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USB2NIC

USB to Network Interface Card Chipset Driver Support

Introduction

Like many Macintosh and Linux users, Ethernet ports for server projects are hard to come by. Second Ethernet to an iBook (iMac, or Mac Mini) (or as a replacement for a dead Ethernet built-in) becomes very difficult unless USB-To-Ethernet is made possible. Some servers have only 2 x PCI slots giving a maximum of 3 x NIC's if the OS or kernal supports the on-board NIC. If it not a maximum of 2 can be used for a firewall or similar project. Although USB to Ethernet adaptors are cheap and plentiful, Mac OS X drivers are not. A workable combination is found.

Drivers and Supported Devices

There are two basic catagories of USB-To-Ethernet adaptors:

1. USB 1.1 devices that use a Pegasus driver.
2. USB 2.0 devices that use a AX8817x driver (or its successor, the AX88772 which appeared around Aug-2005).

While there are no doubt exceptions, most of the popular low cost adaptors fall into one of these categories.

Driver Download

Mac OS X 10.3-4 drivers

Pegusus USB 1.1
USBPegasusEthernet 1.0.7

AX8817x USB 2.0
USBAx8817x 1.0.2u

AX8817x USB 2.0
USBAx8817x 1.0.3b7

Linux Drivers

Linux will provide a list of available drivers in their installation discs which will allow you to manually load these drivers.

Compatibility Notes

AX8817x devices are backward compatible with USB 1.1 host ports and are reasonably priced, so are probably the best option at this time. Pegasus based devices seem to be getting harder to find. Some USB 1.1 devices use the Realtek 8150 which is not supported by these drivers.

Some users report LinkSys has started selling a USB200M v2 which uses the Ax88772 chip in place of the AX8817x. The AX8817x driver has been recently enhanced to add support for this device in version 1.0.1 and later (12-Oct-2005).

Over the past year that manufacturers sometimes have upgraded devices to use a new chip set without changing the model number (LinkSys USB200M, DLink DUB-E100), or manufacture a batch of devices that report a different Product or Vendor ID code (DLink DUB-E100). If you have trouble getting one of these devices to work on the first try, don't despair there is more information on our feedback page.

Release Notes [30-May-2007]

The Tiger version of each driver installs a Universal Binary. USB Pegasus Ethernet 1.0.7 fixes byte swapping bug in MAC address on Intel. USB Ax8817x 1.0.3b6 supports the new Ax88772-based DUB-E100, Airlink 101, and Belkin Gigabit USB Ethernet adaptors. USB Ax8817x 1.0.3b7 fixes a problem with some older computers under heavy load not being able to keep up with USB.

Installation

1. Download and mount the appropriate driver disk image listed above, run the corresponding installer for Panther or Tiger, and then restart your system. The Installer will ask you to authenticate so it can place the corresponding driver in "/System/Library/Extensions/" with the correct file permissions to load as a kernel extension.
2. Plug-in your Ethernet adaptor with a live Ethernet cable attached. When you open the Network Preferences panel, it should inform you that a new port has appeared and ask if you want to enable it. Enable the new port and apply your network settings.

Each driver is pre-configured to recognize a handful of common devices. If your device does not appear to be recognized by the driver, you might have to add it to the Info.plist file, which is located inside the USBPegasusEthernet.kext or USBAx8817x.kext directory. You can use the System Profiler or USBProber tool to find the corresponding Product ID and Vendor ID.

To uninstall the driver, make sure any USB adaptors are disconnected, and then drag the corresponding driver in /System/Library/Extensions/ USBPegaususEthernet.kext or USBAx8817x.kext to the trash. You may need to authenticate that you have administrator privileges.

USB 1.1 Performance

The Pegasus chipset provides a USB 1.1 compatible implementation which could be a concern for some users. USB 1.1 runs at 1.5 Mbps (low speed) or 12 Mbps (full speed). For best performance, isolate any low speed devices on a separate bus. Mice and keyboards often run at low speed.

USB 2.0 Performance

The AX8817x chip set provides a USB 2.0 compatible implementation which runs at up to 480 Mbps (high speed), so it should be possible to keep up with 100 Mbps fast ethernet as long as there are no other slower devices on the same bus.

Stability

While some USB-To-Ethernet drivers are reported to be buggy, stability problems have not been encountered to date. The adaptor turns off when the computer goes to sleep and comes back on when the computer awakes. It does not support "Wake On LAN" at this time.

Conclusion

This USB-To-Ethernet Adaptor combination could be an attractive solution for a Mac Mini, or old iBook used as an Internet gateway or server. There are advantages in using old laptops as servers since they are compact, quiet, use little energy, and include their own battery backup.

References

Sustainable Softworks - Retrieved on 21 September 2007

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