USB C to Ethernet Adapter LAN Goes Down
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Hello,
I'm somewhat new to the firewall space and I'm trying to troubleshoot an intermittent issue where there seems to be an issue with my LAN interface losing connection. I'm running PFSense on a laptop using the built in NIC as the WAN interface and two USB-C to Ethernet adapters for my LAN and OPT. Sometimes my wifi will just stop working and restarting my access point has not effect, but restarting my PFSense box fixes it. During those times, I can't navigate to the web page for my PFSense box from my hard wired connection to it, so I think the LAN port is going down. I'm not really sure what I'm looking at in terms of logs to see what is happening to cause the network to lose internet connectivity, but I would like to learn more. It happens about once every couple days, but sometimes occurs a few times a day.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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Others have also tried to use USB to Ethernet adapterrs unsuccessfully. You will be better off in the long run buying a low power Mini-PC with multiple Ethernet ports.
You can pick up a used Qotom off evilBay for ~$60
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@jeffreyhb123 said in USB C to Ethernet Adapter LAN Goes Down:
but I would like to learn more
These :
@jeffreyhb123 said in USB C to Ethernet Adapter LAN Goes Down:
USB-C to Ethernet adapters for my LAN and OPT.
Look at the USB side contacts.
Now, imagine, very low tension very high frequencies are being put on these contacts.
The thing is, "USB-C to Ethernet adapters" might seem to work, but they are a real pain .... the slightest electrical issue, as contacts even move a bit, and the constant bit stream gits 'broken' and the connection goes 'down'. Over time, when Ethernet when from 10 Mbit/sec to 100 to 1000 the stability will not gain on it ... It's a bit like : hooking up your satellite receiver coax cable with ordinary electrical socket wall plugs : you won't get any signal. No surprise : no reception.You can see this event, LAN going DOWN and UP, being signaled in the Status > System Logs > System > General.
So, yes USB Ethernet seems like an alternative. But their usage, you won't advise them even to your worst enemy
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You should still have local console access on the laptop. So you can access the command line and check the NIC status using
ifconfig -vma. That will show you if the USB NICs are losing link or disconnecting entirely.Otherwise check the system logs from the time after rebooting to get access.
And, yes, USB Ethernet can be very unreliable.
Steve
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Thank you all for the advice. I had seen similar reports online before purchasing the adapters, but I decided to try them out anyhow because I already had a laptop to run PFSense on. I will bite the bullet and go ahead and get a device with dedicated NICs.
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@elvisimprsntr
I searched for evilBay before realizing you meant eBay and it's an actual website lol. Nothing to do with Qotom though. -
@jeffreyhb123
I think its about https://www.ebay.com/itm/234892002874
My friend uses https://www.ebay.com/itm/326267601406 on 1gbit line without any issue, about 5 years already.
