macOS - LAN & WAN at the same time?

gramps

gramps

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Over recent weeks I have been getting occasional service dropouts on my Vodafone broadband.
When it works it works great but it's annoying that the dropouts generally happen when I need it most, i.e. Zoom conferencing - I've ordered the alternative Vodafone service with router + 4G but there will be a short delay in getting it up and running.

I see that under System Preferences > Network on my iMac, I can set the order used to connect to the Internet, e.g. Ethernet and then WiFi.
The thing is, if I do this and my router drops connection, (ethernet), will it automatically (seamlessly) switch to WiFi on my iPhone hotspot and back when restored?
 
It might switch, but it won't be seamless. The issue will be on what triggers the switch: if the ethernet link between the Mac and the router is up and has a valid IP address even when the broadband link has dropped, then it will take some time for MacOS to notice that the packets aren't going anywhere and decide to try a different interface.

If the ethernet link itself were to drop (ie: the light on the port goes out) then the switching time would be much faster, but you'd still notice the pause - as your public IP address will change, and so all active connections will need to restart (ie: large file downloads will stop and need to be kicked off again, and Zoom calls will need to log back into the conference again). Zoom might be ok handling automatically logging back into the call again, but those on the call will likely see you leave and then return.

To get a faster switchover your ISP has to know about all the data routes in and out of your house, and have monitoring at their end which will spot the link dropping and move all in-flight packets to the alternative path. This is not a something that home users typically get offered, and requires some funky IP routing map rewriting to keep the dropouts as small as possible, by having your public IP stay the same even though it may be routed via two very different paths to your location.
 
Having been all doom and gloom - it's simple enough to try as you've got the parts you need already: open a Zoom call to a friend who knows you're testing this, with the ports set up as you describe, and then pull the broadband cable out of the router and see how it performs !

You could also try unplugging the ethernet cable from the Mac and see if the switch happens any more quickly.
 
That was my worry, especially as I will be 'chairing' (but not hosting) the Zoom conference.
I have tried it streaming a video and it works but of course that's not exactly the same.

Yes I'll try the 'pull-out' test. :)
 
Yes, the video test is made more complicated by the fact that the video player will be buffering the data (ie: fetching it faster than it's playing it back), and so it may take a few minutes before that buffer is exhausted, which if good news if you're watching Netflix and have a connection that goes up and down, but doesn't help you diagnose what will happen on a live call.
 
gramps said:
Over recent weeks I have been getting occasional service dropouts on my Vodafone broadband.
When it works it works great but it's annoying that the dropouts generally happen when I need it most, i.e. Zoom conferencing - I've ordered the alternative Vodafone service with router + 4G but there will be a short delay in getting it up and running.
Click to expand...

I bought a 4G router that does exactly this - it uses fibre when available and if it isn't then it drops back to 4G. It's on eBay right no and will sell for c£80 so you might be able to get one of those.

One option would be to log into the Zoom twice - once on computer and once on phone. Make the phone account co-host so if connection drops you can swap to that.
 
minimaltoo said:
Yes, the video test is made more complicated by the fact that the video player will be buffering the data (ie: fetching it faster than it's playing it back), and so it may take a few minutes before that buffer is exhausted, which if good news if you're watching Netflix and have a connection that goes up and down, but doesn't help you diagnose what will happen on a live call.
Click to expand...
JonathanRyan said:
I bought a 4G router that does exactly this - it uses fibre when available and if it isn't then it drops back to 4G. It's on eBay right no and will sell for c£80 so you might be able to get one of those.

One option would be to log into the Zoom twice - once on computer and once on phone. Make the phone account co-host so if connection drops you can swap to that.
Click to expand...

I tested this out today and it worked fine with almost 100 connections, (I'm not hosting just chairing).
When the ethernet connection drops there is a blip of around 2/3 secs (so not seamless) but it then carries on without dropping the Zoom connection so a temporary fix for me.

@JonathanRyan do you have a link for the 4G router please?
 
minimaltoo said:
Excellent ! That's faster than I'd have expected - sounds like a great outcome.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was more than happy ... will keep me going until the Vodafone upgrade.
 
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