One is my daily use iMac and the other is a dedicated music server Mac Mini. This was a helpful reply but could I ask a few specifics? I have two Macs in the same room. The one question I had - if both computers are connected to the same wireless router, would the computers that are connected via ethernet cable to each other know to go to each other via ethernet rather than wifi? To see or set the TCP/IP address, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Network, and select Ethernet in the list. If you manually configured the TCP/IP settings for the Ethernet service on the computer you are connecting to, you may need to enter that computer’s TCP/IP address in the “Connect to Server” dialog. In the Finder on one of the computers, choose Go > “Connect to Server,” and then click Browse.ĭouble-click the other computer in the window and enter your password, if necessary. Note the computer name for each computer.

On each computer, choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Sharing. If your computer doesn’t have an Ethernet port, try using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. You don’t need to use an Ethernet crossover cable. You can use an Ethernet cable to connect two Mac computers and share files or play network games.Ĭonnect a standard Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port on one computer to the Ethernet port on the other. This way, the Mac will connect to Ethernet when it is available, even over an active Wifi connection.This is from my Help Window: (copy and paste) You want to drag the Ethernet service to the TOP of the list, with Wifi below it. Click the 'gear' icon at the bottom of the Network list, then choose 'Set Service Order'. You do this by System Preferences> Network. The easiest way to achieve what you want is to simply plug in the Ethernet cable when you want Ethernet, unplug when you do not.įor this to work properly, you simply need to inform your Mac to prefer Ethernet over Wifi. I too prefer to use Ethernet for file transfers, whereas Wifi is fine for nearly all other uses. So, I really don't think there is anything in the software you can configure to have your Mac send some traffic over Ethernet and others over Wifi: its all or nothing.

While there are some sophisticated servers and network hardware that can access multiple TCP/IP connections, and route different classes of network traffic to different ports, your Mac isn't one of them. There are tools like Marco Polo that can change such settings based on location, but you will need to actually change your location, or have some other automated way to trigger this change.

Network transfer mac to mac ethernet