Network Adapter For Mac



  1. A Network Adapter for Any Application Household laptops, business desktops, and servers in data centers all have different networking requirements. USB Wi-Fi and ethernet adapters are tiny and offer plug-and-play convenience, making them ideal for home users or frequent travelers. PCIe® adapters fit desktop computers and many servers.
  2. This adapter reaches up to 945Mbit/s, so it's near practical limit of 1Gb link- Tested with iperf3 This adapter reaches up to 945Mbit/s, so it's near practical limit of 1Gb link- Tested with iperf3 Max speed for file sharing over SMB is 90MB/s - Tested with two directly connected 16' MBP. This adapter DOES NOT support Jumbo frames, max MTU is 1500.

The ability to switch between different sets of network settings (locations) can be useful in circumstances such as these:

  • You use the same type of network (such as Ethernet) at work and at home, but the settings you use at work don't allow your Mac to automatically connect to the same type of network at home.
  • Your Mac connects to more than one type of network service (such as both Wi-Fi and Ethernet) at work and at home, but at work you want your Mac to try connecting to the Ethernet network first, and at home you want your Mac to try connecting to the Wi-Fi network first. In other words, you want to set a different service order for each location.
  • Your Mac isn't connecting to your network and you want to quickly reset your network settings for testing purposes, without losing your current network settings.

In each of these examples, the Location feature of Network preferences can help.

How to add or remove a network location

  1. Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Network.
  2. The Location pop-up menu shows the name of your currently selected set of network settings. The default location is named Automatic. Choose Edit Locations from this menu.
  3. Click the Add (+) button below the list of locations, then type a name for the new location, such as Work or Home or Mobile. (To remove a location, use the Remove (–) button below the list.)
  4. Click Done. The Location menu should now show the name of your new location. Any changes you now make to your Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or other network settings will be saved to that location when you click Apply. The network settings in your previous location remain as you left them, so you can use the Location menu to switch back at any time.
  5. Click Apply to save your settings and complete the switch from the previous location to the new one. Your Mac then automatically tries to determine the correct settings for each type of network. If you need to change the settings manually, remember to click Apply again after making your changes.

How to switch between network locations

If you have more than one location, you can use either of these methods to switch between them:

To find the right cable or adapter for your Mac or iPad Pro, use the information below to identify the connector on the end of the cable coming from your display, hard drive, camera, hub, or other device. Check the end meant to plug into your Mac or iPad Pro.

  • Use the Location pop-up menu in Network preferences, as described above. Remember to click Apply after choosing a location.
  • Or choose Apple menu > Location from the menu bar, then choose your location from the submenu.

How to change the network service order

Network Adapter For Mac

If you're using network locations because you want each location to prefer a different network service (such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet) when connecting, follow these steps to change the service order (also known as port priority) in each location.

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network.
  2. Use the Location menu to choose the location you want to modify.
  3. Click below the list of services, then choose Set Service Order.
  4. Drag services within the list to change their order. Your Mac will try to connect to the service at the top of the list first, then continue in descending order until a connection is successful.
    Virtual private network (VPN) connections can't be reordered, because they always take priority over other connections.
  5. Click OK, then click Apply to make the updated service order active.

How to prevent a network service from being used

By default, the location named Automatic makes all available network services (also known as ports or network interfaces) active, whether or not they are being used to connect to a network. Your Mac automatically searches these services for a network or Internet connection. For example, you might use a Wi-Fi network at home but an Ethernet network at work. Your Mac automatically detects which of these network services to use when it connects.

If you want to make sure that your Mac doesn't use a particular network service, such as Wi-Fi, you can make that service inactive in any of your network locations:

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network.
  2. Use the Location menu to choose the location you want to modify.
  3. Click below of the list of services, then choose Make Service Inactive.
  4. Click Apply.

Update Oct 2015: Updated for 10.11 El Capitan!

Reset Mac Network Adapter

If you bought a cheap aftermarket USB-Ethernet adapter like me and found that it doesn't work on El Capitan or Yosemite, here's what you need to get it going.

Seriously. You can stop tearing you hair out now. It'll all be ok.

As with all advice on the internet, you can't sue me if this sets fire to your cat or sends ninjas to your house. You're doing this on your own, and I assume no liability or warranty for what you do.

Steps to get your adapter working if you just upgraded to Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.

  1. Reboot. 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.
  2. From the top bar, select 'Utilities' and then 'Terminal'
  3. In the terminal, run csrutil disable.
  4. From the top bar, select '', then 'Restart'
  5. When you boot back up, you'll have a working adapter!
  6. Definitely take a read down below to see what's changed in El Capitan, and if disabling SIP makes sense for your setup.

Steps to get your adapter working if you've never used the adapter before in Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.

  1. Uninstall the dozens of other drivers you may have installed in the process of trying to get this working.
  2. Unplug your USB adapter, and reboot and give yourself a clean slate.
  3. Reboot. 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.
  4. From the top bar, select 'Utilities' and then 'Terminal'
  5. In the terminal, run csrutil disable.
  6. From the top bar, select '', then 'Restart'
  7. Once you're booted back up, download and install the drivers from the CD, kindly uploaded by this fine human being.
  8. Reboot.
  9. Open your terminal, and run sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/USBCDCEthernet.kext
  10. Reboot.
  11. Plug in your USB Adapter, with a live ethernet cable.
  12. Open System Preferences, and go to the Network Pane.
  13. Hit the + button in the bottom right, select the 'USB 2.0 10/100M Ethernet Adapter', and hit add.
  14. You're all set! Your adapter works!
  15. 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.

Steps to get your adapter working on Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite

  1. Uninstall the dozens of other drivers you may have installed in the process of trying to get this working.
  2. Unplug your USB adapter, and reboot and give yourself a clean slate.
  3. Download and install the drivers from the CD, kindly uploaded by this fine human being.
  4. Reboot.
  5. Open your terminal, and run sudo nvram boot-args='kext-dev-mode=1'
  6. Reboot.
  7. Open your terminal, and run sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/USBCDCEthernet.kext
  8. Reboot.
  9. Plug in your USB Adapter, with a live ethernet cable.
  10. Open System Preferences, and go to the Network Pane.
  11. Hit the + button in the bottom right, select the 'USB 2.0 10/100M Ethernet Adapter', and hit add.
  12. You're all set! Your adapter works!
  13. 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.

What's going on. (Yosemite Version).

Change Network Adapter Mac Address

The old drivers still work, no problem, but are being blocked in Yosemite because they aren't 'signed' properly, since they weren't re-issued for Yosemite. As 'unsigned' drivers, Mac OS refuses to load them, saying they constitute a security hazard.

What step 5 does is instructs your computer to set itself to 'developer mode', which allows you to load unsigned kexts. This is a mild security risk, but it should be fine for most people. If you're in doubt, please make the decision that makes the most sense for your security concerns. You might be better off just buying legit Apple hardware so you don't have to disable the security. That's your call.

If you ever do go legit and want to undo it, just run sudo nvram boot-args='kext-dev-mode=0, and things will be back where you left them.

Usb Wireless Network Adapter For Mac

What's going on. (El Capitan Version).

In short, it's the same scenario as Yosemite, just stricter. Apple has a new security mode, called 'System Integrity Protection' (SIP) that prevents anyone - even you with your password - from modifying system files.

The old drivers still work, no problem, but are being blocked in El Capitan because they aren't 'signed' properly, since they weren't re-issued for El Capitan. As 'unsigned' drivers, Mac OS refuses to load them, saying they constitute a security hazard.

The csrutil disable step turns off SIP for your entire system, which allows you to load and use the drivers. This also disables malware protection for your machine, and given that we've started to see genuine malware for OS X in the wild, it's a slightly larger security risk than it was in Yosemite.

Network Adapter Driver For Mac

If you're in doubt, please make the decision that makes the most sense for your security concerns. You might be better off just buying legit Apple hardware so you don't have to disable the security. That's your call.

If you ever do go legit and want to undo it, just reboot into recovery mode and run csrutil enable, and things will be back where you left them.

Wireless Network Adapter For Mac

Anyhow, after hours of searching and pulling out my own hair, I thought it'd be worth sharing the solution! Enjoy!

Mac Usb Wifi Adapter

psst. Yeah, you, with the working ethernet adapter. :)
If this post helped you out, please do me a favor back (and maybe yourself one, too), and check out my masterclass on living with purpose and going after your big dreams.
It's really, really good. Thanks!-Steven