Features:

  • Connects a USB 3.0 device (computer/tablet) to a router, modem, or network switch to deliver Gigabit Ethernet to your network connection
  • Supported features include Wake-on-LAN function, Green Ethernet & IEEE 802.3az-2010 (Energy Efficient Ethernet)
  • Supports IPv4/IPv6 pack Checksum Offload Engine (COE) to reduce Cental Processing Unit (CPU) loading
  • Compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7, and Chrome OS with latest system updates; does not support Windows RT or Android.
Works with Nintendo Switch

This device works properly with the Nintendo switch. The Nintendo switch had awful WiFi signal, even if standing directly next to the router. I was getting roughly 16 megabits per second while my connection is over 400 megabits per second. Once wired, I was getting up to 88 megabits per second which is still Far Below what I am able to get. All my other devices are able to get the full amount, so it seems the switch has a limitation of around 100 megabits per second anyway. The only flaw with this device is that the wire between the USB and the ethernet hub is too short for the switch, therefore you have to leave the back of the switch dock open while using this device. That is a small price to pay for a much better connection, as the download and upload don't really matter but the decrease in ping time is necessary for online games, such as Mario Kart.

Nice and Fast Ethernet Adapter

I wasn't satisfied with Wi-Fi performance in my room, so I figured I could get one of these to have faster, wired Internet. MacBooks no longer come with Ethernet ports, but this thing works pretty much as well as a laptop with a built-in Ethernet port. It's not quite plug-and-play on macOS. You'll need to install drivers from the Asix website (the chip manufacturer for the adapter); I found it by searching "asix AX88179", navigating to their website, and scrolling down to their drivers section. It'll run you through the installer, and you will need to reboot at the end. Once it's done, it'll pretty much auto-detect and connect you to the network. If not, you can just go into the Network Preferences pane and check to see if "AX88179 USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet" is connected. It is indeed plug-and-play with Ubuntu, and probably will be for other Debian-based distros. I haven't had the chance to test on Windows, but network speeds on Ubuntu and macOS are pretty much the same as on my desktop with a built-in network card. The Ethernet plug has the typical built-in LEDs to show activity and connection speed, and cables click in pretty solidly. I haven't moved it around much so I can't say much about cycle life. The USB cable feels a bit rigid, but I guess that's typical of USB 3.0 cables due to the increased number of conductors. Anyways, it does what it should, and it does it pretty fast!

Works Perfectly on macOS High Sierra once you download the correct driver

Let me start off by saying I am using this on 2 different MacBook Pros running macOS High Sierra. This adapter worked perfectly once I installed the correct driver. The driver offered on the included disc does NOT WORK. You must go to the driver download page on the ASIX website to get the latest driver. Amazon will not allow direct links to external websites. You will need to search for AX88179 on the site - I downloaded and installed 'Apple Mac OS X 10.6 to 10.12 Drivers Installer' (revision v2.9.0 released on 2017-04-26). Once installed and my Mac restarted the USB Gigabit device appeared in Network Preferences. I have 1000Mbps up and down fiber to the home. Usually I get much more on the DL side, but when I ran the test I did not limit other services. Primary picked this up to use for full Time Machine backups on my local network to the drive attached to my Airport Extreme Base Station as it is much faster than backing up ~300-400GB over wifi.

Works great on Mac OSX High Sierra

Unlike noted in some reviewes, this thing works like a charm on OSX 10.13.2 High Sierra. Bought it for my wife's older MacBook Air, and got it up and running with no issues. I still don't get it why Air doesn't have an Ethernet port, but trying to apply common sense to Apple's design decisions is an exercise in futility. I gave that up long ago... For those quick to say that Air is too thin for an RJ45 - no, it's not (it only looks that way). Especially considering Apple's trademark precision in manufacturing. Anyway, I digress... Just get the latest driver from asix.com.tw, follow the included PDF to install, and you are good to go. Watch out for the pop-up after the reboot, asking to load a system extension. You must allow it. If you don't, or just close the pop-up, it gets disabled (happened to me). It's an easy fix through "Security and Privacy" settings. It's all described in the doc that comes with the driver. Overall, a great product for the price, for those who don't want to live inside an Apple cocoon. I am a bit concerned about the USB cable, as the only strain relief for it is a little countersink in the hole where the cable goes into the box. But the cable feels very solid, and it may be enough. Time will tell...

It worked just great! to explain

I got this to conduct an experiment. It worked just great! to explain, my computer only has base 10/100 and a USB 2.0 interface. Since the USB 2.0 interface is faster than the base 10/100, I hoped that using this on a USB 2.0 port would give a faster data rate over using the base 10/100 port. I am very happy that it did, the data rate is in most cases at least twice as fast as the base 10/100. Update 08/31/2017 - I use this on a laptop that only has USB2 port and the Ethernet is base 100. USB2 has a speed of 480 megabit which is faster than the 100 megabit of the Ethernet. Using the adapter for my Ethernet instead of the Ethernet port on the laptop gives me much higher speed and performance.

Good tool to have for Laptops

I purchased this for my Dell XPS 13 - While I was on vacation I was in a spot that only had hard-wired internet connections instead of WiFi (weird right?). I never realized my XPS did not come with an ethernet port until at that moment when I went to go plug the cable in, I couldn't find a spot. With this it is super easy to use, plug it into your USB slot, plug the ethernet cord into the slot and you're online! I keep this in my travel bag with my external hard drive and external CD drive for "just in case" scenarios.

Wow!!!!! From 72.0 Mbps (wi-fi) to 100.0 Mbps (ethernet connection) to 1.0 Gbps on my new laptop using this adapter!!!!!

Wow!!!!! From 72.0 Mbps (wi-fi) to 100.0 Mbps (ethernet connection) on my old previous laptop to 1.0 Gbps on my new laptop using this adapter!!!!! Since my new laptop came without an ethernet port – and because I really wanted this specific new laptop -- I resigned myself to using my wi-fi connection instead. My current internet provider seems notorious for slow internet speeds. Watching streaming video and even accessing the internet was trying my patience constantly but -- even if a higher speed was available in my area the cost would be more than I was willing and able to pay. I googled this problem to see if others experienced same problem. Googling and speaking with a customer service representative at my internet providers suggested that – as an alternative -- I use an ethernet connection which would make a very noticeable difference in connection speeds. Using my ethernet connection my speed jumped from 72.0 Mbps to 100.0 Mbps; however, the speed was still lagging. I was "shopping" here on Amazon (BTW, Amazon is my one-stop shopping with exception to my groceries. Amazon is amazing, and they are credible and reputable and stand behind their satisfaction guarantee as well as stepping in when a third-party seller did not measure up to their guarantee and return policies. Mind you, that only happened one time where Amazon had to step in to resolve the issue. Anyway, I digress. Nothing usual! LOL. I was searching out of curiosity to find out if there was some way to connect to ethernet without an ethernet port available. I discovered this alternate solution. I was pleasingly surprised when I switched to just wi-fi connection on my new laptop just to see what the difference was between the Mbps and using this adapter. I was used to the wi-fi connection speed being 72.0 Mbps and never even thought of checking to see what it would be on my new laptop. I do not know why but my new laptop using wi-fi was a whopping 144.0 Mbps versus my old laptop internet connection speed. I do not know why this is, but I will take the “WIN”.

UPDATE: Works Great with the Nintendo Switch and Able to Close the Dock Door!

UPDATE: Nintendo Switch [06-27-2018] I recently got a Nintendo Switch and this ethernet adapter works well with it (albeit at max download speeds of around 100Mbps). A lot of reviews say that the adapter doesn't fit in the back of the dock and that the cable is too short, but I've found a way to make it work! Essentially, plug in the ethernet adapter and bend it up to the open part along the top of the dock. Then, 'S' route the ethernet cable along the top, down the left side, and out of the cable management hole. This will allow the back cover to close and maintain a clean look (I've attached photos below). Using a flat ethernet cable helps a lot as well; mine came with an Asus router that I use at home. Download/Upload speeds have improved compared to 5GHz Wi-Fi. Even though the Switch's USB-C is locked at USB 2.0 speeds at the moment, using the built-in speed test determined that download speeds almost doubled and upload speeds increased by about 25%. I've attached screenshots of those results below. Until Nintendo releases firmware that unlocks use of the USB 3.0 standard on the Switch, we'll be stuck with around 100Mbps download speeds. However, using this ethernet adapter will result in a faster and more stable connection compared to Wi-Fi for most people. Again, well done AmazonBasics. Original Review [09-08-2016] Got this to use with my Razer Blade Stealth which doesn't come with a LAN port. I got full gigabit transfer speeds when moving large files across my local network. NAS (FreeNAS) to Blade Stealth = 113 MB/s Desktop (Win10) to Blade Stealth = 110 MB/s Blade Stealth to Desktop = 107 MB/s Even when plugged into Anker Ultra Slim 4-Port USB 3.0 Data Hub, transfer speeds were full gigabit. NAS to Blade Stealth through USB 3.0 hub = 110-113 MB/s Super fine product from AmazonBasics.

Doubled the speed of my Raspberry Pi 3 NAS (from 11MB/s to 20MB/s)

Instructions for replacing your built-in (non-gigabit) ethernet: 1. Plug this into your Pi 2. Log into a terminal 3. Run: sudo reboot 4. Wait for boot, log in, run: ifconfig 5. Write down the HWaddr for eth0 (the built-in ethernet) and eth1 (this adapter) 6. Create the file: /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 7. Add the following two lines: SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="new", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0" SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="old", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1" ...replacing *new* with the Hwaddr of eth1 and *old* with the Hwaddr of eth0 8. Run: sudo shutdown -h now 9. Swap your ethernet cable from the old plug to new plug 10. Disconnect then reconnect power adapter from Pi This new adapter will now be eth0 and the built-in adapter will be eth1. If you had rules or services in place that depended on eth0 they'll use the new, faster connection. NOTE: Tested using Blackmagic disk speed test from networked Mac client. 20MB/s average read/write speed. The drive is an ext4 formatted WD My Passport 4TB (link below), shared from the Pi via netatalk AFP. WD 4TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYFT0040BBK-WESN

since we had pretty poor luck generally with the Switch's wifi

Picked this up because we have a Nintendo Switch and the WiFi performance kept dropping or not connecting. Plugged this into the dock and into our home network - no changes necessary, the Switch instantly recognized the wired connection (no drivers/no nonsense) and immediately switched over to it (you'll see the network icon change from wireless to wired). I'm not sure on how seamless the transition is when removing the switch from the dock, since we had pretty poor luck generally with the Switch's wifi. Get it, you won't regret it!

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