WAVLINK 5Gbps USB C to Ethernet Adapter, Ethernet Adapter for Laptop

I picked up this WAVLINK USB-C to Ethernet adapter to give a laptop a reliable wired connection. Setup could not have been easier. I plugged it in, the driver installed automatically, and within seconds the connection was live. Speeds are exactly what I expect from a gigabit line, and the adapter stays cool in normal use. The cable segment is just long enough to give some flexibility without becoming messy on the desk. It is especially useful when streaming, downloading large files, or doing any kind of online gaming where WiFi can be inconsistent. A small note, as with most dongles, it is good to avoid putting pressure on the USB-C port while it is plugged in, but that is just normal care. If you want to stabilize a laptop or tablet connection with minimal fuss, this adapter does the job very well.

Until I had fiber optic installed, I had no idea that my ethernet port maxed out at 1 GB. There is no upgrade path for the 10 GB ethernet port once you buy a Mac Mini with a 1 GB port, so I bought this adapter to bring a wired connection into one of my Thunderbolt ports. It worked instantly, no driver to install. Now the speeds that I pay for are available to my Mac. Fantastic! I use two monitors, so now my main is hooked up to the remaining Thunderbolt port, and my secondary monitor is hooked to my Mac's HDMI port. Perfecto.

This was a good deal -- 5Gbps for the price of similar units that are only 2.5Gbps. I tried two of these on some systems in my LAN, in an attempt to make better use of my new 10Gbps managed switch and get faster file transfers when archiving large video files across the network. I do that frequently, as I store up to 10 multi-hour videos per day. I don't think I ever saw full 5Gbps speed through one of them, but definitely saw the 1G bottleneck go away to some degree for both test systems. I was attempting to use them in parallel with the in-built 1G Ethernet ports, which gave both test systems dual IP addresses. I used routing rules to make each system reachable by either IP address, then I picked the faster connection in my shortcuts to those systems -- based on speed tests of both IP addresses and picking the winner. I don't trust USB device stability as much as built-in ports, and these were servers that needed to stay online, so I was attempting to test the adapters without disturbing any existing IP addresses and connections to the outside world. That's obviously more complicated than just plugging one of these in, and using it instead of the built-in port like most people would. I verified the 5G connection in my switch's admin page, and I think in Linux I had to pick a different chip number, but chatGPT stepped me through that too, once we diagnosed what was going on. In my testing, I got some weird issues where 4 or 5 packets would go through, then completely lose connectivity for one packet (not just a missing packet -- a complete connection closed kinda thing), and then it would reconnect and keep going. This pattern repeated consistently like it was a driver issue, not flaky hardware. Or maybe compatibility with that particular USB port? Throughput on those affected machines was well below expected speeds, and in one case, the 1G native port was actually faster. On a different system, I saw no dropouts and consistent speed well above 1G and actually somewhere between 2.5G and 5G speeds. The adapters also got pretty warm, perhaps enough to affect longevity and make me wonder whether they'd be reliable enough to be the full-time connections for servers, and whether I'd need to address airflow in that use, but I never tried them in that role. Eventually the less-than-stellar throughput on one system, combined with the complexity of dual IP addresses per system, led me to change my approach completely. Instead of speeding up my network, I pulled all the archive drives off the server and put them in a USB4 multi-bay enclosure that had no problem reaching 900 MB/sec on its connection, and therefore max speed on all its drive drawers -- all with a single USB connection. Now the network can stay its native speed with single IP addresses, and my archive shortcuts just point to local USB drives instead.

Works great. In Windows 11, It will defulted to 2.5g. To get it to do 5g just do Windows Upgrade and it automatically updates to newer driver.

This little guy is fast and sleek! Just beware, linux users: you will probably have to manually download and install the realtek network driver from wavlink's website in order to achieve up to advertised speeds. Its simple, maybe 3 or 4 prompts. Tons of info online as well for this specific process.

This 5gbps adapter worked for a total of 27 days and then died, probably due to running so hot. It reached 3gbps on a 10gbps network. I wouldn't buy it again, it burns itself out very quickly, and doesn't reach advertised speed.

Excellent device. My laptop would not download or upload faster than 1 GB. This adapet brought me up to 3.6 Gb up and down. Make sure to install drivers. Running on Windows 11.

Works as advertised after a couple of days wait for my Windows 11 laptop (LG Gram Pro with USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 through a USB C connector) to receive a Realtek network driver through the normal Windows update process. Before the driver update, 2.5Gbps Ethernet was its maximum rate. After the update, 5Gbps was achieved -- even on a physical link containing five RJ-45 connectors, 2 segments of CAT 5e (~25m and 2m lengths), and two of CAT 6A (15m, 0.15m). No heat issues at the device. Not bad.

Work out of the box on Mac and windows. Very fast connection. Good quality build.

Funciona perfectamente. Con fibra a10Gbps obtengo casi los 5 Gbps sobre USB 3.2 Gen2 de mi portátil y va como el rayo. Recomendable

É caro, mas bate os 5 gbs q promete. Infelizmente, precisa de driver. Testado no WIN 11 25H2.

works fine, simple to install, excellent superfast speeds, no issue with product.

These work amazingly well without the need for drivers. In a pinch even worked to connect my huawei solar inverter to the network (using a USB-A male to USB-C female).