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You would be mistaken if you thought switching to ethernet would fix everything in macOS. There are three options for USB Ethernet chipsets that are supported i

You would be mistaken if you thought switching to ethernet would fix everything in macOS. There are three options for USB Ethernet chipsets that are supported in macOS without drivers: RTL8153, AX88178, AX88172A (not B or C). When using a RTL8153, I've experienced extremely high CPU usage (it's a shitty user-mode driver), and I've had the adapter drop out after transferring >20GB of files over it. I ended up buying the AX88178 and AX88172A adapters which are supported by the kernel. Based on my limited testing, only the AX88172A chipset is stable enough for 24/7/365 connectivity. Unfortunately the AX88172A is only 100Mbit, so consider it if you value stability > throughput The thread that sparked this rabbit hole: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252387604 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252387604 TLDR: 2022 and we are still stuck with 100Mbit adapters on macOS

jolux 4y ago
I use the Belkin one that Apple sells and have never had much issue with it. What chipset is that?
legalcorrection 4y ago
Yeah, despite all the hype, MacOS is one of the least technically sophisticated operating systems in common use. Their main advantage over other systems is power management, and a large part of that is attributable at least as much to control over the hardware as to technical excellence. The fanboyism and reality distortion field is very strong. I remember when they came out with timer coalescing and were hyping it as a major accomplishment and selling point. Of course, Windows supported timer coalescing for years before MacOS, but that didn’t stop Jobs from convincing a bunch of developers that this was a novel breakthrough.
- pazimzadeh 4y ago
  Maybe let's wait until Windows allows scrolling of a non-active window before saying this. Or moving/changing the name of a file while it's open. Or having a slash in a file name.
  - tshell 4y ago
    Pretty sure that you can scroll non-active windows. Just tried it to be sure.
    - bgroins 4y ago
      Yes, works fine on Windows 11
      - iggldiggl 4y ago
        Windows 10, too. I think it didn't work in Windows 7, though. If my memory is correct, that means that it's not a super-new feature, but still relatively newish.
        jeroenhd 4y ago
        Windows 10 (at least the first version) came out seven years ago. It's not even new anymore, it's well on its way to just becoming... old?
        iggldiggl 4y ago
        I guess my memory is somewhat skewed by having skipped across Windows 8, true.
    - pazimzadeh 4y ago
      Wow, didn't realize thank you! I still think being able to move/change the name of a file while it's open is impressive
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    MacOS has really strong userland software, stuff like the Quartz compositor is genuinely quite hard to beat (neither Windows, x11 nor Wayland can live up to it's featureset and stability). However, MacOS as an operating system really is a mess. Especially the XNU kernel, which is still an unbelievable amalgamation of disagreeing technology. Remember, MacOS is not natively a UNIX-certified machine: all of it's UNIX compatibility comes from a BSD-based compatibility layer that hasn't really been changed since the late-90s. Oh, and the coreutils? Notoriously garbage. MacOS ships with all sorts of outdated, downgraded, vulnerable and otherwise broken shell utilities. pico instead of nano, zsh instead of modern bash... hell, even something as simple as installing git is a 700mb installation with a mandatory reboot. I'll give MacOS credit where credit is due (Apple had good design philosophies in the 2010s), but the actual operating system (see: functional network of software components) is truly awful, arguably just as bad as Windows if not worse. Just about it's only redeeming qualities are the things that Apple didn't make (like pf and process management. If you forced me to pick something that I found impressive, I'd have to choose Grand Central Dispatch, but even that isn't terribly impressive. It's mostly as if some Apple engineers decided to iterate on the fairly lackluster Linux process management. It would have been a miracle if they managed to make something worse.
- chefandy 4y ago
  I think I need to write a plugin that searches the current HN page for terms in a configurable flame fodder string list and adds `opacity: 0.2` to the row. Fanboy would definitely included by default.
- duxup 4y ago
  > main advantage over other systems is power management I can understand that appeal. In the last 5 years I don’t think I’ve had a windows laptop sleep or hibernate as I would expect, not randomly wake up in the middle of the night, in my bag, and just sit there fans at full speed… I’m tired enough of it to try a Mac…
  - viraptor 4y ago
    Same happens occasionally on my mac. And even if it doesn't stay on, it wakes up often enough to drain >50% overnight. My only machine to reliably sleep, wake up and power manage is Linux.
    - beagle3 4y ago
      Did you turn off "powernap" in settings? By default, a mac would wake up to download mail, run backups, and do other things in the middle of the night.
      - viraptor 4y ago
        Yeah, that's with powernap off.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - danaris 4y ago
      I've experienced this with Mac laptops that I've got loads of stuff running on, but not on stock configurations, so I suspect it's some piece of software rudely waking it up every so often for its own inscrutable reasons.
  - fortran77 4y ago
    I bought a high-end lenovo and the fans would turn on and the machine would get hot when it was in my bag. But it's not Microsoft's fault. The Surface Book I replaced it with works perfectly.
  - 4y ago
- rileymat2 4y ago
  There are some usability affordances in macos that are quite nice. For example something as simple as copy and paste is command-c, everywhere. In Ubuntu? control-c or control-shift-c. It is pretty annoying being in autopilot and killing the command line program you are in because you reflexively hit control-c. Also, readline shortcuts work through out, so control-a will send you to the start of a line. Not with Ubuntu.
  - stenius 4y ago
    The Linux way is to copy text anywhere just by selecting it and paste it with the middle mouse button.
    - pvtmert 4y ago
      it is the "primary" buffer, not clipboard. macos also have it. that is part of application handling. iterm, alacritty, and bunch of other apps can behave the same. Including Xquartz.
  - bscphil 4y ago
    This is a common complaint, but this issue is that Mac users and Linux users basically talk past each other on this point. Just speaking for myself, I find that I accidentally kill a process in the Mac terminal whenever I try to copy anything because I can't keep Ctrl-C and Cmd-C separate (both Windows and Linux use Ctrl exclusively, which means you don't have to tell them apart). If you're going to use Ctrl for shortcuts, you necessarily run into the issue needing a separate shortcut for copy in the terminal, because Ctrl-C has meant "send an interrupt signal to the process" since at least the 60s. Fortunately, for people sufficiently annoyed by this, most Linux terminals do allow you to change keyboard shortcuts arbitrarily, so you can have unified copy shortcuts if you want. For a variety of reasons, I find this more trouble than it is worth and prefer sticking with the default.
- jazzyjackson 4y ago
  I don't really care about my laptop being sophisticated as long as it doesn't crash.
- kergonath 4y ago
  > MacOS is one of the least technically sophisticated operating systems in common use Having a driver for a given Ethernet controller is hardly a good proxy for sophistication…
- jen729w 4y ago
  > Their main advantage over other systems is that some of us just really don’t like Windows and really like our Macs. We’re not fanboys. It’s just a preference. Chocolate vs. vanilla, football vs. cricket, boys vs. girls.
mrpippy 4y ago
A bulky but reliable option is the $29 Apple “Thunderbolt (1) to Gigabit Ethernet adapter” connected to the $49 Apple “Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter”. It’s gigabit and PCIe using the rock-solid BCM570x chip.
- JonathonW 4y ago
  Yes, this adapter works well in my experience, too. A little clunky since Apple still hasn't updated it to native Thunderbolt 3 so it needs an adapter, but that doesn't really impact how it functions. I've also had good luck with whatever Caldigit uses in their Thunderbolt Mini Docks (not at my desk to check and see what chipset's in mine).
- krull10 4y ago
  This works great for me too, and is what I use for multiple laptops. Ridiculous there isn’t something better though at this point…
- assttoasstmgr 4y ago
  So you need two daisy-chained dongles to get a reliable Ethernet port on your $2000 laptop? Take my money please!
  - snemvalts 4y ago
    Should it be the other way around? 95% of people who haven't thought about ethernet cables for the past year should have a bulky port on the laptop that eats into PCB + battery space
    - rollcat 4y ago
      The same company has been selling a tiny 10Ge machine that can saturate this plus both TB ports without breaking a sweat. You'd think they could make a single dongle with 1/10th of that capacity.
    - assttoasstmgr 4y ago
      The assertion that something as basic as a functioning Ethernet port in a "professional" laptop - the high end model of which exceeds $6000 - constitutes a waste of PCB and battery space, is utter delusion. At that price they should throw in a Saks Fifth Avenue bag to carry your dongles.
msbarnett 4y ago
> TLDR: 2022 and we are still stuck with 100Mbit adapters on macOS That’s something of an exaggeration. There are a bunch of macs that ship with perfectly good 10GigE ethernet adapters - my Mac Pro's ethernet has been rock solid since the day I bought it. It seems like you’re more specifically concerned with the quality of support for USB<->ethernet adapters, which is always going to be kind of a crapshoot if you’re looking for 24/7/365 connection stability (on a laptop?)
fifteenforty 4y ago
Recently discussed on Hacker News was this article: https://khronokernel.github.io/macos/2021/11/22/PCIE-ETHERNET.html https://khronokernel.github.io/macos/2021/11/22/PCIE-ETHERNE... I’ve had MUCH better results with the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD (INtel i210) than my OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock (Realtek RTL8153).
jonathonlui 4y ago
After issues using various (cheap) USB 1Gbps ethernet adapters and an Intel MBP, I ended up getting one that uses a RTL8156B and seems ok. These are 2.5Gb adapters that use NCM driver so shouldn't cause high CPU. I don't have 2.5Gb network equipment but have tested with iperf between and get around like 900 Mbps and no high CPU, unlike noticeable CPU usage with the cheap 1Gbps USB adapters that use ECM drivers See also https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0?permalink_comment_id=4029029#gistcomment-4029029 https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f...
aasasd 4y ago
As detailed in this post, RTL8153 with Mac also regularly hops down to 100 mbps and doesn't return back to 1 gbps: https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.html https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.h... A pertinent question, however, is: how do you know what chips an adapter uses, before buying? I'm in utter dread regarding the prospect of buying a usb hub, since just like in the above post, they're black boxes to me which of course turn out to repackage the same Alibaba junk with 10x markup.
coder543 4y ago
I'm literally using a 2.5Gbps RTL8156(B?) without adding any drivers on an M1 MBA as I type this, and I've never had any stability issues with it. I also have an RTL8153 that works flawlessly too. I transfer tons of large videos and RAW photos imported from my mirrorless camera over these network adapters to a NAS. I've been using these for quite a few months. I'm not stuck on 100Mbps adapters, but maybe you are. Usermode vs kernelmode seems irrelevant... if anything, I want the benefits of usermode isolation for more things. Monolithic kernels aren't great for security.
- rubatuga 4y ago
  I will have to try these RTL8156 adapters eventually, but according to the resource from the comment below, they don't support AirPlay 2. Not exactly a rock-solid chipset. https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0?permalink_comment_id=4170297#gistcomment-4170297 https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f...
  - coder543 4y ago
    Could you please explain how this could possibly be a chipset problem? The chipset sends and receives packets without problem. It's a pretty rock solid chipset in my testing. This sounds like an "Apple didn't implement AirPlay support in the driver" problem, which sounds crazy, because it is kind of crazy. AirPlay should just be packets on the network like anything else. You also seem to be digging pretty hard to try and justify your original position, which was very extreme. No, Apple computers are not stuck at 100Mbps. This would be a very big deal, as tons of creative workflows rely on having multi-gigabit network connections. The outcry would be enormous. I had never tried to use AirPlay 2 from my laptop over ethernet (I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I've used AirPlay from my laptop at all), but I tested, and it is true that the Music app won't connect to AirPlay devices over this Ethernet adapter (but it will over the 8153). I also have no problem redirecting the system sound to an AirPlay device, even over this Ethernet adapter, as that comment says.
- anonymousiam 4y ago
  Why is 2.5Gbps (copper) Ethernet even a thing? 10Gbps (copper) Ethernet was standardized first, and available first. Is this just another case of planned obsolescence? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
brigade 4y ago
Is AX88178 compatible without 3rd party drivers? Plugable says no, and IIRC I needed a driver that never got updated for my gigabit ASIX, but it might been a slightly different chipset... At any rate, a big issue is that for USB, macOS only has generic ECM and NCM drivers. ECM as a protocol sucks and was barely suitable for 100Mbit, let alone gigabit, plus Realtek's implementation of ECM is quirky to say the least. RTL8156 implements an NCM endpoint, so that's probably the best USB option these days.
astrange 4y ago
Nothing crappy about user mode drivers. If you look at the new Ventura beta you’ll find a lot more of them, like the wifi stack.
- rubatuga 4y ago
  True, I guess I'm more annoyed that the rtl8153 driver was doubly inefficient (ECM + usermode).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jolux 4y ago

I use the Belkin one that Apple sells and have never had much issue with it. What chipset is that?

legalcorrection 4y ago

Yeah, despite all the hype, MacOS is one of the least technically sophisticated operating systems in common use. Their main advantage over other systems is power management, and a large part of that is attributable at least as much to control over the hardware as to technical excellence. The fanboyism and reality distortion field is very strong. I remember when they came out with timer coalescing and were hyping it as a major accomplishment and selling point. Of course, Windows supported timer coalescing for years before MacOS, but that didn’t stop Jobs from convincing a bunch of developers that this was a novel breakthrough.

pazimzadeh 4y ago
Maybe let's wait until Windows allows scrolling of a non-active window before saying this. Or moving/changing the name of a file while it's open. Or having a slash in a file name.
- tshell 4y ago
  Pretty sure that you can scroll non-active windows. Just tried it to be sure.
  - bgroins 4y ago
    Yes, works fine on Windows 11
    - iggldiggl 4y ago
      Windows 10, too. I think it didn't work in Windows 7, though. If my memory is correct, that means that it's not a super-new feature, but still relatively newish.
      - jeroenhd 4y ago
        Windows 10 (at least the first version) came out seven years ago. It's not even new anymore, it's well on its way to just becoming... old?
        iggldiggl 4y ago
        I guess my memory is somewhat skewed by having skipped across Windows 8, true.
  - pazimzadeh 4y ago
    Wow, didn't realize thank you! I still think being able to move/change the name of a file while it's open is impressive
- smoldesu 4y ago
  MacOS has really strong userland software, stuff like the Quartz compositor is genuinely quite hard to beat (neither Windows, x11 nor Wayland can live up to it's featureset and stability). However, MacOS as an operating system really is a mess. Especially the XNU kernel, which is still an unbelievable amalgamation of disagreeing technology. Remember, MacOS is not natively a UNIX-certified machine: all of it's UNIX compatibility comes from a BSD-based compatibility layer that hasn't really been changed since the late-90s. Oh, and the coreutils? Notoriously garbage. MacOS ships with all sorts of outdated, downgraded, vulnerable and otherwise broken shell utilities. pico instead of nano, zsh instead of modern bash... hell, even something as simple as installing git is a 700mb installation with a mandatory reboot. I'll give MacOS credit where credit is due (Apple had good design philosophies in the 2010s), but the actual operating system (see: functional network of software components) is truly awful, arguably just as bad as Windows if not worse. Just about it's only redeeming qualities are the things that Apple didn't make (like pf and process management. If you forced me to pick something that I found impressive, I'd have to choose Grand Central Dispatch, but even that isn't terribly impressive. It's mostly as if some Apple engineers decided to iterate on the fairly lackluster Linux process management. It would have been a miracle if they managed to make something worse.
chefandy 4y ago
I think I need to write a plugin that searches the current HN page for terms in a configurable flame fodder string list and adds `opacity: 0.2` to the row. Fanboy would definitely included by default.
duxup 4y ago
> main advantage over other systems is power management I can understand that appeal. In the last 5 years I don’t think I’ve had a windows laptop sleep or hibernate as I would expect, not randomly wake up in the middle of the night, in my bag, and just sit there fans at full speed… I’m tired enough of it to try a Mac…
- viraptor 4y ago
  Same happens occasionally on my mac. And even if it doesn't stay on, it wakes up often enough to drain >50% overnight. My only machine to reliably sleep, wake up and power manage is Linux.
  - beagle3 4y ago
    Did you turn off "powernap" in settings? By default, a mac would wake up to download mail, run backups, and do other things in the middle of the night.
    - viraptor 4y ago
      Yeah, that's with powernap off.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - danaris 4y ago
    I've experienced this with Mac laptops that I've got loads of stuff running on, but not on stock configurations, so I suspect it's some piece of software rudely waking it up every so often for its own inscrutable reasons.
- fortran77 4y ago
  I bought a high-end lenovo and the fans would turn on and the machine would get hot when it was in my bag. But it's not Microsoft's fault. The Surface Book I replaced it with works perfectly.
- 4y ago
rileymat2 4y ago
There are some usability affordances in macos that are quite nice. For example something as simple as copy and paste is command-c, everywhere. In Ubuntu? control-c or control-shift-c. It is pretty annoying being in autopilot and killing the command line program you are in because you reflexively hit control-c. Also, readline shortcuts work through out, so control-a will send you to the start of a line. Not with Ubuntu.
- stenius 4y ago
  The Linux way is to copy text anywhere just by selecting it and paste it with the middle mouse button.
  - pvtmert 4y ago
    it is the "primary" buffer, not clipboard. macos also have it. that is part of application handling. iterm, alacritty, and bunch of other apps can behave the same. Including Xquartz.
- bscphil 4y ago
  This is a common complaint, but this issue is that Mac users and Linux users basically talk past each other on this point. Just speaking for myself, I find that I accidentally kill a process in the Mac terminal whenever I try to copy anything because I can't keep Ctrl-C and Cmd-C separate (both Windows and Linux use Ctrl exclusively, which means you don't have to tell them apart). If you're going to use Ctrl for shortcuts, you necessarily run into the issue needing a separate shortcut for copy in the terminal, because Ctrl-C has meant "send an interrupt signal to the process" since at least the 60s. Fortunately, for people sufficiently annoyed by this, most Linux terminals do allow you to change keyboard shortcuts arbitrarily, so you can have unified copy shortcuts if you want. For a variety of reasons, I find this more trouble than it is worth and prefer sticking with the default.
jazzyjackson 4y ago
I don't really care about my laptop being sophisticated as long as it doesn't crash.
kergonath 4y ago
> MacOS is one of the least technically sophisticated operating systems in common use Having a driver for a given Ethernet controller is hardly a good proxy for sophistication…
jen729w 4y ago
> Their main advantage over other systems is that some of us just really don’t like Windows and really like our Macs. We’re not fanboys. It’s just a preference. Chocolate vs. vanilla, football vs. cricket, boys vs. girls.

mrpippy 4y ago

A bulky but reliable option is the $29 Apple “Thunderbolt (1) to Gigabit Ethernet adapter” connected to the $49 Apple “Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter”. It’s gigabit and PCIe using the rock-solid BCM570x chip.

JonathonW 4y ago
Yes, this adapter works well in my experience, too. A little clunky since Apple still hasn't updated it to native Thunderbolt 3 so it needs an adapter, but that doesn't really impact how it functions. I've also had good luck with whatever Caldigit uses in their Thunderbolt Mini Docks (not at my desk to check and see what chipset's in mine).
krull10 4y ago
This works great for me too, and is what I use for multiple laptops. Ridiculous there isn’t something better though at this point…
assttoasstmgr 4y ago
So you need two daisy-chained dongles to get a reliable Ethernet port on your $2000 laptop? Take my money please!
- snemvalts 4y ago
  Should it be the other way around? 95% of people who haven't thought about ethernet cables for the past year should have a bulky port on the laptop that eats into PCB + battery space
  - rollcat 4y ago
    The same company has been selling a tiny 10Ge machine that can saturate this plus both TB ports without breaking a sweat. You'd think they could make a single dongle with 1/10th of that capacity.
  - assttoasstmgr 4y ago
    The assertion that something as basic as a functioning Ethernet port in a "professional" laptop - the high end model of which exceeds $6000 - constitutes a waste of PCB and battery space, is utter delusion. At that price they should throw in a Saks Fifth Avenue bag to carry your dongles.

msbarnett 4y ago

> TLDR: 2022 and we are still stuck with 100Mbit adapters on macOS That’s something of an exaggeration. There are a bunch of macs that ship with perfectly good 10GigE ethernet adapters - my Mac Pro's ethernet has been rock solid since the day I bought it. It seems like you’re more specifically concerned with the quality of support for USB<->ethernet adapters, which is always going to be kind of a crapshoot if you’re looking for 24/7/365 connection stability (on a laptop?)

fifteenforty 4y ago

Recently discussed on Hacker News was this article: https://khronokernel.github.io/macos/2021/11/22/PCIE-ETHERNET.html https://khronokernel.github.io/macos/2021/11/22/PCIE-ETHERNE... I’ve had MUCH better results with the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD (INtel i210) than my OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock (Realtek RTL8153).

jonathonlui 4y ago

After issues using various (cheap) USB 1Gbps ethernet adapters and an Intel MBP, I ended up getting one that uses a RTL8156B and seems ok. These are 2.5Gb adapters that use NCM driver so shouldn't cause high CPU. I don't have 2.5Gb network equipment but have tested with iperf between and get around like 900 Mbps and no high CPU, unlike noticeable CPU usage with the cheap 1Gbps USB adapters that use ECM drivers See also https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0?permalink_comment_id=4029029#gistcomment-4029029 https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f...

aasasd 4y ago

As detailed in this post, RTL8153 with Mac also regularly hops down to 100 mbps and doesn't return back to 1 gbps: https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.html https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.h... A pertinent question, however, is: how do you know what chips an adapter uses, before buying? I'm in utter dread regarding the prospect of buying a usb hub, since just like in the above post, they're black boxes to me which of course turn out to repackage the same Alibaba junk with 10x markup.

coder543 4y ago

I'm literally using a 2.5Gbps RTL8156(B?) without adding any drivers on an M1 MBA as I type this, and I've never had any stability issues with it. I also have an RTL8153 that works flawlessly too. I transfer tons of large videos and RAW photos imported from my mirrorless camera over these network adapters to a NAS. I've been using these for quite a few months. I'm not stuck on 100Mbps adapters, but maybe you are. Usermode vs kernelmode seems irrelevant... if anything, I want the benefits of usermode isolation for more things. Monolithic kernels aren't great for security.

rubatuga 4y ago
I will have to try these RTL8156 adapters eventually, but according to the resource from the comment below, they don't support AirPlay 2. Not exactly a rock-solid chipset. https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0?permalink_comment_id=4170297#gistcomment-4170297 https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f...
- coder543 4y ago
  Could you please explain how this could possibly be a chipset problem? The chipset sends and receives packets without problem. It's a pretty rock solid chipset in my testing. This sounds like an "Apple didn't implement AirPlay support in the driver" problem, which sounds crazy, because it is kind of crazy. AirPlay should just be packets on the network like anything else. You also seem to be digging pretty hard to try and justify your original position, which was very extreme. No, Apple computers are not stuck at 100Mbps. This would be a very big deal, as tons of creative workflows rely on having multi-gigabit network connections. The outcry would be enormous. I had never tried to use AirPlay 2 from my laptop over ethernet (I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I've used AirPlay from my laptop at all), but I tested, and it is true that the Music app won't connect to AirPlay devices over this Ethernet adapter (but it will over the 8153). I also have no problem redirecting the system sound to an AirPlay device, even over this Ethernet adapter, as that comment says.
anonymousiam 4y ago
Why is 2.5Gbps (copper) Ethernet even a thing? 10Gbps (copper) Ethernet was standardized first, and available first. Is this just another case of planned obsolescence? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

brigade 4y ago

Is AX88178 compatible without 3rd party drivers? Plugable says no, and IIRC I needed a driver that never got updated for my gigabit ASIX, but it might been a slightly different chipset... At any rate, a big issue is that for USB, macOS only has generic ECM and NCM drivers. ECM as a protocol sucks and was barely suitable for 100Mbit, let alone gigabit, plus Realtek's implementation of ECM is quirky to say the least. RTL8156 implements an NCM endpoint, so that's probably the best USB option these days.

astrange 4y ago

Nothing crappy about user mode drivers. If you look at the new Ventura beta you’ll find a lot more of them, like the wifi stack.

rubatuga 4y ago
True, I guess I'm more annoyed that the rtl8153 driver was doubly inefficient (ECM + usermode).

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]