Testing a 2.5Gbps USB Ethernet Adapter

Recently, there was a discussion here about 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapters including USB adapters. Yesterday, I performed a little bit of testing. The testing was prompted by some ongoing issues I have on my PC. I have a Hyper-V VM running on that machine for the sole purpose of running Plex server. It shares a network connection with the physical machine by using the 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter on the motherboard. Unfortunately, I have this recurring problem where the physical machine will suddenly become inaccessible by name (IP address is ok) and the only way to resolve it is to do a network reset in Windows.

I decided to connect my USB 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter so that the Plex VM can use it without interfering with the adapter that Windows uses for the physical machine. While I was at it, I ran a quick test to see how much performance I lose by using a USB Ethernet adapter. The screenshot below shows the results. These are actually two windows open side by side with the VM on the left and the physical machine on the right. I was surprised to see how dead on same the results were with the USB adapter actually being just a fraction of a MB faster in both upload and download speed.



Bottom line is that you lose absolutely zero by using a USB adapter.

Another pleasant surprise: Normally I would install drivers first, then plug in the Ethernet adapter. But I plugged in the adapter first. I then opened File Explorer to install the driver and noticed a new drive with a Realtek logo. Apparently, if you don't have a driver installed, the USB adapter presents a drive to you from which you can install the driver, then that drive goes away. Very nicely done!

This is the adapter that I use: