WAVLINK 5Gbps USB C to Ethernet Adapter, 5000Mbps USB-C to RJ45 Network Converter, Aluminum Case for Windows, Mac OS, iPad OS and More, RTL8157 Chipset, (5Gbps Need Type-C > 3.2)

If you’ve ever wanted to turn your flaky Wi-Fi into a rock-solid wired connection without summoning a tech wizard, the WAVLINK 5Gbps USB-C to Ethernet Adapter is your new best friend. Plug it in, and boom—instant internet. No drivers, no drama, no existential crisis about why things never work the first time.The speed? Fantastic. It’s like my laptop went from “meh” to “let’s download the entire internet before lunch.” Streaming, gaming, massive file transfers—it handles it all without breaking a sweat.Build quality feels solid too. It’s small, sleek, and doesn’t look like it came out of a cereal box. Honestly, for something that just works this well out of the gate, I’m giving it a 10/10. Would I buy it again? Absolutely. In fact, I might buy a second one just to flex on my other adapters.

The WAVLINK 5Gbps USB-C to Ethernet Adapter is a compact and efficient solution for users who need a fast, stable wired internet connection on devices with USB-C ports. It supports speeds up to 5Gbps, making it ideal for high-bandwidth activities like 4K streaming, online gaming, and large file transfers. Very easy to install with Mac Mini M4. For the price much better than Apple upgrade and you can use it with your laptops if you like.

The media could not be loaded. I tested this saturating my network for 24 hours and it kept up without any issues. It runs warm to the touch as expected, but still cooler than other 5Gbps and 2.5Gbps adapters I own from the venting and how they designed the thermal.No drivers was needed on MacOS, Windows or my iPad Pro that had the latest updates, it was compatible with all of them.For the full 5Gbps speeds your device should have a network and cable that would support it and a device that has USB-C 3.2 but it will still connect at 2.5Gbps with older USB-C 3.0 devices. I have tried other 5Gbps adapters that became unstable and could not get this one to failConnectivity is fast over an 8 meter cable to the gateway and it’s built well.

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.

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.

Device is fine. I just couldn't get the advertised speed out of it. It would pull close to 2.6 gbps but not more (on my 3.6 gbps fiber running out of a 10 gbps port). Of note, you have to install the drivers from their website or the speed is even worse.

I keep reading that some of these do not reach the max speed, but this baby can definitely reach around 4.8-4.9Gbps which is more than enough for me. I haven't tried it for more than 1 hour at a time so I am not sure if the heat affects its performance, but so far it seems like it can handle it. I don't think many people will need a 5Gbps, but maybe if needed, this guy is the way to go. I did not have to download anything. I just plugged it into my MacBook Pro and it was automatically recognized. Easy plug and play

I recently purchased a USB-C to 5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter from Wave Link, and I couldn’t be happier with the experience. The product works great, but what really stood out was their customer service. I had a question about setup, and their team responded quickly, clearly, and with a friendly attitude. They went above and beyond to make sure everything worked perfectly. It’s rare to find a company that truly cares about its customers—Wave Link does! Highly recommend both the product and the support team.