How to get a fast connection between a Macbook Air and a Windows PC
If you ever tried to transfer files over Wifi between a Mac and a PC, you were probably horrified by the usual transfer speed (about 30kb/s). How can you use the full transfer speed of USB 2.0 and still have a comfortable setup (e.g., folder sharing or internet sharing)?
First, a Macbook Air doesn’t have an ethernet adapter. So, a USB gigabit ethernet adapter is required (it will only reach about ~320MBit, due to USB speed limitations). You can get the original Apple adapter, but it’s slower, not very reliable, and there are cheaper alternatives. To stay compatible with existing drivers, you want anything with an ASIX chipset. I got the Digitus DN-3022 for 21€.
After you connected the two computers with an ethernet cable (a simple patch cable will suffice), your Mac should say that a new network device has been found. Go to the network preferences and fill in this:
The IP address can be chosen freely, but 192.X.X.X or 10.X.X.X ranges are highly recommended. Leave the last three fields empty, or you’ll use the internet connectivity on your Mac!
Next, you want to enable Internet sharing.
On your Windows PC, loosely follow this configuration. The most important thing is that the gateway is set to your Mac’s IP address, and that the DNS points to your wireless router.
