Apple USB Ethernet Adaptor

R

RoderickE

Bit poster
I've just changed my Macbook for a Macbook Air (running Snow Leopard) and it would appear that the Apple USB Ethernet adaptor does not work within Parallels 6/Windows XP on the MBA. All other functions seem ok (Airport connection etc) and the USB/Ethernet adaptor is working on the Mac side.

I've been seen mixed messages elsewhere about the stability of this device and wonder whether anyone might be in a position to confirm whether or not this Apple device works for them in this configuration. Any other USB/Ethernet adaptors which definitely do work?

Any feedback gratefully received!
 
Hi,

I don't have an answer if you connect this device as USB to Parallels VM.

But if you use Parallels networking configuration "Bridged to .." (assuming that device is plugged to Macbook and functioning ok) and bridging to ethernet worked earlier (on your prev. Mac), then it should continue work with this device also.
 
Thanks for your thoughts. I too imagined that this should be straightforward, but not so.

Today I bought a cheap and cheerful USB Ethernet Adaptor from Amazon (£5.00) complete with driver disc. Plugged it all up and it works fine. Seems fairly conclusive to me that the Apple device will not work within Windows - at least not without some proper drivers. That said, it doesn't even show in Device Manager.
 
There should be a driver for that Ethernet USB adapter available from Apple, as per the post by YanaYana. I'm using that driver to connect the Ethernet USB adapter when I run Windows off a BootCamp partition. When I run Windows in the VM I'm using "bridged" or "shared" connectivity (depending on location; here at work, the router strangely refuses to co-operate with the bridged virtual network card in the VM, but "shared" works well).
 
Bridged network connection can work in a limited networks only, home networks rarely let you to use this network mode due to specific network provider settings and limitations
 
Thanks for all this input.

I have to say that I pretty much exhausted all the combinations and at no point, did the Apple device show up in the Windows XP Device manager - hence there was no option to install drivers. It does appear that success with this device in Windows XP within Parallels is rather hit and miss.

I asked Parallels support several times to confirm that the Apple device is known to work on a Macbook Air (Snow Leopard) with Parallels 6 and Windows XP and they steadfastly failed to do so - I therefore assume that they had not had any success. I cannot believe that they would not have tested such a fundamental setup.

Anyway - the third party cheap and cheerful device from Amazon works fine. Plugged it in, it requested drivers which were on the supplied CD, and it immediately found my network connection.
 
Hi Roderick,

The Apple Ethernet-USB adapter is made to run on your Mac. Can you establish a connection to the network on your Mac (when Parallels is not running)? If that is not the case, something's wrong with the Adapter.
You shouldn't need to connect the adapter separately within the VM as the VM uses the Mac's built-in network hard- and software to connect to the outside world. The VM uses its "virtual" network card to talk to the Mac's network system and from there accesses the outside world. The VM doesn't care whether the Mac is connected to the outside world via Wifi, or an ethernet cable plugged into it, or an Ethernet-USB adapter, or any other means. It just talks to the Mac's network system, and the Mac then takes care of figuring out what connection to use - just as it would if you weren't running the VM.
There are three ways that the VM can use the Mac's network; usually only two of them are useful (bridged, shared). Just which method works best depends on what kind of network your Mac is connected to, and if one doesn't work, just use the other. (As pointed out by YanaYana, usually "bridged" works in home networks, while "shared" may work in some corporate environments where "bridged" doesn't work).
The key point is that the VM uses your Mac's network system, and you don't actually need any dedicated drivers for the Apple Ethernet-USB connector within the VM. You would need it if you ran an OS off Bootcamp directly, but not if you run the OS from a VM.
When you connect the Ethernet-USB adapter to your Mac you should test whether the Mac is actually using and recognizing it; if so, the VM will work with it - and you won't even see the adapter in the VM as there's no need for it to show up there, since the OS running in the VM is talking to the virtual network card, and that in turn talks to whatever device the Mac is using to connect to the outside world.
You may also want to check whether the VM has "captured" the Ethernet-USB adapter by looking at the USB settings (menu: devices -> USB).
Hope this helps,
k.
 
Thank you so much for this comprehensive and informative reply.

However, the fact is that the Apple adaptor is found and works on the Mac side. It also appears under USB Devices in Windows/Parallels.

However, no combination of settings will allow it to provide a connection within Windows.

I am connecting the ethernet side of the adaptor to an external audio recorder's network on 192.168.0.070. I can connect the Mac's network to this by assigning an ip address of 192.168.0.071 to the USB/Ethernet adaptor.

At no point will the Windows control software find the external recorder, even if I assign an ip address of 192.168.0.072 to the Windows LAN connection - using either Bridged or Shared.

If I use the 'cheap' USB Ethernet adaptor, it all works fine. This does seem to imply that there is an issue with Windows finding and using the Apple device.

I do get the impression from other threads found elsewhere, that I'm not alone in experiencing problems with this device - at least on the Macbook Air and this version of the OS.

Ho hum!
 
Hi Roderick,

ok, this is what I understand - you want to talk to the USB-Ethernet adapter exclusively within the VM (to an external audio recorder). Correct?

The recorder has an IP address of 192.168.0.071. Correct?

When you see the USB-Ethernet adapter in the VM settings, then... what happens if you select the adapter's entry in the menu? When I connect my adapter (I have one for my MBair) to the Mac, and the VM is running, and I then select it in the pull-down, Parallels is asking me whether I want to connect the adapter to the VM, or to the Mac. As I'm using the adapter from the Mac side I haven't tried connecting it to the VM, but what happens when you do that?
 
I also tried that. When adaptor plugged in, select VM rather than Mac. Select the adaptor in the Devices/USB menu. Still no connection.

It may well be that the Apple device would work for a general internet connection under shared (as Airport does just fine) but I have no need to do that!

To be honest, I'm going to abandon the Apple adaptor in this situation as the newly acquired cheapy works fine and I've wasted so much time trying to get the Apple device to work. It's still very frustrating not knowing whether this could work or not - having tried pretty much every avenue, I suspect not!
 
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Set your guest OS to "Shared Networking" and do not attach the USB network adaptor to the guest OS when you plug it in and it should work.
What procedure are you doing that is not working?
 
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As with all advice on the internet, you can not sue me if this sets fire to a own cat or sends ninjas for your house. You are doing this all on your own, and that I assume no liability or guarantee for what you do.

Steps to get your USB to Ethernet adapter functioning if you've never used the adapter earlier in Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan: I followed the guidelines mentioned on https://howtotechh.com/firestick-ethernet-adapter/ .

  1. Uninstall the heaps of different drivers you may have set up in the practice of attempting to get this functioning.
  2. Unplug your USB adapter, and reboot and give yourself a clean slate.
  3. Reboot. As soon as the display goes black, hold down"Command" and"R" until you see a black screen with an Apple logo and a white progress bar. Let go, and await your computer to boot into recovery mode.
  4. In the top bar, select"Utilities" and then"Terminal".
  5. In the terminal, run csrutil disable.
  6. In the best bar, select"", then"Restart"
  7. as soon as you're booted back up, download and then install the drivers from the CD, kindly uploaded by this nice human being.
  8. Open your terminal, and also operate sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/USBCDCEthernet.kext
  9. Reboot.
  10. Plug in your USB Adapter, using a live ethernet cable.
  11. Hit the + button in the bottom right, pick the"USB 2.0 10/100M Ethernet Adapter", and hit add.
  12. You are all set! Your adapter works!
 
This topic was also discussed on Apple communities, this thread can be helpful. Be careful and check all the downloading files viruses. Set your guest OS to "Shared Networking" and do not attach the USB network adaptor to the guest OS when you plug it in and it should work.
 
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