Plugable 2.5G USB-C and USB to Ethernet Adapter – Dual-Connector 2-in-1 USB-C to RJ45 2.5Gbps LAN, Compatible with Thunderbolt 5 & 4, USB4, USB 3.0, Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, iPhone 15 & 16

Update October 2022 So I recently purchased a QNAP TS-233 ARM based NAS, which is rather good for QMagie photo ID and management because it has a Neural Processing Unit, a fairly decent amount of RAM, 2x 3.5 Drive bays etc. The only downside is the single 1Gb Ethernet port. I tried the Plugable 2.5Gbe adapter in the front facing USB 3.0 port (The rear 2 ports are USB 2) and guess what it worked, it was recognised and shows as a 2.5Gbe adapter, no drivers were required, literally plug & play. So if you have a QNAP NAS drive, which feels handicapped by its 1Gb connection but has USB 3.0 ports, try one of these, you may get a cheap, rather nice speed upgrade. (Obviously your PC/Mac, switch etc also need to be 2.5Gbe to get the increase) or if you need Link aggregation or a 2nd interface, this is a cheap as chips upgrade Update Feb 2022. I discovered that on my 2021 M1 iPad Pro, connected via a TB3 dock (with built in 1Gb Ethernet, which for some reason only gives 40MB/s ) that plugging this into the Docks TB3/USB C pass through, gives a 238 MB/s read/write speed. I had been using a Caldigit 10Gbe adapter but due to the weird things apple have done with TB3 on the M1, it only ever hit 500MB/S. Tests were done on 15.4beta4. One of the good things with 2.5Gbe is no need to retire, your Cat5e will work at 2.5Gbe. (Cat 5e will even work for very short runs at 10Gbe, say 10 feet or less, I’ve tested this. Anyway, still going strong and a cheap and worthwhile purchase :) Update September 2021 I have now got the iPad Pro 2021 (M1, 12.9") and have this connected to a Caldigit USB C/TB3 Pro Dock. via the Docks 10Gb USB C port. Its recognised by my iPad as a 100/1000/2500 adapter and I tested it against the Docks built in 1Gb ethernet port. I discovered that the Plugable works connected to my 10Gbe/5Gbe/2.5Gbe Netgear switch and shows on the switch as a 2.5Gbe connection. Testing transfer speeds I am getting the following Maximum 183 Megabytes per second Average 127 MB per second. So it seems to be working very well and is around 40% faster than the Caldigit Docks adapter. Connecting an OWC 10Gbe Thunderbolt adapter gives speeds of around 600Megabytes per second (connected directly to iPad) My MacBook 16" has 10Gbe (OWC adapter), I have a 10GBE network via Unifi and Netgear switches and Cat8 cabling, Having invested in my network and NAS drives, my Surface Pro 7 felt a little left out, I had ordered the Qnap 5Gbe adapter and decided to try one of these so it could join in the fun. I didn't expect much but, wow, it's a bargain, it works well, (Tip Windows will update the driver, but there's a much newer one available which lets you select Jumbo frames and seems faster Look for Realtek RTL8156 drivers). For the price I am getting around 220-300 Megabytes per second transferring from my two NAS drives, its fast, stable and cheap and for the price is an incredible bargain. I also bought the QNAP device (5Gbe USB adapter) and its around 50-80MBps faster, but over 3 times the price, so you pays your money and you take your choice, both are very good devices though. I also tested this with my iPad Pro (2018), it works, (see pictures) but only at 1Gbe not 2.5Gbe. But if you need an ethernet adapted for your iPad that might be supported one day, look no further.

using on a mini pc part of a proxmox cluster. works unexpectedly well. If you gave a good usb port like usb type c 3.2 vs, use that port. normal 3.0 is pretty limiting because of the port speed. It is duplex. and can maintained the speeds. Automatically uses the correct driver. and supports WOL. No heating problem I see. Recommended.

works perfectly with my macbook air m1 on macos ventura. unlike other 2.5G ethernet adaptors i tried in the past, where something did now work (e.g. airplay), the Plugable 2.5G adapter works perfectly, everything works as expected. speed hits 262MB/S that's around 2Gbps not 2.5Gbps, tho this is likely because I plugged the adapter to one of the usb-c ports of apple studio display. I think performance could be improved if plugged in directly to the macbook. build quality is solid. i would not say it's pretty, but it's hidden behind my display, so solid build quality is all that i need. it does not get too warm, it's never too warm to touch. (unlike other adapters i tried in the past which got really hot) overall, i am happy with the performance especially considering its affordable price. this is the first product i purchased from plugable, im really impressed, will totally buy form plugable again.

I plugged this adapter between my laptop and a 5Gb/s port on my switch and was getting very close to 2.5Gb/s for large file copies to and from my NAS on a 10Gb/s port. Great! I then tried to back up the laptop to the NAS and it failed after a couple of minutes. The problem seems to be that the adapter uses quite a lot of CPU power and the backup software uses 100% so the adapter didn't get enough to keep the link running. I saw that the link was running at about 1.2Gb/s so I limited the backup software to 1Gb/s and then a backup completed successfully. Although it's less than the adapter is capable of, it's still higher than I've got from 1Gb/s adapters so I can live with it. The other problem was that it didn't work in the USB-C socket until I turned the connector over. It was detected but didn't connect to the LAN. It worked perfectly through the USB-A adapter. Overall well worth the purchase with just the described problems costing it one star.

I have this connected to an old Dell XPS 9370 laptop running proxmox. I get the full 2.5G speed or near enough not to care. The indicator light on it is helpful to see when it's connected, built in USB C to A convertor is handy.

I have a QNAP TS-853A which works just fine for the things I need from this NAS and although it has four 1Gbe NICs which can be combined, you don't get a faster connection, just more 'lanes' to use for multiple devices and I wanted backups to be faster. The 1Gbe connection was pretty much maxed out at 988-994Mbps while backing up my VMs I added one of these USB 2.5Gbe adapters and after rebooting the NAS the adapter was found and installed automatically. I assigned a static IP and it was ready to go. Nice! While backing up large files I'm seeing between 2.0 and 2.2Gbe which is fine for my requirements on this old QNAP

I ordered two of Anker versions, one for a Mac Mini and the other for a PC. At the same time, I ordered a Plugable version as well for my Synology NAS, as it came with a USB-A adaptor and my NAS lacks USB-C. Neither of the anker ones will connect at higher than 1Gbps ethernet on either Mac Mini or PC. The Plugable one? Works perfectly on all 3 devices at full speed. Guess what I have ordered two more of? The Anker ones are going back.

I got it to use for my Mac Pro 2013 for about a year until its time to get another computer with 10GBE built in. People have complained that the speed is not up to it but i found it to be good, until it decided not to work one day when i needed to copy a big file to my NAS. Thats all its job was, just to have a high speed connection to my NAS every so often when needed and it can not even manage a part time job like that. I should have noticed the light gone from where the network cable goes in. This experience has put me off any other products from this company.