What is the best USB Ethernet adapter driver free for FreeBSD

Greetings I am new here and I was wondering what USB Ethernet adapter would work best. Because if I want to make wifi or driver needed hardware to work I need a way to install these needed drivers thank you;)
 
I got this cheap unbranded one on the internet. Works a treat with ue0.

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There are lots available and are not expensive.
 
If you want Gigabit Ethernet speed, you need to look for USB adapters built with specific USB 3.0 to GbE chips. Unfortunately, most manufacturers do not indicate what chip their product is based on. Hell, often their support staff does not know that either. So you need to check the device driver files they provide or link, or test the device (if you can).

On FreeBSD, I found the best option to be the Asix corp. AX88179 based USB-Ethernet adapters. For example, the Amazon Basics USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Internet Adapter is based on the AX88179, cheap enough, well built, and works very well under FreeBSD. But Plugable and others also make similar products.

Your next best option is anything based on Realtek's RTL8153 chip. Adapters of this kind are more common than those based on the Asix chip, often cheaper too. TP-Link and UGreen products most likely will use the RTL8153.
Mind you, there have been (maybe still are) driver/recognition issues with RTL8153 based USB GbE adapters under FreeBSD, where the cdce(4) driver is loaded instead of ure(4). The connection works even with the cdce driver, but you cannot set media type, speed and other connection details.

Devices with earlier Asix and RTL chips also work fine under FreeBSD, but obviously at Fast Ethernet speed instead of GbE.
Avoid USB Ethernet adapters with an SMSC or U9200 chip! In my experience they do not work well (or at all) under FreeBSD.
 
The first one I bought was Apple, worked fine and out of the box. But the speed limit still the same.
USB 2.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth for gigabit speeds. USB 2.0 has a theoretical max bandwidth of 480 MBit/s. Which is significantly lower than the 1000 Mbit/s of gigabit ethernet. So at best you're looking at a max speed of around 400Mbit/s.
 
If you want Gigabit Ethernet speed, you need to look for USB adapters built with specific USB 3.0 to GbE chips. Unfortunately, most manufacturers do not indicate what chip their product is based on. Hell, often their support staff does not know that either. So you need to check the device driver files they provide or link, or test the device (if you can).
So true. I have found that Startech is an exception to this:

They publish the chipset, and what they ship has matched what they publish for me so far.
 
I needed to free up a slot in the PCIe backplane, so i purchased a USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with the AX88179 chipset:
Code:
[sherman.130] $ sudo lsusb
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.2: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet
I tested it with iperf(1) on FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p2 on an X570 motherboard, and used a Debian system with the same motherboard with an Intel I211-AT Gigabit NIC to bounce off. There was a Netgear GS108T switch (no VLANs) between the two systems. My instinct is that it didn't interfere.

Using an on-board USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, I got 606 Mbits/sec as a client and 281 Mbits/sec as a server.

Using an on-board USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, I got 753 Mbits/sec as a client and 941 Mbits/sec as a server.

945 Mbits/sec is about as good as I have ever got with iperf(1) on Gigabit Ethernet.

USB 3.2 Gen 2 (red colour code) clearly makes a difference.
 
I had a USB 3 RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter in use eleswhere, and decided to test it too:
Code:
[sherman.145] $ sudo lsusb
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen2.5: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Using an on-board USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, I got 312 Mbits/sec as a client and 315 Mbits/sec as a server.

Using an on-board USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, I got 302 Mbits/sec as a client and 312 Mbits/sec as a server.

So the AX88179 chipset (on a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port) is a winner.
 
Here some.
But which will work and won't work with freebsd ?
Will this work ?
Which driver i need to load with my Raspberry-PI-4?
 
Will this work ?
The product description does not provide any details on the chipset this is built on. And there is no link to download its drivers (which would reveal what chipset it is for). So there is no telling if it works with FreeBSD or not. It is likely an RTL8153 adapter, which does work with FreeBSD. You could e-mail the seller and ask what chip the device is based on. Or ask them for a link to the driver download page. Either way would prove what chip it uses. But do not be surprised if the seller has no idea what you are asking.
 
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