Inateck USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Converter

Screen Shot 2014-04-18 at 10.20.30 AMThe main laptop that I use is a MacBook Air. It is a really great device, very portable, well engineered, and very fast for the purposes of the main tasks I use it for – word processing, email, web surfing, some light photo and video editing. However, its lightness and portability come at a price – MacBook Air is extremely ports-deficient. It has only two USB ports, one SD card slot and a small headphones jack. Most of the times when I use it none of this lack of ports bothers me, but there are situations when I need to use more than two USB devices at the same time, or connect to the Internet via a wired connection. This small Inateck USB/Ethernet hub seemed like an ideal accessory to have around. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get ethernet working.

I am running Mac OS-X Mavericks on all of my computers. I’ve connected bot my MacBook Air and Mac Mini to this adapter, but neither one of them was able to recognize the ethernet connection. (The USB hub part was fine.) The adapter comes with no printed instructions, and the pdf manual is very sparse and very clearly geared to Windows computers.

In order to see if I didn’t by any chance get a defective unit, I connected this adapter to my Windows 8 machine. The adapter was recognized immediately without any need for the installation of the driver software. The Ethernet connection was extremely smooth and fast, and I didn’t see any difference as compared to getting online through the dedicated Ethernet port.

The three USB 3.0 ports have functioned splendidly, both on my Mac and Windows computers. They really help with the additional connectivity, without the need for external power. The USB strip is fairly compact, so you would not want to connect any bulkier USB devices to it.

This could have been a really great overall adapter, but unfortunately right now I cannot recommend it to any Mac users out there. The users of Windows ultrabooks, on the other hand, should really appreciate all the additional connectivity that this adapter offers.

**** Product provided for review purposes. ****

 

Bojan Tunguz

Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts

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