It’s become routine: Each new update of Mac OS X macOS breaks third-party drivers and applications. This time it’s many popular third-party USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapters that don’t work. But have no fear! It’s a simple fix!
Cable Matters clearly intended to target Mac users with this white Ethernet adapter and its Apple-esque packaging I’ve got a few different USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet dongles: One from Cable Matters (from Amazon) and another by j5 Create (from Best Buy). Both are essentially identical, though, being based on the AX88179 chipset from Asix of Taiwan. Since this chipset is not supported “out of box” by Mac OS X or macOS, it’s necessary to install a driver to get it working. And upgrading to macOS 10.12 “Sierra” unsurprisingly kills this driver. The simple solution: Reinstall the driver!
As is typical with devices like this, it’s best to install the basic driver from the chipset company rather than the specialized drivers from the device company. So rather than trying to chase down Cable Matters or j5 Create, just head to Asix.co.tw and from there. I installed version 2.8.0 from Asix and everything is hunky-dory again. It’s funny: There are threads on the Apple Support forums with people crying that these devices aren’t working, and lots of horrible/useless suggestions to fix them.
Microsoft Usb Ethernet Adapter Driver
But just reinstalling the driver works fine!
I am plugging a USB Ethernet adapter (not Apple-brand) into my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013). I do not see any relevant 'USB Ethernet' item listed in System Preferences Network. Should one appear when I plug in the adapter? Should I add an item with the '+' button? When I use the '+' button, I only get a list of 'Thunderbolt Bridge', 'Thunderbolt 2', 'Thunderbolt 1', 'Bluetooth PAN', 'Wi-Fi', 'VPN', 'PPPoE', and '6 to 4'. I do not see any option for a USB-Ethernet adapter. Is this no longer supported by Apple?
The Apple menu About this Mac System Report (button) Hardware USB report shows that I have a product by. As far as I understand, you can run a lot of generic ones that don't have Apple-signed drivers by disabling 'System Integrity Protection' (SIP) From: Steps to get your adapter working if you've never used the adapter before in Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.
Usb Ethernet Adapter
Uninstall the dozens of other drivers you may have installed in the process of trying to get this working. Unplug your USB adapter, and reboot and give yourself a clean slate. As soon as the screen goes black, hold down 'Command' and 'R' until you see a black screen with an Apple logo and a white progress bar. Let go, and wait for your computer to boot into recovery mode. From the top bar, select 'Utilities' and then 'Terminal'.
In the terminal, run csrutil disable. From the top bar, select '', then 'Restart'. Once you're booted back up, download and install the drivers from the CD, kindly uploaded. Open your terminal, and run sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/USBCDCEthernet.kext. Reboot. Plug in your USB Adapter, with a live ethernet cable. Open System Preferences, and go to the Network Pane.
Hit the + button in the bottom right, select the 'USB 2.0 10/100M Ethernet Adapter', and hit add. You're all set! Your adapter works!.
Belkin Usb Ethernet Adapter Driver
Apologize to the people you care about for the things you've said over the past few hours. They won't understand, but they will forgive you.
I presume that any driver that worked for these types of things pre-Yosemite (10.10) would work for the ones in step 7. See original page for a discussion on the security risks of using this method. But, if you need it to, and are aware of and OK with the risks, it works. This worked for me on El Capitan (10.11) with a random off-brand adapter (can't remember the brand or if it even had one).