USB Ethernet Adapter Speed

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Level 2

196 points

USB Ethernet Adapter Speed

Does anyone know the speed of USB ethernet adapter Apple offers with the Mac Air? I currently have a Macbook and both WiFi and Ethernet speeds are consistently 6.6-7.0 Mb/s up and 0.8-0.9 Mb/s down (DSL rated at 7 Mb/s). I can't find any specs on the part. I am leery of USB for any high speed communication. Several years ago I tried a USB 2 video adapter, which turned out to be less than useless. I prefer wired connectivity, with WiFi as the backup. In this case, it may not matter.

BTW, network uses a Linksys RV045 router with a TIme Capsule as the WAP. The DSL modem is set to bridge so all the security is handled on the router.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Nov 21, 2010 10:47 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2010 5:05 PM in response to DesertRatR

The adapter is rated 10/100 MB, but will top out in Internet speed tests at whatever your DSL is rated at. It is likely that your DSL is actually ADSL, with the A defining it as asynchronous. This means upload will be much less than download, which is proven out by the numbers you posted. I think if you look at the details of your DSL service, this will prove to be true.

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Answer 2

DesertRatR Author

Level 2

196 points

Nov 21, 2010 8:05 PM in response to Craig Brady

Yes it is ADSL. You are correct, Craig.

The adapter may be rated at 10/100, but what is the USB port rated at? USB is always pretty slow. My system profiler only list the USB as a high speed bus. No details about the bus speed. The standards is 480 MB/sec. Is that real?

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Answer 3

Nov 21, 2010 9:37 PM in response to DesertRatR

The ports are USB 2.0, which is rated at 480, but also with a ton of overhead. It will certainly exceed the speed of your internet connection though.

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Answer 4

DesertRatR Author

Level 2

196 points

Nov 22, 2010 7:24 AM in response to Craig Brady

I've been curious about the real speed of USB2.0 ports, with all the O/H. Do you know of any port testers? I couldnt find anything usful for Macs by Googling the subject. I could rig a loop back plug shorting pins 2 and and 3 to measure just the data rate. Or I could plug in a thumb drive.

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