USB Ethernet data rate benchmarks

[christopherkunz]

Hey,

I'm pondering buying a 13" MBA, but as many people, am put of a bit by the lack of an Ethernet port. In most cases, this is not an issue for me, but sometimes I just need to have a little more bang than Wifi can offer.

Did anyone ever come across a review, blog posting or something like that that shows real-life benchmarks for USB ethernet adapters on the MBA? Seeing how close real-life throughput and theoretical specs differ would be helpful and all I could find using the forum search was some generic comparisons.

Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

As most Ethernet adapters are limited to 10/100 Mb/s, USB 2.0 will suffice.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1042310/

 

[Argon21]

USB 2.0 has enough throughput to handle 100 Mb/s Ethernet. I wouldn't be worried about throughput. The thing that might concern me, is the latency. USB will add some latency. How much it adds would make for a good benchmark.

 

[iNotion]

Using one right now. (office use).
Fast till you won't notice you are using a USB 2.0 for it.

 

[christopherkunz]

Forgot to mention that I'd really like to have a GigE adaptor. I guess it will theoretically max out at about 300Mbps but that's still 3 times FE speed (and thus 1/3rd the wait).

Using external hard disks via USB, I made the experience that effective data rates vary wildly, depending on the host USB controller, the external hard disk's controller and occasionally on the cabling between host and external hard disk (thin = bad). That's why actual benchmarks using the Air's USB controllers would be interesting.

 

[zartemis]

Forgot to mention that I'd really like to have a GigE adaptor. I guess it will theoretically max out at about 300Mbps but that's still 3 times FE speed (and thus 1/3rd the wait).

Several folks posted their speeds in this thread on gigabit adapters. My results were in this post.

 

[christopherkunz]

Several folks posted their speeds in this thread on gigabit adapters. My results were in this post.

OK, so I can hope for something in the 30 MByte/s range which is fine for me. Thanks for the pointer!

 

[abuleban]

No problem with the adapter

it even worked perfectly for the data transfer, did at least 30 GB of data in an hour or so... I think