USB-RJ45 adapters on routers?

[Pawelr98]

Hi

I was wondering if my Asus TUF-AX3000 would accept a simple RJ45-USB 3.0 2.5Gbit NIC as an extra LAN/WAN port.
Asus routers already supported 3G/4G USB modems in the past, so perhaps someone tried such an approach?

 

[Athlonite]

Probably not chances are it would see it as just a USB device and not know what to do with it because it wouldn't have a built in driver for it. where as the USB 3G/4G modem has a driver built into the modem software/OS so it knows what to do with it you'd be better off to just purchase a 8 port switch if you need more ports

 

[claes]

People on snb have seemed to have success

https://www.google.com/search?q=asus+router+usb+nic+site:www.snbforums.com&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=sivn&sxsrf=APwXEdcZkLAWrWEfoiNW1oZd3vY35e0-zw:1679883127198&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiA672ohPv9AhWVEFkFHWLwCyQQrQIoA3oECB4QBA&biw=487&bih=936&dpr=2

This guy did it manually

Towards 2.5GbE (NBASE-T) on ASUS RT-AX88U with RTL8156B and Asuswrt-Merlin 384.19

The lack of integrated 2.5GbE port makes ASUS RT-AX88U less powerful in my mind, especially when taking its processor BCM49408, which natively supports 2.5GbE, into account. The game however has changed, after I managed to finally reveal the full potential of AX88U with Realtek’s USB-based...

wu.renjie.im

 

[Pawelr98]

Ok, I have ordered a simple RTL8156B USB card from AliExpress. Hopefully I will be able to create a passthrough using the original WAN port. I have only a single cat6 line to the particular room and I want to have both the AP and my main computer on 2.5Gbit without buying an expensive 5 port switch.

 

[Pawelr98]

So the adapter arrived and I have some things to report.

Plugging in the adapter as-is into a router configured to be an AP or a router, for some reason kills the wifi, maybe it's temporary or it requires a full reset, but I would assume it's in the best scenario "tricky".
However if the router is operating as an AI-mesh node, the USB 2.5Gbit adapter does work as an extra WAN port. No special mods, pure stock firmware.
My main rig was operating through that AI-mesh router while the line coming from the rest of the network was attached through the USB NIC.

I plugged the rig into the WAN 2.5Gbit port, the rest of the network into the USB NIC and I have a functional passthrough.
I have yet to test the speed and stability (it's been working for an hour, so that part seems OK so far), but it's looking promising, at least initially.

EDIT: Iperf3 reports 234Mbit/s so stock firmware definitely doesn't handle the NIC well.

 

[LabRat 891]

Plugging in the adapter as-is into a router configured to be an AP or a router, for some reason kills the wifi

I'll let old articles, thread(s), and an Intel document explain things, rather than be culpable myself

Wireless Witch: The Truth About USB 3.0 and Wi-Fi Interference

Concerned about the USB 3.0 port on your router and wireless interference issues? Get the facts.

www.pcmag.com

Does USB 3.1 still interfere with 2.4GHz wireless?

It was brought up before that stuttering Bluetooth audio could be due to interference from USB. I just came across an Amazon review on a WD hard drive that further clarifies that it's specifically USB 3.0 that interferes with the consumer/ISM 2.4GHz bands. So does USB 3.1 remedy that, or is it...

arstechnica.com

USB 3.0* Radio Frequency Interference on 2.4 GHz Devices

White Paper: Notice of certain USB 3.0* devices and cables causing radio frequency interference to wireless devices operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band.

web.archive.org

non-0 chance it's not the USB link. A poorly built ethernet device can radiate a ton of noise too.

eHam.net

LinkSys Router Interference To Ham Radio Bands - LinkSys RFI/EMI Problems!

Or, the simple possibility that the adapter draws too much power, and the router just shuts off WiFi.

 

[Pawelr98]

It's only in the AP mode so I guess it's more on the RAM side or something.
Ideally I want both the 2.5Gbit and the AiMesh working, the main reason for the 2xAX3000 was to have a proper AiMesh network, to finally solve the Wifi coverage issues and make it seamless.
Reinforced concrete does a great job at attenuating any wifi.

So I will try to compile the proper driver, as the guide shows how to approach that.
Hopefully (though my run with such stuff wasn't the best) it will compile without major issues and I will get a full performance out of this NIC.

If I could make it run on this router, I could expand the AiMesh networking further, by connecting more 2.5Gbit routers like that in series, instead of relying on 2.5Gbit switches, which so far are still on the expensive side, cheapest being the chinese market TP-Links.

Another consideration, extending it even further, would be USB hubs. Just for the sake of experimentation.
Making 2x2.5Gbit routers out of non-2.5Gbit routers.

 

[browsem]

Just wanted to give my 2c as well.

I have an AiMesh system with a TUF AX5400 master,1x wired in switch, 2x ethernet connected rt-ac68u nodes, and i needed to connect 2x pc directly to the main router.
So i needed an extra port.

Heres what i did

Added a 1gb usb dongle

WAN->Enable usb mode:ON (resten af siden std)
DualWan->Enable Dual WAN:OFF
DualWan->Primary WAN:USB
Moved Wan ethernet cable to the dongle, and rebooted

So now i have 5 ethernet Lan ports, and usb wan, so its more than possible to have wan running on the usb at least in my case

 

[Pawelr98]

My TUF-AX3000 is the V2 variant, which doesn't seem to have a workable asuswrt-merlin release, which I realised after a few months since I made that post in April 2023.
In the meantime, Aliexpress got filled with inexpensive 4x2.5Gbit RJ45 + 2x10Gbit SFP+ switches, so I bought one for around 28USD and called quits on the USB adapter project.

 

[Durhamranger]

My TUF-AX3000 is the V2 variant, which doesn't seem to have a workable asuswrt-merlin release, which I realised after a few months since I made that post in April 2023.
In the meantime, Aliexpress got filled with inexpensive 4x2.5Gbit RJ45 + 2x10Gbit SFP+ switches, so I bought one for around 28USD and called quits on the USB adapter project.

TUF-AX3000 V2 firmware is been worked on by Gnuton....

https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng?tab=readme-ov-file

However there is no stable release at this time......

 

[Pawelr98]

I could maybe work on this once some solid firmware is released. One device less would mean slightly lower power consumption and less stuff to worry about.
But so far the chinese switch is working alright.

 

[Durhamranger]

I could maybe work on this once some solid firmware is released. One device less would mean slightly lower power consumption and less stuff to worry about.
But so far the chinese switch is working alright.

Alpha Firmware has been released for TUF-AX3000 V2

Release 3004.388.6_2-gnuton0_alpha1 · gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng

GNUton's Asus Merlin changelog Date: March 08, 2024 Release: 3004.388.6_2-gnuton1 ADDED: Support for TUF-AX3000_V2

github.com