I didn't contact Apple. I just assumed it was waste of time since they could so easily point the finger at the third-party equipment. If the problem really is a subtle compatibility issue, I'm really not sure who would be to blame.
There are many threads about the external disk disconnects on these forums. I don't remember if I've seen one about the ethernet issue you're experiencing.
I guess, if I had your issue I'd start poking around, with low confidence that I'd solve it. But, here are some things I'd wonder about and experiment with.
1
Would I have an issue if an external drive were also plugged into the hub; would the drives occasionally disconnect when waking from sleep? (You get a warning on the screen when it happens.) If that were to happen, I'd say my chances of completely solving the ethernet problem would be zero. The external drive disconnection issue has been discussed so much and there never has been a solution discovered.
2
After the ethernet has failed, is there some other way to get it back up without disconnecting and reconnecting the hub?
I'd look at the output, in the terminal, of the command ifconfig. That would show a lot of interfaces, but I'd learn which one is the ethernet one (when ethernet is working) to see if it's there when ethernet is not. You could also look in System Settings, but you have to check things carefully since the service definition under the Network section will still show the ethernet one even if the hub were disconnected. But, if you were to dig, you would see no MAC address for that service.
If the interface is not present, then I'd think there's little chance of solving the issue without reconnecting the hub. If the interface is present, then I'd play around in System Settings (as you did) and the terminal (which you're not yet sure how to do) to try figure out a way to bring the interface up.
Anyway, I'm happy to try to help more if you decide to experiment, but I hope someone else has some actual insight into what the issue is or experience solving it.
