work (PRAM does some port control):
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Something else you might try .... you don't say how you're updating to 10.6.8, however, if you're using Software Update, you might try downloading the 10.6.8 combo update, which contains all updates to 10.6. Sometimes, Software Update doesn't work quite right, and installing the combo update fixes that. Download the update from Apple's download site at http://support.apple.com/downloads/ , using Disk Utility repair permissions, apply the combo update, then repair permissions again.

Mac mini server + SANLink adapter Thunderbolt to Fibre ..long Delay to connect to fiber xsan

We replace the old Xseve with new Mac mini server (10.8.2 ) with PROMISE SANLink adapter " Thunderbolt to Fibre Channel)
we have 2 mac pro machines ( 10.7.5) with Apple fiber channel card in both machine (firmware 1.3 ) and 2 active storage (12x2TB ) , Qlogic 1400 fibe switch 8 Ports
our xsan system was runing with xserve as MDC from long time
Now we replace the xserve with new mac mini + SANLink adapter and recreate the new XSAN Volume again as clean installation and mounted it on the server and on both machines
But unfortunately we found many problems
1- Mac mini server with PROMISE SANLink adapter takes about 20 Min to detect the fiber connection with LUNs we got LUNs not found message on xsan admin for about 20 Min , and then he found it and mounted on mac mini desktop
2-All mac pro ( 10.7.5 ) take about 20 min to detect the fiber channel ( get red and not connected for about 20 min after booting ) this happen only when I update the OSX from 10.6.8 to 10.7.5 ..!!!!
3-All client can not mount the xsan volume and computers did not authenticate .
4- I deleted the computers and can't add it again to computers list ..always can't authenticate
So what can it to to solve this problem ??? , Is ther any firmware update for Apple fiber channel card for 10.7.5 , why
PROMISE SANLink adapter " Thunderbolt to Fibre Channel) takes 20 min to detect the fiber ???

Some of this is heavy opinion and some is experience. First, 10.7 was a terrible OS for Xsan support. Some of the issues you may be experiencing may be due to 10.7. I for one, avoided it like the plague.
Next, the issues you are describing sound like they could be DNS related or possibly related to how you defined your zones and your ports (target vs initiator). The place to look is your system log on these units. You should be seeing SCSI initialization errors from the FC cards. You may have loop arbitration issues or something else related to the way the FC ports are configured.
Any reason why 10.7.x was selected?

Clean Install on Mac Mini Server

I just purchased a Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server and used Target Mode from my MacBook Pro to repartition the disks. I first thought I would set up the 2 disks in the Mac Mini as RAID Mirrored. I tried to perform a clean install of Snow Leopard with the install DVD in my MacBook Pro. But the OS Install program would not let me past the restart stage because the computer with the Optical Drive was a laptop. I left the Firewire connection in tack and the DVD in the MacBook Pro's optical drive.
I then tried the Remote Install procedure, with a monitor & keyboard, while holding down the C key, but all I got was a folder with a "?" on my monitor. I also tried a startup using the "option" key and the "shift" key. I tried this again with the Firewire connection removed. I then tried to use Server Assistant on my MacBook Pro and complete a Remote Install. Still no luck, folder with "?" on the monitor, and Server Assistant could not find the Mac Mini Ethernet address.
I concluded that the RAID configuration was causing me the problem and used Target Mode to remove the RAID configuration and repartitioned the 2 disks into 2 partitions each, for various purposes. I then repeated all of the attempts above to reinstall Snow Leapord Server Software with the same results as above.
Can anyone give me some guidance?

Page 38 of the manual http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Mac_mini_Late2009_SL_ServerUG.pdf has worked like a charm. Follow the steps here.
Hope this helps

New Mac Mini / DVI / Apple 17" Studio Display

Greetings all.
I am contemplating purchasing new Mac Mini.
Currently using Mac mini / DVI adapter/ older Apple 17" studio display.
I do not intend monitor change at present.
Question is, which display adapter would allow me to use older DVI adapter/Apple 17" studio display?
Thanks for you time, looking forward to your response.
Regards,
TrevorB

Further exploration, Apple store recommends;
Mini DVI to DVI adapter

USB Ethernet Adapter Stopped Working On Mac Mini Server Running 10.6.6

Is anybody out there successfully using the Apple USB Ethernet adapter on a Mac Mini Server running 10.6.6? They have stopped working for me.
The boot disk in the 2009 Mac Mini Server in my classroom failed and after Apple replaced the disk and I reinstalled SLS and ran Software Update to bring the machine up to 10.6.6 the USB Ethernet adapter that was the interface to the outside world no longer recognized when a cable was plugged in. The cable was good and worked just fine if plugged into another machine or the built-in interface. At first I thought that the USB Interface had failed but after trying two new ones (graciously exchanged by Apple) and finding that none of them worked I'm coming to the conclusion that perhaps the warning on the package that the USB Ethernet only works with the MacBook Air finally became true.

Douglas Urner wrote:
Is anybody out there successfully using the Apple USB Ethernet adapter on a Mac Mini Server running 10.6.6? They have stopped working for me.
The boot disk in the 2009 Mac Mini Server in my classroom failed and after Apple replaced the disk and I reinstalled SLS and ran Software Update to bring the machine up to 10.6.6 the USB Ethernet adapter that was the interface to the outside world no longer recognized when a cable was plugged in. The cable was good and worked just fine if plugged into another machine or the built-in interface. At first I thought that the USB Interface had failed but after trying two new ones (graciously exchanged by Apple) and finding that none of them worked I'm coming to the conclusion that perhaps the warning on the package that the USB Ethernet only works with the MacBook Air finally became true.
Only the specific build of Mac OS X that comes with a MacBook Air includes the kernel extension to run the Apple USB Ethernet adapter, however there are no hardware issues preventing it being used on other Mac models if you have a suitable driver.
Generic USB drivers can be downloaded for free from http://www.sustworks.com/site/newsusbethernet.html and this worked for me.

Can't reach network video server on Mac Mini's USB Ethernet Adapter.

I am trying to connect an IP video server to my Mac Mini's USB>Ethernet adapter. The server works fine on the built in Ethernet "en(0)", but is unreachable on the USB>Ethernet adapter network"en(3)".
Is this a subnet issue? I don't know much about networking obviously, but I think I just need to find a way to designate the proper port to look on, because the Mac is looking on the built in Ethernet only when I specify http://192.168.0.90:80/
The en(3) is configured for DCHP.
I could just hook the server up to the built in Ethernet, but then I'll have to run new and very long cat 5 cable.
I'd love to hear any ideas on how to get this working.

The Network Settings for the USB>Ethernet port are:
IPv4: Using DHCP
IP Address 169.254.33.152
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Router: (none)
DNS Server: (none)
Search Domains: (none)

Ethernet adapter not working with new Mac Mini after NetRestore.

I'm currently working with an issue regarding Mini 4,1s and their difference from the main driver set in 10.6.4. I'm in an educational environment and attempting to effectively netrestore a hard drive image that was built on a Mini 3,1 with all possible updates made to the OS (10.6.4).
The new minis have no problem netbooting, and downloading the disc image from the server *over ethernet*. In fact, they do it in a very rapid fashion. The issue is that once the machines boot up, they no longer have ethernet capabilities. In fact, the ethernet device does not even appear in system profiler at all. After reading quite a lot about this problem, it appears that there is a difference in the driver set on the special "Mid-2010 Mini 4,1" update and the driver set found in a normal 10.6.4 install.
I have attempted various permutations of installing the Mid-2010 update, but most of them include having an existing 10.6.4 install that was not built on the Mini, and attempting to install the update over the install, or replacing the driver in suspect itself. The issue persists.
Is there something I'm missing, and is this a common problem?
tl;dr: non mac mini 10.6.4 installation copied on mac mini 4,1, and ethernet drivers don't work.

Thanks for your suggestion, I cloned my 1.83GHZ Mac Mini's main drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and restored it onto a new 2.4GHZ Mac Mini. Since the new Mac was replacing the older one's mother ship role in my HTPC setup, this method would ensure the easiest transition. Everything works fine, except that ethernet wont work, it did before, but doesn't now. I already tried several confirmed-working-by-me cables and no luck.
I tried your step and understand the logic behind them, but as soon as I replaced my files with the ones you suggested from my 2.4GHZ Mac Install Disc, the system reports some conflicts. I repaired permissions after and before this happens (tried twice, once after successfully restoring via Tim Machine) and still it occurred. After reboot Ethernet was still dead and so was WiFi. Luckily I was able to get everything back to normal by replacing the entire Extensions folder with the one prior to the changes. Restoring the two files alone would not do it.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

Mac Mini Ethernet Adapter

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