Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

jeffgeerling.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 384 posts

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#331

Post by nbf_1995 »

papaver-somnamb wrote: post #329

10GbE adoption feels different from the successful string of standard speeds that came prior, since the market congealed around one standards family per Ethernet speed circa say 100Base-TX. We've heard stories as horrific as RJ45 assemblies heating up to a degree such that thermoplastic would flow. Was some threshold crossed where 10Gbit over CAT6-whatever cabling is crossing physics thresholds? Or perhaps 10Gbit was…

I have never heard of ethernet cables getting hot to that degree except when PoE is involved.

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#332

Post by ben-schaaf »

reaperducer wrote: post #186
PaulKeeble wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB is just a complete mess. I don't mind so much ports having different capabilities if they are well documented in the specification sheets of the hardware because then at least I can find out what they are capable of, but alas it never seems to be the case. Its very hard to work out whether a port can do Displayport and to what extent/performance or its true power capability or just its real data transfer speed. M…

USB is just a complete mess. You have to go out of your way to make Apple's Lightning connector look sensible, but somehow the USB consortium has managed to do it.

To be fair, lightning only looks sensible because it never did anything other than USB2 and power delivery.

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#333

Post by mort96 »

Gigachad wrote: post #188
mort96 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they've taken the criticism on board, USB 3 still has the completely nonsensical names

The modern usb naming is to just list the speed or power output of the port. Rather than some absurd version number it’s now just “USB 20 Gbits”

Then why do I still see USB 3.2 generation 2x2

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#335

Post by pseudalopex »

mbreese wrote: post #167
wongarsu wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USB A connector stayed the same between USB 1, 2 and 3. Yet most manufacturers voluntary distinguished them by giving USB 1 and 1.1 a white insert in plug and port, USB 2 a black insert and USB 3 a blue one This was neither standarized nor enforced, yet it worked remarkably well in the real world Then we decided to just have no markings at all on USB C cables. On the ports at least we occasionally get little thun…

The exterior of the USB A connector stayed the same. The number of pins increased when we went from USB 2 to 3. So, even in this case, it’s slightly more complicated. The colors helped because the capabilities were very different between the ports. But when the USB IF increased the number of options (and reduced the size of the connector), different colors became impossible to do. The problem is that there are too ma…

> But when the USB IF increased the number of options (and reduced the size of the connector), different colors became impossible to do.

Some USB C cables identify their capabilities visually or electronically. All USB C cables could do this.

> But this is wha we wanted - a reduced number of standardized connector/power options.

We meant who?

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#337

Post by cyberax »

ssl-3 wrote: post #323
cyberax wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. I used a dremel tool, some radiators, and a bit of thermal glue to make my Mikrotik switch work reliably: https://pics.ealex.net/share/UxeSf_AWHLIuc-qzK5zl7JIgQvQDAZh... It's been like this for the last 3 years. And amazingly, I still can't find a 10G switch that is just as compact.

This is the kind of quality I want and expect from a website called Hacker News. It's way more fun to see a real solution for a problem than it is to see someone complain that the cheapest available product is lacking in finesse. Good stuff. Are you using RouterOS or SwOS on that little guy? --- Related, here's a moneyshot of my Mikrotik Hex S that I've got in a portable rack: https://i.postimg.cc/cCJhfkv1/image.png…

RouterOS, although I'm only using the switch-related functionality.

I found that the temperature of the 10G modules has almost no relation to their cost. So far, the least hot modules are 10G Tek ones that are also the cheapest. Mirkotik's 10G modules are more expensive, and they are also hotter.

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#338

Post by userbinator »

AntiUSAbah wrote: post #212

Thats just a depressing situation for 10G networking. If its p2p, its easier to just use usb-c inbetween. Apparently someone doesn't understand my post so let me edit it for the downvote?!... 10G is old tech, its 2026 and the best thing we still have today is a 80$ Adapater while USB-C already can do 5, 10, 20 and 40gb I'm waiting for 10g network for home for ages now but infra is more expensive, consumes more energy…

while USB-C already can do 5, 10, 20 and 40gb

...over a few meters at most. 10GBASE-T Ethernet goes dozens of meters, and the other variants using optic fiber reach into kilometers.

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#339

Post by userbinator »

jech wrote: post #97
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of us who don’t know, how does it save power vs a 1gbe running at low throughput?

> how does [100BASE-TX] save power vs [1000BASE-T] running at low throughput? 100BASE-TX uses just two pairs (lanes), one for sending and one for receiving. 1000BASE-T uses all four pairs, for both sending and receiving. Therefore, a 100BASE-TX interface that's only receiving needs to power up one pair. A 1000BASE-T interface needs to power all four pairs all the time. I recall reading about some extensions that allo…

100M also needs much less signal processing, and at lower speed, than 1G.

10M is even simpler, to the point that even a fast MCU can bit-bang it.

Re: New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

#340

Post by mh- »

anamexis wrote: post #193
reaperducer wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of clarity is in keeping with the USB C connector itself, which may supply or accept power at various rates or not at all, may be fast or slow, may provide or accept video or not, and may even provide an interpretation of PCI Express but probably doesn't. It gets even worse. I now have two cheap Chinese gadgets (a checki printer and a tire inflater) that have USB-C ports for charging, but will only charge wi…

I keep a few of these around to deal with this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/6323 Very annoying though! The devices are just missing a couple resistors which is probably less than a cent on the BOM.

Wow, thanks for sharing this. Like the parent commenter, I have an increasing number of cheap devices like this. I wonder if anyone sells an "enclosed" version of this product. This won't survive 5 minutes in my house, haha.

A quick google I found one but they're $17 each (!) and it's from a site I've never heard of and can't vouch for, so not bothering to link it here.

I'm really surprised there aren't a number of these all over Amazon. Or if there are, they're using different keywords to describe them, so I can't find them.

Post reply on HN