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Ethernet on 2016 MacBook Pro

Mammut

Mammut

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 9, 2015
100
87
Frankfurt, Germany
Hey guys,

I'm currently planning my purchase of a 2016 or 2017 MacBook Pro 15" (if there will be one by end of the year). I have now a question regarding the dongles, but wasn't successful in finding an already existing answer here in the macrumors forum.

I occasionally need a wired connection to some LANs and wonder how to do it since there is no USB-C to Ethernet dongle. Do I need two dongles (USB-C to TB2 + TB2 to Ethernet) or am I missing something?

I'll be glad for some assistance, really confused at the moment. :confused:

Thanks in advance guys! :cool:
 
Ah okay, so I have to go for a 3rd party device. Was hoping for an Apple-only solution, but I'll give this dongle a shot! Thanks a lot! :cool:
 
Mammut said:
Ah okay, so I have to go for a 3rd party device. Was hoping for an Apple-only solution, but I'll give this dongle a shot! Thanks a lot! :cool:
Click to expand...
If you want an Apple-only solution you can get the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and then the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter and use them together, but it makes far more sense to get something like the Belkin one.
 
Brookzy said:
If you want an Apple-only solution you can get the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and then the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter and use them together, but it makes far more sense to get something like the Belkin one.
Click to expand...
Yes, definitely! I thought I might have overseen Apples one-dongle solution here - but unfortunately not. :(
 
The Belkin one sold through the Apple store is a special model they made for Apple. Their own version is black, the Apple one is white. No idea if there are other differences. It's on adapter that works fine and uses the in-built driver so all you have to do is attach it.

With USB-C I wouldn't look at solely Apple. It is a universal connector so do look at other brands too.
 
There are some subtle differences between the TB to Ethernet adapter vs the Belkin USB-C adapter but most users won't ever notice this. The TB to Ethernet adapter was basically a PCIe attached adapter w/ a Broadcom chipset, whereas the Belkin adapter uses Realtek chipsets.

I have this one, it was 7 dollars when I bought it so I can't complain but I hate it. Signal leak is so bad that I can use a wireless mouse around it. It uses the same chipset as the Belkin one, again Realtek, and it often drops connections for no reason.
 
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The Belkin also uses USB 3.1 Gen 1 instead of Thunderbolt (which uses PCIe to connect the NIC).
 
The Belkin one is rock solid, been using it since the RMB and now 2016 MBP. I have both the black and white model, they are functionally identical.
 
Oh thanks a lot for all the further replies here!
It's definitely like this that I use a wired Ethernet connection only every now and then. But of course it has to be reliable! I don't want to handle with situations like that you need the dongle and then its malfunctioning.
 
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