Windows 10: Gigabit LAN to USB adapter

Hi,
I am looking to buy a Gigabit LAN to USB adapter and I have seen that all of them are USB3.0, but my PC has only USB 2.0.
The question is, due the USB 2.0 limitation, the adapter will work only as 10/100Mbps LAN, 1GBps is not possible on USB 2.0.
It that right?

:)

 

How do I hard wire my Inspiron 17 7000 to the internet

You don't say what your internet connection is. Many people have an internet connection to their router so their problem is to connect their computers to that router.

If you do have a router that is connected to the internet then you could connect to the router using an external USB LAN card such as this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethernet-Network-Adapter-Macbook-Chromebook/dp/B00MYT481C/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1482349938&sr=1-4&keywords=usb+lan+adapter or this USB3 version

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-Supporting/dp/B00NPJP33M/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1482349938&sr=1-6&keywords=usb+lan+adapter together with an ethernet cable to connect the card to the router.

Personally, I connect my Dell Inspiron 17 [7779] to my router over WiFi and am content with that.

Denis

 

Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.30) is using just 100 Mbit in Win 10

The problem is not internet speed. The ethernet adapter shows a speed of 100mbit/s. if I connect the wire into another computer the speed is shown as 1Gbit/s. I think the problem is the LAN card. The computer is connectet via Ethernet to a router which
is working with Gigabit LAN, also with other computers in this network.

 

What's the make/model of this adapter? Do you have a link for it?

 

USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter - TP-Link

There are many of such adapters around, I have been reading the specifications, but of course, they are not saying that for to use 1000Mbps LAN I need to have USB3.0 connection and I am quite sure it is necessary.

 

Hi there

Do the maths --simple enough

Max USB 2 speed - even if you COULD get it is 480 Mb/s (Mega BITS / sec) . Your Mobo probably won't be able to handle the max USB 2 Bus speed so your LAN adapter will give you around 100 Mb/s. You won't get anywhere near the 1 Gb/s range !!! - not on USB 2.

For Internet and general use this should be adequate enough -- don't though even THINK of transferring large files over this type of LAN connection.

100Mb/s will give you around 9 MB/s (mega BYTES /sec) data transfer speed. Router throughput will also play a role here - domestic grade routers don't perform anywhere near the theoretical maximum (around 1.3 Gb/s for 5 GHZ wifi on ac standard).

Afraid you can't break the Laws of Physics -- only solution is to get a laptop with a decent LAN adapter in it or a USB3 port --incidentally 5 GHZ wifi band on a normal domestic grade router in practice can only cope with a max wifi speed of around 633 Mb/s -- about half the theoretical maximum given cheap components, small antennae and often dodgy signals.

USB 3.0 can transfer data up-to 5gbps (640MBps) so it should work with a 1Gb/s LAN connection connected directly to LAN.

100Mb/s LAN will be enough to stream full 1080p HD content - but don't even DREAM of attempting to stream 4K or 8K video to those new 4K TV sets with that type of gear -- you'll be HUGELY frustrated with "buffering" etc and a lot of thumb twiddling !!!.

@Adalwar - Yes you can use about 99% of those USB 3 --> Lan adpters on USB 2 -- I haven't actually see any marked "Not compatible with USB2" - but you'll only get USB 2 performance from them.

A good one is the ANKER aluminium one -- has 3 tiny LED's too -- works on USB 2 with no problem.

Cheers
jimbo

 

@jimbo45,
Thank you
I was doing the "maths" before and precisely based on USB speeds I am sure 1000Mbps will not be possible on USB2.0.
If I connect such Adapter in USB 2.0 port I will only get 100Mbps , not more.
About buying a "decent" PC with USB 3.0, the funny thing is that the Motherboard has USB 3.0, Drivers have been automatically fully installed, but guess what: The USB connectors are USB 2.0! What a shame on LENOVO 100s, if I knew that before I would have not bought the PC. I have dismantle the Laptop to see if I could exchange the connectors, but no chance.*Devil

EDIT: As a reference to USB 2.0 speeds, I have an external SSD and its Transfer speed does not go over 16MB/s, on USB2.0, while in USB3.0 it is over 200MB/s , droping after a while to 96MB/s I think because of HDD Speed.

 

Hi there

@Adalwar

slightly OT but the drop in SSD transfer speed on USB 3 for a "reasonably sized" file is probably due to the file transfer program (in this case probably File / Windows explorer) reading less than optimum block sizes from the data and the Mobo bus I/O controller having insufficient or no cache.

A decentish SSD on a USB 3 port connected via a SATA-->USB3 adapter will probably average around 150 - 200 MB/s with a good Mobo.

I have to admit though that it's strange that a computer has USB 3 ports but no connections available. !!!! I can understand the USB 2 ports being connected but the USB 3 ports should have some connectability somewhere.

Another possibility is to use a pci-e USB 3 card but if the mobo bus speed isn't sufficient you'll be wasting your money !!!. A laptop usually has very limited expansion possibilities -- some though do have space for a small size pci-e card.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Hi there

The fact that the Mobo already has built in USB 3 capability probably means the Bus speed is fast enough so your Pci-e card should be fine (although some of the cheaper ones only work at about 75% of true USB 3 speed --still a whole lot better than USB 2).

If the initial Mobo didn't have USB 3 capability then it's a question of luck --might work at decent speed or might give you small improvement like 55 - 60 MB/s instead of around 35 MB/s (max) for USB 2.

Incidentally also OT but some old laptop HDD 2.5 inch spinners often perform surprisingly well when connected to USB 2 or USB 3 slots via the appropriate SATA-->USB connector. So don't throw them away if you upgrade to SSD's - useful for backups etc. !!! and can be used attached to desktop computers too via same adapter cables.

Cheers
jimbo

 

@jimbo45,
Hi there,
About the Laptop, yes Hardware supports USB3.0 but all case connectors are USB2.0! Next time, the China people will not f*k me so easy. Next time, I will not trust anybody and open my eyes very wide. But that is not the only f*k, the SD-Card reader only accepts max 32GB, do want you want.
And I can do nothing, no Cards, no exchange connectors.
Concerning USB3.0 speed there are several "bottlenecks" to consider:
- USB3.0 will be max (generous "maths") 175 MB/s.
- My HDD is a Hybrid one with also SSD incorporated, and Windows Test says write speed is around that 96MB/s.
- I was copy a 4GB file from SSD to HDD, it was so quick that I even could not "Think" so quick, but 50% of time was 200MB/s then it droped to 96MB/s.
Probably the HDD speed was the Bottleneck or/and USB3.0 slow down, becaus it could not handle the "handshakes"

EDIT : It is a "Chinese Revenge" to be looking all the time to Device Manager and see all the USB 3.0 Drivers there, but you can not use it!*Mad

 

These USB 3.0 adapters are generally backward compatible with USB 2.0. I just plugged in my StarTech USB 3.0 GbE adapter into one of my Lenovo notebooks (which have only USB 2.0 built in) and it fired up and worked immediately. Windows 10 knows how to find and install most of these drivers automatically, so they will work immediately following insertion in most cases.
But of course, you'll be limited to the practical maximum for USB 2.0 when you use the network you attach to. Whereas my native GbE machines on my network get about 650 Mbps doing local file transfers, the best this USB 2.0 system will do is 333 Mbps. Still not terrible, though...
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Hi EdTittel,
Thank you
100=1000/10. So, I can not follow you about that 333Mbps. And USB2.0 is not the same as USB3.0/2. USB 2.0 =480Mbps and USB3.0=5000Mbps.
Besides this, experimentally and defintivly USB 2.0 will not go further than 16MB/S=128Mbps

 

I reported the figure from OOKLA speed test connecting to my nearest Time Warner server, and I stand by those numbers. As you say, the theoretical maximum for USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps which is the same as 60 MBps (or MB/s). It goes way faster than 16 MBps (or MB/s, if you prefer): I see that on USB drives all the time, and apparently also on the StarTech adapter I hooked up. I'm looking at the PC right now, and the GbE adapter is plugged into the USB 2.0 port for sure. I'm not sure where this gets us, but I wanted to be clear that these numbers are real and valid.
Thanks,
--Ed--

PS: running a large file transfer from one GbE PC to another GbE PC just now, I was getting 110-115 MB/s (880-920 Mbps) on the network just now, between two machines on the same switch, both with jumbo packets turned on, so that's in line with untrammeled GbE network access. Shows that USB 2.0 is indeed slower than USB 3.0 or native GbE.

 

Hi EdTittel,
It is not my fault, it is this Chinese that sold me this crap. I just found out that the Laptop where I was testing, the USB 2.0 ports must be Half-Speed.
I connected the external SSD to the USB 2.0 ports on the other Laptop and guess what: Transfer speed is 38MB/s!