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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 a

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
- coder543 4y ago
  Why did you feel the need to leave this comment? How could 2.5Gbps ever be construed as planned obsolescence? 10Gbps ethernet stayed too expensive for too long, so everyone was stuck on 1Gbps for like a decade. Eventually, manufacturers decided 2.5Gbps (and 5Gbps) would be more cost effective options for the time being, and would allow increases in network performance beyond 1Gbps. It's a completely positive outcome for end users, since they now have more options, and pretty much all 10Gbps ethernet ports are compatible with "multi-gig" 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps connections as well. 10Gbps is effectively the end of the line for copper anyways... 10Gbps is already really hot and power hungry, and AFAIK, datacenters never really bothered to deploy any copper faster than that. Fiber is the present reality in datacenters. What I really want is for SFP+/QSFP+/QSFP28 to make their way into home networks and consumer devices.
  - anonymousiam 4y ago
    It's true that newer 10GBE ports mostly support 5 & 2.5, but not always, and the older ones don't. It's also true (unfortunately) that the 2.5 & 5 GBE hardware mostly does not support 10GBE. You can get a 10GBE SFP+ module for less than $50 (and dropping), so why not manufacture hardware that is future compatible? I am seeing more and more 2.5GBE hardware on the market that does not support 10GBE. This is the basis for my speculation about planned obsolescence.
    - coder543 4y ago
      $50/port is still prohibitively expensive for consumer networks... and that's just the module, it doesn't include the cost of the SFP+ cage (and supporting hardware). Spot checking one OEM, they charge $100 to upgrade to copper 10GbE on a desktop computer. I'm sure others charge less, but 1GbE has been effectively "free" for forever, and 2.5GbE has been becoming "free" over the last year or two. Nothing presented so far even comes close to making me believe this is a conspiracy. People just got tired of waiting for 10GbE to come down in price. Cost and impatience are the driving factors. Gigabit ethernet was introduced in the late 90s... it was time for some increase in speed, and basically no one has been able to justify the continued high cost of 10GbE in home networks yet, 20+ years after 1GbE, so 2.5GbE it is.

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

coder543 4y ago
Why did you feel the need to leave this comment? How could 2.5Gbps ever be construed as planned obsolescence? 10Gbps ethernet stayed too expensive for too long, so everyone was stuck on 1Gbps for like a decade. Eventually, manufacturers decided 2.5Gbps (and 5Gbps) would be more cost effective options for the time being, and would allow increases in network performance beyond 1Gbps. It's a completely positive outcome for end users, since they now have more options, and pretty much all 10Gbps ethernet ports are compatible with "multi-gig" 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps connections as well. 10Gbps is effectively the end of the line for copper anyways... 10Gbps is already really hot and power hungry, and AFAIK, datacenters never really bothered to deploy any copper faster than that. Fiber is the present reality in datacenters. What I really want is for SFP+/QSFP+/QSFP28 to make their way into home networks and consumer devices.
- anonymousiam 4y ago
  It's true that newer 10GBE ports mostly support 5 & 2.5, but not always, and the older ones don't. It's also true (unfortunately) that the 2.5 & 5 GBE hardware mostly does not support 10GBE. You can get a 10GBE SFP+ module for less than $50 (and dropping), so why not manufacture hardware that is future compatible? I am seeing more and more 2.5GBE hardware on the market that does not support 10GBE. This is the basis for my speculation about planned obsolescence.
  - coder543 4y ago
    $50/port is still prohibitively expensive for consumer networks... and that's just the module, it doesn't include the cost of the SFP+ cage (and supporting hardware). Spot checking one OEM, they charge $100 to upgrade to copper 10GbE on a desktop computer. I'm sure others charge less, but 1GbE has been effectively "free" for forever, and 2.5GbE has been becoming "free" over the last year or two. Nothing presented so far even comes close to making me believe this is a conspiracy. People just got tired of waiting for 10GbE to come down in price. Cost and impatience are the driving factors. Gigabit ethernet was introduced in the late 90s... it was time for some increase in speed, and basically no one has been able to justify the continued high cost of 10GbE in home networks yet, 20+ years after 1GbE, so 2.5GbE it is.