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Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Is anyone taking advantage of the dual gigabit ethernet ports on the MacPros? I tried a search for hardware that could set up a dual ethernet switch, but found little information. What is Apple’s thinking on including the second port? Ahead of its time?
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media -
4 Replies
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The purpose is to have the ability to put your Mac on 2 networks, if needed. For example, Apple Xsan requires a dedicated metadata network so this occupies 1 port. The other port would be for your standard internet connection.
Lots of possibilities with 2 ports.
Robert Longwell
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I have 2 different IP addresses in my office so it works out great having 2 different cards. You can however get an aggregated switch and combine the 2 ports together have have a virtual 2 Gigabit connection. We don’t have a need for it yet but should here in the next year or so when we go HD.
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We have customers setup that second port with jumbo frames back to their storage or server. With jumbos, you can go 70MB/sec vs 50MB/sec using Apple’s AFP protocol. (this assumes your storage can go that fast.)
In larger configs, we’ll put in an Xserve with a quad card or larger and link aggregate the ports. Then setup jumbos.
The benefit is that your video editing traffic is on a high bandwidth, dedicated network and your email, web browsing, dhcp etc etc is all on the first port.
Steve
http://www.small-tree.com
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