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Did I...?
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ghporter
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Feb 16, 2019, 10:41 PM
 
I could have sworn I posted a thread about whether or not there was a functional (rather than theoretical) difference between a USB 3 to Ethernet adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 to Ethernet adapter, but I can’t find hide nor hair of any such thread or poste even mentioned.

So did I actually post it and I’m just too blind to find it, or did I just imagine it?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
reader50
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Feb 16, 2019, 11:20 PM
 
It appears you did not. You've discussed thunderbolt peripherals, and done ethernet troubleshooting for members. But no real overlap.

Perhaps you posted in a thread where that discussion happened, or on a different board? If you didn't use the words "thunderbolt" or "ethernet" yourself, search will not find anything. If you only commented on others' posts.

Oh, and a TB -> Ethernet adapter ought to work better (by itself). As TB is serialized PCIe, the computer is talking to it like any other network card.

USB -> Ethernet adds a protocol switch. In practice, USB3 might be fast enough to absorb the conversion, and hide any packet latency. So maybe I don't know the practical answer.

Exception: if you use the network adapter on a TB eGPU enclosure, and you are using the graphics card too, all bets are off. A GPU card hogs the TB buss. I've gotten hesitations when playing video files from a USB drive plugged into an eGPU box. The hesitations vanished if I unloaded the GPU, or if I used a USB port on the Mac.
     
ghporter  (op)
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Feb 17, 2019, 06:08 PM
 
Well you've answered both of my questions!

Amazon has a nicely priced USB 3 gig adapter, but there are a lot of negative reviews from Mac (and some Windows) users, so I was concerned about wasting time messing with that sort of thing.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
reader50
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Feb 17, 2019, 08:21 PM
 
Any objection to moving this to Peripherals or Networking?
     
ghporter  (op)
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Feb 18, 2019, 08:37 PM
 
No. I think that might be useful. Even if Thunderbolt isn’t “all that,” its PCI nature makes it useful for a lot of things. This is a good example.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
ghporter  (op)
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Feb 23, 2019, 06:57 PM
 
I'm just waiting for a few spare dollars to buy the adapter. I'll probably buy from Amazon...getting to the nearest Apple Stores isn't particularly convenient, and I can save a few dollars through one of Amazon's vendors.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
   
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