Very Well Built, Very Compatible.
Controls engineer here. Was issued a work laptop without integrated ethernet, so I keep a handful of ethernet adapters in my bag. I've used dedicated USB NICs and also the ones like this that are a USB hub with integrated NIC. Of all the ones I have used, this one is my favorite. It looks good, and has a nice metal enclosure. The enclosure is also very square which I like because I stuck a magnet to mine so that I attach the adapter to the side of a control panel if I so choose. It would be harder to stick a magnet to a rounded device. There is also a gray USB hub/NIC available online but I will not buy those any more. There seems to be some sort of defect that rears it's head when connecting to certain devices. I have tried different combinations of three different laptops, more than a half dozen of these adapters, and a wide array of PLCs, scanners, and other automation related devices. Under certain conditions the gray model just stops working. If you try to use DataMan to connect to a Cognex scanner, or view the web interface on a CompactLogix PLC, the NIC just stops working until you unplug it and plug it back in. This happens on the USB-A and USB-C variant. All network connectivity just stops if you do either of those two things. No such issue on this model. It works 100% of the time with 100% of the devices that I've connected to with it. I carry a variety of these just in case, but if I could only have one, this would be it. Read more















