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USB-C to ethernet adapter that works with Intel Macs on Big Sur?

collin_

collin_

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 19, 2018
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Big Sur broke both of my USB-C to ethernet adapters because they both use a Realtek chip (like all the others...) and Realtek has apparently not updated their drivers to support an operating system that's been out for about 5 months. At first, the Anker one I was using worked without a driver for about a week, but didn't automatically sleep when the Mac is in sleep mode like it used to. Then it suddenly stopped working and installing the driver didn't fix it. I checked my old one and it had the same problem. Weirdly enough, I can successfully ping stuff with it, but no other connections seem to get through.

One of them is a fancy Anker one and their support couldn't do anything about it. They're going to have me process a warranty claim I guess. This is unfortunate because the adapter isn't even broken.

Have any of you found one that works for Intel Macs running Big Sur? Bonus points if it automatically powers down to some low energy state when the Mac is asleep (most don't)
 
I've used the Belkin one that's available through Apple and elsewhere. It still works in Big Sur without installing a separate driver.
As far as I know, though, this too uses the Realtek chip so I'd be looking at your system to see if there's something that's causing these network adapters to stop working.
If you want a very reliable, if expensive, option, you can get the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and Apple's Thunderbolt ethernet adapter.
 
chrfr said:
I've used the Belkin one that's available through Apple and elsewhere. It still works in Big Sur without installing a separate driver.
As far as I know, though, this too uses the Realtek chip so I'd be looking at your system to see if there's something that's causing these network adapters to stop working.
If you want a very reliable, if expensive, option, you can get the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and Apple's Thunderbolt ethernet adapter.
Click to expand...
I just did a clean install a week ago, so I don't know what could be the problem on my end. I've been considering the 2 Apple adapters for a while and finally bought them just now. Got both for $50 from buying open box eBay items rather than $80+ from Apple. Hopefully these work flawlessly
 
chrfr said:
I've used the Belkin one that's available through Apple and elsewhere. It still works in Big Sur without installing a separate driver.
As far as I know, though, this too uses the Realtek chip so I'd be looking at your system to see if there's something that's causing these network adapters to stop working.
If you want a very reliable, if expensive, option, you can get the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and Apple's Thunderbolt ethernet adapter.
Click to expand...
I’m using this one with no issues at all on my M1.
 
collin_ said:
I just did a clean install a week ago, so I don't know what could be the problem on my end.
Click to expand...
I'd also be looking at the other end: cables, switch, router, etc.
As for the Realtek drivers, they're now supplied by Apple in Big Sur.
 
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As far as I know, there are two big manufacturers of USB network chips: Realtek and ASIX. ASIX works up to Mojave but they do not offer usable Big Sur drivers (they want you to disable SIP etc.). Realtek works without any installation, just plug'n'play. I use the Aukey CB-A30 on an Intel Mac running Big Sur, it works well.
 
chrfr said:
I've used the Belkin one that's available through Apple and elsewhere. It still works in Big Sur without installing a separate driver.
As far as I know, though, this too uses the Realtek chip so I'd be looking at your system to see if there's something that's causing these network adapters to stop working.
If you want a very reliable, if expensive, option, you can get the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter and Apple's Thunderbolt ethernet adapter.
Click to expand...

me55 said:
As far as I know, there are two big manufacturers of USB network chips: Realtek and ASIX. ASIX works up to Mojave but they do not offer usable Big Sur drivers (they want you to disable SIP etc.). Realtek works without any installation, just plug'n'play. I use the Aukey CB-A30 on an Intel Mac running Big Sur, it works well.
Click to expand...
I'm hearing mixed reports of Big Sur support. A lot of people say they still work, a lot of people say they don't. For me it actually did work for about a week and then randomly stopped working. That has been a reported problem with ethernet adapters for a while now. Not sure of the cause, but my best guess is that macOS currently has insufficient support for these devices.
 
Apple_Robert said:
The Belkin model still works. I was using it until I got my OWC Dock.
Click to expand...
I just talked with OWC earlier today and they confirmed that the ethernet chip in their docks is the exact same one I’m having problems with. Belkin one appears to use it too :<
 
Okay so the 2 Apple adapters arrived today (Thunderbolt 2 -> 3 and Thunderbolt 2 -> ethernet) and I'm going to provide some info for anyone who may stumble across this thread.

The adapters work perfectly. I'm getting full gigabit speeds and 0.0% packet loss as expected. The Thunderbolt 2 -> 3 gets a tiny, tiny bit warm and the Thunderbolt 2 -> ethernet gets slightly warm but not hot -- cooler than the other ethernet adapters I've tried. In macOS network preferences it shows up as "Thunderbolt Ethernet." The dongles automatically sleep and are cold to the touch when the computer is asleep, which is excellent because this means no battery drain unlike the others I've tried.

It is obviously a more expensive and slightly more awkward setup than just buying a 3rd party USB-C to ethernet adapter, but I'm just glad that I finally have reliable ethernet on my MacBook Pro. I would recommend this setup to anyone who needs a reliable wired connection. Every third party adapter either uses a Realtek chip or an ASIX chip, and you can not count on those 2 companies for reliable macOS ethernet support across updates. It's worth the extra money to go with Apple's instead, but I recommend buying open-box items from eBay rather than paying full price. Both of mine were still in the cardboard "straps" that you have to break them out of to use them, meaning they had never been used. $50 for both instead of $80+ from Apple.
 
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collin_ said:
Okay so the 2 Apple adapters arrived today (Thunderbolt 2 -> 3 and Thunderbolt 2 -> ethernet) and I'm going to provide some info for anyone who may stumble across this thread.

The adapters work perfectly. I'm getting full gigabit speeds and 0.0% packet loss as expected. The Thunderbolt 2 -> 3 gets a tiny, tiny bit warm and the Thunderbolt 2 -> ethernet gets slightly warm but not hot -- cooler than the other ethernet adapters I've tried. In macOS network preferences it shows up as "Thunderbolt Ethernet." The dongles automatically sleep and are cold to the touch when the computer is asleep, which is excellent because this means no battery drain unlike the others I've tried.

It is obviously a more expensive and slightly more awkward setup than just buying a 3rd party USB-C to ethernet adapter, but I'm just glad that I finally have reliable ethernet on my MacBook Pro. I would recommend this setup to anyone who needs a reliable wired connection. Every third party adapter either uses a Realtek chip or an ASIX chip, and you can not count on those 2 companies for reliable macOS ethernet support across updates. It's worth the extra money to go with Apple's instead, but I recommend buying open-box items from eBay rather than paying full price. Both of mine were still in the cardboard "straps" that you have to break them out of to use them, meaning they had never been used. $50 for both instead of $80+ from Apple.
Click to expand...
In this scenario, no matter what version we are in, we can directly plug and use it without a driver, right?

and the other question is that your thunderbolt adapter 3 ->(to) 2 right?
 
littlemoron said:
In this scenario, no matter what version we are in, we can directly plug and use it without a driver, right?

and the other question is that your thunderbolt adapter 3 ->(to) 2 right?
Click to expand...
Correct. No driver needed and Apple will almost surely support both adapters indefinitely as they're still being sold and they'd have no reason to drop support.

I watched a teardown and it appears that Apple is using a Broadcom chip for the ethernet adapter. This is truly the only one I've found that doesn't use one of the problematic Realtek or ASIX chips, and Apple has a close relationship with Broadcom.

Here are the 2 adapters:
Ethernet to Thunderbolt 2
Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3
 
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I've tried so many different adapters and they didn't work, which scares the possibility that they won't work either lol. There is no question of Broadcom not updating this, I guess. How does it happen if we are not downloading an external driver? I don't fully understand, but if it works, it's fine. I hope other things will not be a problem in the next versions on macOs.

I'll take both adapters and try. Also does anyone have any idea if this adapter will work as well?

www.apple.com

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter lets you use your USB 2.0 port on your Mac to connect to the Internet. Get fast, free shipping when you shop online.
www.apple.com

New Edit: ****, above, this adapter also uses ASIX chipset.
 
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littlemoron said:
I've tried so many different adapters and they didn't work, which scares the possibility that they won't work either lol. There is no question of Broadcom not updating this, I guess. How does it happen if we are not downloading an external driver? I don't fully understand, but if it works, it's fine. I hope other things will not be a problem in the next versions on macOs.

I'll take both adapters and try. Also does anyone have any idea if this adapter will work as well?

www.apple.com

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter lets you use your USB 2.0 port on your Mac to connect to the Internet. Get fast, free shipping when you shop online.
www.apple.com

New Edit: ****, above, this adapter also uses ASIX chipset.
Click to expand...
The 2 Apple adapters work without a driver because, since they are genuine, "official" Apple products, support for them is baked into macOS. And there's no reason to think that Apple would ever remove that support. This is substantiated by the fact that macOS recognizes these as genuine Apple products in network preferences and system information. It’s called “Thunderbolt Ethernet” and system information provides a lot of info on it rather than the third party adapters which are always something like “10/100/1000 USB LAN.”
 
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littlemoron said:
I've tried so many different adapters and they didn't work, which scares the possibility that they won't work either lol. There is no question of Broadcom not updating this, I guess. How does it happen if we are not downloading an external driver? I don't fully understand, but if it works, it's fine. I hope other things will not be a problem in the next versions on macOs.

I'll take both adapters and try. Also does anyone have any idea if this adapter will work as well?

www.apple.com

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter lets you use your USB 2.0 port on your Mac to connect to the Internet. Get fast, free shipping when you shop online.
www.apple.com

New Edit: ****, above, this adapter also uses ASIX chipset.
Click to expand...
This adapter is also only 10/100. It's very slow.
 
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As far as I understand from what has been written in this topic, I will turn to the thunderbolt solution. Thank you guys!
 
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Another confirmation on the 2-adapter Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 -> ethernet solution working. Thanks Collin for figuring this out. It cost a bit but less than I had already spent on various non-working adapters and on top of that many hours wrestling with this problem.

ASIX released an update in May 2021 or thereabouts to "fix" their driver for Big Sur; I installed it but it didn't work. I think it does work for some people though, so if. you already have an ASIX adapter you might start out trying that approach. The Realtek chips worked sometimes and sometimes not for me and I am tired of wrestling with them.
 
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