Ethernet To Usb Adapter Not Working

I recently got a Mokin ten-in-one USB-C dongle for use with my work computer, a 2019 xvi″ MacBook Pro, whose only connectors are four Thunderbolt/USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm sound jack.

The dongle worked like a charm out of the box with the notable exception of one part: The Ethernet port. I had a pretty good guess why this was happening and how to prepare it.

TL;DR: You need a driver — here it is!

Here's the installer for version ane.0.22 of the macOS driver, which works for macOS 10.9 through x.15. Unzip it, run it, and then go to the section titled Stride four below.

The longer explanation

The trouble and the plan

Near dongle vendors areintegrators. They may manufacture the cases and simpler electronics, simply they buy lot (or all of) the fancier tech from manufacturers, such equally networking chips.

Hither's a pic showing a Mokin dongle and its internals:

My plan was to notice the manufacturer of the networking chip within my dongle, then discover their webpage, so hopefully detect a driver.

Here'southward what I did.

Step one: Place the vendor

With the dongle plugged into my MacBook, I opened the Apple carte du jour and selected Almost This Mac. This window appeared:

I clicked the System Report… button, which opened the System Report window:

This window provides a run-downwards of the hardware, software, and networking on your Mac. ItsHardware list provides data nigh the hardware in and attached to the computer. A lot of peripherals have data such every bit vendor IDs encoded to them, and you can useSystem Report to detect it.

I expanded theHardware menu and selected theUSB item. TheUSB Device Tree list appeared in the window'southward right pane.

I and so went through theUSB iii.1 Bus entries in the USB Device Tree list in search of an entry containing the wordLAN. In one case I found that entry, I clicked on it, which so caused its details to announced in the lower part of the right pane.

I found the information that I needed: theVendor ID, and better still, an actual vendor proper name:Realtek.

This shouldn't have been a surprise: Realtek, a chip manufacturer in Taiwan, has had the majority share of the ethernet controller market since the early 2000s. They as well take a skillful chunk of the audio chip market, so I'chiliad no stranger to their drivers or their distinctive "crab" logo.

Pace two: Search for the vendor's site, and in particular, the folio containing the driver y'all need

Now that I had a vendor name, I did a search with using the search term realtek lan x/100/yard driver mac. This was my beginning consequence:

What if you don't have a vendor name, but just a vendor ID number?

In the case where you lot but accept a vendor ID number and no name, you should consult a USB ID database, such as the i at The SZ Evolution:

I decided to come across if I could discover the driver using this route.

I entered the vendor ID reported by my Mac,0x0BDA, in the Vendor ID field and the reported product ID,0x8153, in the Product ID field. I clicked Search and got these results:

USB 10/100/1000 LAN
RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

The links that the site provides aren't all that useful. You'll get much farther if y'all merely include the result text with the wordsdriver and macas your search term.

Doing that took me to the same page every bit the previous method:

Footstep iii: Install the driver

From the Realtek page I institute, I downloaded the installer that applied to me and ran it. It worked without a problem.

(Theywould be well-served by a team that could do a one-half-decent job localizing the language on their installer.)

Step 4: Enable wired networking

With the driver installed, it's time to make wired networking happen!

OpenSystem Preferences. To add wired networking, yous'll need to add a new networking service, which you exercise past clicking the+ button at the bottom of the menu on the left side of the window:
Yous'll be asked to select the interface and provide a name for the new networking service. SelectUSB 10/100/1000 LAN from theInterface carte du jour, and enter whatever yous like for in theService Proper name field. I entered "Wired" for mine:

I clicked theCreate button, which created the service and dismissed the dialog box. The new service, named Wired, appeared in the menu on the left side, withNon Connected as its subtitle.

I clicked theUtilize push…

…and theWired service went fromNot Connected to Connected:

Success!

Now it was time to test the connection. I shut off wifi and ran Speedtest.net on my wired connection. The results shown beneath are for my work reckoner, which uses a VPN that I need to always keep on (or in that location volition be.consequences):

That'south a good deal faster than I go on wireless, and I'm sure I'll get better speeds on my personal calculator when it's not on a VPN.