USB 3 network adapter

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1

I wonder if anybody ever tried to use USB 3 network adapter with QNAP hardware? I’m asking because I have upgraded my home LAN to 2.5GB and I thought I’ll try to added 2.5 NIC to my TS-451+. Since it does not have PCI slot the only way to add it is through USB3 at the back. First I wanted to see if it would work at all so I used my old Mac USB C network adapter that I use with my wife’s Air Book. I plugged it to the back USB 3 port (that is USB A) through USB A to USB C adapter. It worked as expected but the performance was very poor, only about 40% of the physical 1GB NIC in the box.

I wonder if anybody tried something similar? If yes what results did you obtain?

I just wanted to avoid buying a new Hardware with faster NIC.

Tom

2

Why not just use SMBM ? That does not need any special switch just faster client nics and switches

3

Thanks but I already have SMB 3 enabled. I would also like to use faster 2.5GB networking.

4

This way you would get 2Gbit speeds, around 250MB\s.

QNAP NAS are notoriously picky when it comes to non listed expansion cards/adapters, so that would be a good option for you

Oh and SMB3 does not automatically enable SMBM, there is a separate option for that

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1 Like
5

But for SMBM, you need multiple NICs. Just know that…

6

But you can mix LAN and WIFI too, so a hardwired 1GbE Laptop can use it’s WiFi ‘leg’ to increase the speeds

7

SMB multichannel option is enabled already. I’m a bit confused. You mentioned multiple network interfaces, are you talking about channel aggregation? If I understand correctly for that I would need a switch that supports channel aggregation. Though all my switches are managed they don’t support channel aggregation. TS-451+ has two 1GB NICs but I only use one.

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Your NAS needs to use both NICs for SMBM to work..obviously

9

No, not channel aggregation. Multiple NICs and multiple IP addresses for your LAN. SMBM uses multiple connections like that to increase bandwidth.

And @dolbyman is correct - you can use any combination of NICs on your PC/Mac side

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@hubbycat while QNAP does not provide official support list, some Internet & community users have reported compatible dongles. You may refer to some comments online. TS-251B 2.5Gb or faster support via usb card - #5 by Toxic

11

Thanks for the pointer. After reading it is looks like I need a client with two network interfaces. My Mac Studio has only one 10GB NIC. So that option is not available to me, but it is nice to know I may revisit it in the future. Also it looks like using USB NIC via USB A port is no starter with TS-451.

Thanks for you help - Tom

12

Your Mac Studio has the ability for multiple NICs. First it has WiFi - yes? You could use that. Second you could buy a USB-C to Ethernet adapter. I use a 2.5Gbit model from Trendnet with both my MacMini and MacBookPro.