Anyone try the realtek based gigabit usb2.0 to ethernet adapters?

[Jeff D]

Fry's has the airlinkplus adapter on sale for $20 and I was curios if it will work.

After checking around I find the adapter uses the realtek 8169 chip and there's a r8169.c driver file for linux. Has anyone tried this with the tivos (hdvr2 or rd10-250 are what I'm interested in...)

I was going to stop by fry's and pick up one or two to play with, just curious if anyone else has tried this driver/device combo yet?

[Jamie]

Fry's has the airlinkplus adapter on sale for $20 and I was curios if it will work.

After checking around I find the adapter uses the realtek 8169 chip and there's a r8169.c driver file for linux. Has anyone tried this with the tivos (hdvr2 or rd10-250 are what I'm interested in...)

I was going to stop by fry's and pick up one or two to play with, just curious if anyone else has tried this driver/device combo yet?Have you got a link to a page with any technical information about the product? As near as I can tell, the realtek 8169 is typically used for on-motherboard gigE adapters and has a PCI (not USB) host interface.

[Jeff D]

No specs I can link to.

I called the TS thinking that I was going to get no help (and maybe I did) but I said I wanted to use that product on linux system and wanted to know what chip was used. He told me the realtek 8169 and said they don't have a linux driver, but to check the realtek support and that sould work fine.

I did get one,so I can open it up and see what it uses. If I had a system setup to cross compile I would test it myself, but... that's not something I have the time to get into unless there's a simple way to get a dev system up and running. When I looked into that before it didn't look hard, just lots of things stood out to me as it wouldn't work "out of the box". Two young kids keeps me from having the time I'd like to for this...


Crap, it's got a snap lock case... I'll try to find a way in, but not looking good without destroying the case.

[pjin]

Here is limited infomation: http://www.airlink101.com/products/agigausb.html
Win2000/xp uses a driver called ax88178, if you download, and have a look.

[Jamie]

Here is limited infomation: http://www.airlink101.com/products/agigausb.html
Win2000/xp uses a driver called ax88178, if you download, and have a look.Cool. I've been waiting for an ax88178 device to come out. The ax88178 is an ASIX chip, not realtek link (http://www.asix.com.tw/gig-usb_ax88178.htm). Seems the product page must be wrong. If I can get my hands on one of these, I'll work on porting the usbnet driver support from 2.6 into the usb2 backport tree. Unfortunately, there's no Fry's near me. A possible big win here is that these support jumbo frames. I know with the usb2 host-to-host cables, larger frames helped performance a lot. Still, don't expect to see gigE performance out of these on a TiVo. I suspect they may do about as well as the host-to-host cables.

[EvilJack]

I found this:
http://www.asix.com.tw/gig-usb_ax88178.htm
and
http://www.asix.com.tw/products_download/ax88178/AX88178.pdf

The device shows up as:
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0b95:1780 ASIX Electronics Corp.
when you plug it into a x86 linux box.

My local FRY's had lots of these on the shelf. I picked up
2 ( @$19.99 ). If someone wants to borrow them for a bit
to do some development work, PM me.

jack

[Jeff D]

I had called back Airlink asking them to double check the info provided as the info I saw also showed PCI only support. They're suppose to have a tech call me back. From what pjin and Evil Jack posted it looks like ASIX which would be cool! I did grab the CD, but didn't bother installing the drivers seemed to be generic, I should have looked!

I should have grabbed a couple more... I hate fry's short sales.

[Jamie]

I had called back Airlink asking them to double check the info provided as the info I saw also showed PCI only support. They're suppose to have a tech call me back. From what pjin and Evil Jack posted it looks like ASIX which would be cool! I did grab the CD, but didn't bother installing the drivers seemed to be generic, I should have looked!

I should have grabbed a couple more... I hate fry's short sales.I have a couple on the way. I'll try to get a usbnet driver out that supports them in a week or two.

{Edit: this might be more effort than I originally though. the 2.6 support isn't as far along as I thought it was.}

[Jeff D]

Thanks Jamie! BTW, if trying a driver is as easy as replacing the ax8817.o with ax88178.o I'd be willing to give it a test if you want to do some compiles while you wait.


Just to confirm, I got a call back from a tech at airlink, the AGIGAUSB does, in fact, use the asix 88178 chipset. I mentioned all the docs state realtek chipset, he went off to check and came back saying it was "a typo, a typo all over the place"

If I would have only remember to ask about cracking the case open...

BTW if anyone else needs specs...
airlinkplus and airlink101 are the same company, but they have very different webpages. The AGIGAUSB product can't be found on the airlinkplus website.

[Thinkdiff]

is this deal still on? is it available online? Think I might want to pick one up.

[hxmiller]

http://www.agere.com/NEWS/PRESS2005/052605a.html

[pjin]

is this deal still on? is it available online? Think I might want to pick one up.
I think the price is good for June 1 and 2, B&M only. Online store (outpost.com) does not carry this item.

[Jamie]

Thanks Jamie! BTW, if trying a driver is as easy as replacing the ax8817.o with ax88178.o I'd be willing to give it a test if you want to do some compiles while you wait.Not that easy, I'm afraid. The first step is to get it working with a recent kernel on x86. I thought that part was done, but it doesn't appear to be. Once that's done, then we can do the backport to 2.4.

[dogbreath]

After installing the new drivers, do you have to link to this like the ax8817x.o?

Thanks,
dogbreath

[Jamie]

After installing the new drivers, do you have to link to this like the ax8817x.o?What software version are you running?

I explictly insmod usbnet.o early in the boot process (after monte, before running rc.sysinit). If you want the tivo software to load the module for you, you might need to add an entry for it into /etc/hotplug/usb.map.

[dogbreath]

I am running 6.2 on an HDVR2.

[EvilJack]

I running 6.2 on a pair of SD-DVR40 boxes. I have them
cabled back-to-back. I use dhcp to get the IP addresses.
I installed the new usb drivers, rebooted and I was in
business. ( I already had the symbolic link created )

jack

[Jeff D]

The adapters are $9.99 at bay area fry's today. I know PA store had at least 10 more when I was there today.

[briancarp]

I see that there is a driver out in

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ax88178/

Is there anyone out there that has got this to work on a TiVO? I would like to try this on a HR10-250, but being a newbie, would like to confirm that this driver will work. Anybody?

Thanks!

Brian

[Jamie]

I see that there is a driver out in
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ax88178/

Is there anyone out there that has got this to work on a TiVO? I would like to try this on a HR10-250, but being a newbie, would like to confirm that this driver will work. Anybody?
This device is already supported by the backport drivers (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44114). There is no speed advantage unless your network is jumbo frame capable.

[DocTauri]

Now that this has been out and in use a while, does anyone have any impressions of the AGIGAUSB Gigabit Fast Ethernet USB 2.0 Adapter? I'm considering upgrading my tivo adapters with these. I'd like if someone who is currently using them could answer a few questions:

o Are you happy with the performance of these?
o Any issues or gotcha's?
o What kind of speed increases are you seeing?

Anyone know what other adapters work with the backport drivers besides the AGIGAUSB?

Also, Jamie states "there is no speed advantage unless your network is jumbo frame capable". Is this a function of the switch? How does one tell and what does one have to do to make it capable?

Thanks!
Doc

[EvilJack]

Now that this has been out and in use a while, does anyone have any impressions of the AGIGAUSB Gigabit Fast Ethernet USB 2.0 Adapter? I'm considering upgrading my tivo adapters with these. I'd like if someone who is currently using them could answer a few questions:

o Are you happy with the performance of these?
o Any issues or gotcha's?
o What kind of speed increases are you seeing?

I was getting 1.5/mbs transfers with my Netgear FA120 adpapter.
I got around 3/mbs with the gigabit adapters and standard, 1500byte MTU
frames. I get 5-6/mbs with Jumbo Frames.


Anyone know what other adapters work with the backport drivers besides the AGIGAUSB?

The NetGear FA120 ( USB 2.0, 100mbit ) and the dorky LinkSys 200M
work with the backport drivers... they aren't gigiabit... I don't know of
any other gigabit USB adapters... not really sure what your asking....


Also, Jamie states "there is no speed advantage unless your network is jumbo frame capable". Is this a function of the switch? How does one tell and what does one have to do to make it capable?

Thanks!
Doc

Most switches ( and cards ) don't do Jumbo Frames. The SMC 5XXX
series do. Search google for JUMBOFRAME hardware and see what you
can find. Most of the Intel Gigabit devices on your mother board will
do Jumbo Frames. A lot of the Netgear/Linksys PCI cards will NOT. I'm
using the Intel stuff on my motherboard.

One option is to cable 2 JumboFrame capable cards together. Then you
don't need a router.

jack

[DocTauri]

I was getting 1.5/mbs transfers with my Netgear FA120 adpapter.
I got around 3/mbs with the gigabit adapters and standard, 1500byte MTU
frames. I get 5-6/mbs with Jumbo Frames.
Sounds great, guess I'll have to give it a try.


The NetGear FA120 ( USB 2.0, 100mbit ) and the dorky LinkSys 200M
work with the backport drivers... they aren't gigiabit... I don't know of
any other gigabit USB adapters... not really sure what your asking....
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was looking for any other GigE usb adapters that were supported by the backport drivers.

Thanks for the info!
Doc

[Jamie]

I was looking for any other GigE usb adapters that were supported by the backport drivers.That's the only one at present. I'd guess that others with the same chip (ax88178) would be easy to add (usb1000 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124176)?)

[EvilJack]

Sounds great, guess I'll have to give it a try.


Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was looking for any other GigE usb adapters that were supported by the backport drivers.

Thanks for the info!
Doc

Fry's had them the other day for $7.99. Can't beat that with a stick.

jack