USB to 2.5Gbe adapter on AX88U

[jsmiddleton4]

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I can grab the last one and then reship it to you.

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm waiting for your results first!

 

[Tech9]

Will test Asus' RTL8156B chip adapter tomorrow. For now my work here is done.

This thread reminds me of my journey with pfSense on a miniPC with 2x USB 3.0 Gigabit adapters. Everyone was saying it's not a good idea, but I finally found good working ones. Used to run the setup for about 1.5 years with no issues. Good job, @jsmiddleton4!

 

[jsmiddleton4]

My mini-pc has 2 2.5gb ports and I half thought about tackling pfsense, a couple of wireless AP’s, to be my router.

There’s wifi 6 ax USB adapters hitting the market.

 

[Tech9]

Yours is much newer and ready. Add proper PoE switch, PoE APs and you'll never look back at consumer routers.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Cost more than ax86U’s with usb adapter. Thought about doing what you suggested though.

 

[Tech9]

Costs more, but works better. I went through AIO routers, DIY firewall, home lab with Xeon server. Using Netgate x86 appliance with Ruckus APs now. My NAS is still DIY on x86 hardware, but I like it. Home lab was taking too much space, energy and time. It's addictive. I don't plan any upgrades in near future.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

My mini-pc is the latest 11th gen i5 with 12 gb LPDDR ram and Thunderbolt 4. If I was going to do a mini-pc and pfsense I’d get a Celeron or an AMD Ryzen 3, or even less CPU. They are quite low cost right now. But none of those I’ve found have dual 2.5gb ports. They all have enough USB3 ports though.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Given the shipping updates from Amazon I'll be very surprised if the Asus adapter arrives today. It just left Amazon shipping center in NW Kentucky. That's just on the other side of SE Indiana but still a ways from Fort Wayne. Could be it'll get here today. More likely tomorrow with Amazon's morning run through my area.

Today the Sabrent USB Type-A or Type-C to 5-Gigabit Ethernet Adapter [10/100/1000/2500/5000 Mbps] (NT-SS5G) rolling right along. I am showing ISP speed about 100mbs faster for me. The work at home folks go through a company VPN and its always throttled due to their VPN.

During the day with folks working from home, other folks in the area on this node too, I'm usually around 300-310 Mbs.

edit: Its official. Not arriving today. Can't play until tomorrow afternoon......

Edit: Amazon now has no idea where the Asus one is and when its going to be delivered. Canceled it and ordered the Pluggable RT8156B 2.5gb/USB 3 adapter. It is supposed to be here tomorrow afternoon.

​

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Anyone know if you actually can plug in two USB "modems"? I'm thinking the code would be for one not two. Its Dual WAN not "as many as you wish" WAN. Right?

The RTL8156B arriving soon. Just wondering if its pointless to try both USB devices at the same time.

 

[JagoUK]

Anyone know if you actually can plug in two USB "modems"? I'm thinking the code would be for one not two. Its Dual WAN not "as many as you wish" WAN. Right?

The RTL8156B arriving soon. Just wondering if its pointless to try both USB devices at the same time.

Why not try it and let us know?

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I don't mind trying it. But if it doesn't work because it isn't supposed to that's different than it doesn't work out right.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Also poking around way back in time but I remember before it was easy in the GUI to make an unused WAN port a LAN port. Primarily it was for folks that were using a router as an AP. Again when mesh referred to a screen meant to keep mosquitoes out of our homes.

I found one example still hanging around. Over my head as I've already noted but it doesn't seem that hard. It is "Hey there's a port available use it as a LAN".

Would be similar for the eth port the USB modem creates. Problem might be with the early days of converting the WAN to a LAN that eth port was fixed or known. The script was the same for everyone. Adding a USB device network port number, etc., may change depending on one's setup.

Also wonder if it would it be all that difficult to have the option "You've added a USB Network port. Do you want it to be a WAN or a LAN"?

My money is on the router won't recognize two recognizable USB "modems". How many layers would have to be added to the Fail Over option if two were recognized?

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Two devices not recognized. Makes sense of course. But the cheaper 2.5gb Plugable RTL8156B based adapter works great.

I can not at this time, snuck this in during home worker's break, but will check the Syslog with both devices plugged in.

Different verbiage in syslog. At least I don't remember any deep green anything with the Sabrent adapter. And initially it was connected at 100mbs. I flipped the orientation of the USB c plug/adapter and boom, 2.5gb.

I am planning on returning the more expensive Sabrent. The Plugable one was less than 30 bucks.

Difference between the Aquantia AQC111U chipset. and Realtek RTL8156B?

The recognized modem stayed the same as before.


May 5 01:05:08 kernel: Chip Port 9, CrossBar Port 0, PHY_ID <0x06100006:0x06: On-chip 2.5G SERDES> Cfg: ANG.2.5G; Down
May 5 01:05:08 kernel: PHY_ID <0x0388001e:0x1e:External Cascaded 10G EXT3> Cfg: ANG.2.5G; Down ===> Activate Deep Green Mode

 

[JagoUK]

Two devices not recognized. Makes sense of course. But the cheaper 2.5gb Plugable RTL8156B based adapter works great.

View attachment 36332

Oh that's interesting. Does it work in AI mesh?
One thing that annoys me about the XT8 is you cant use the 2.5gb wan port on the main router as a lan port.

I only have 80mb d/l so would rather use a gigabit port for WAN.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

"Does it work in AI mesh?"

Have no idea. I don't have AI Mesh setup.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I was hoping for the sake of AX88U owners two adapters would be plug n play. Still might be an option. But not via the DUAL WAN process.

Might work via some kind of script that utilizes one of the adapters as a LAN port.

The second seemingly unrecognized USB adapter generates this in syslog.

Sep 15 15:02:09 hotplug: add net eth8.

Unplug and plug back in:


Sep 15 15:06:24 kernel: xhci-hcd xhci-hcd.0: Cannot set link state.
Sep 15 15:06:24 kernel: usb usb2-port1: cannot disable (err = -32)
Sep 15 15:06:24 hotplug: remove net eth8.
Sep 15 15:06:26 hotplug: add net eth8.

Turning off SMB server now as I use a USB drive in this same port usually.

Still not recognized beyond syslog entry and eth8. Last thing I want to try can't right now and that's do a power off boot in case the "warm reset" means the router needs to reconfigure that USB port.


Sep 15 15:08:23 rc_service: httpd 1375:notify_rc stop_samba
Sep 15 15:08:23 wsdd2[11000]: Terminated received.
Sep 15 15:08:23 Samba_Server: smb daemon is stopped
Sep 15 15:09:13 kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Sep 15 15:09:13 kernel: xhci-hcd xhci-hcd.0: Cannot set link state.
Sep 15 15:09:13 kernel: usb usb2-port1: cannot disable (err = -32)
Sep 15 15:09:13 hotplug: remove net eth8.
Sep 15 15:09:16 hotplug: add net eth8.

Interesting the eth port stays the same even though the adapter is now plugged into a different USB port.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

This is the one I'm using right now, RTL8156B based. Of course for L&LD it'll probably go to man bras.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084L4JL9K/?tag=snbforums-20

Plugable 2.5G USB C and USB to Ethernet Adapter, 2-in-1 Adapter Compatible with USB C/Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.0, USB-C to RJ45 2.5 Gigabit LAN Compatible with Mac and Windows

 

[jsmiddleton4]

The Asustor I really wanted to try, Gen2 USB 3, RTL8156B based, isn't available anymore. Probably why the shipping got jacked. Wasn't really shipped?

Asus does have another, ASUS 2.5G Ethernet USB Adapter (USB-C2500), but no clear indication which chipset. Speculation is RTL8156B but nothing concrete. I've asked.

Its 10 bucks more than this Plugable one.