Issue with AX88179 USB ethernet adapter

[gothbert]

Hi,

after successful testing in a virtual machine, I replaced IPFire by OPNSense today on the real hardware. The box has a retail mainboard with only one ethernet NIC put in a 1U chassis in my rack which precludes adding more PCIe NICs. I therefore use USB Ethernet adapters for additional LAN connectivity.

My Delock 62417 adapter has the ASIX AX88179 chip and is listed as a supported device unter FreeBSD. It is detected, axge driver is loaded, an IP address can be assigned but it cannot reach anything on the LAN nor can it be reached. I successfully tested the adapter under Linux to ensure that the adapter and cabling is all right.

There is another report about malfunction in this forum but probably went unnoticed because it is in Spanish.

Is this an issue with OPNSense and if so, is there a chance that it will be fixed soon?

If not, could someone please recommend a USB 3.0 Gigabit ethernet adapter that is proven to work? TPLink UE300 is not detected, Logilink UA0144 works but is only Fast Ethernet on USB 2.0.

Thank you,
Boris

[djGrrr]

The box has a retail mainboard with only one ethernet NIC put in a 1U chassis in my rack which precludes adding more PCIe NICs.

Why exactly does a 1U chassis preclude the usage of a PCIe NIC? generally you can use a riser card to use an addon card (basically puts the socket at a 90 degree angle).

[gothbert]

The box has a retail mainboard with only one ethernet NIC put in a 1U chassis in my rack which precludes adding more PCIe NICs.

Why exactly does a 1U chassis preclude the usage of a PCIe NIC? generally you can use a riser card to use an addon card (basically puts the socket at a 90 degree angle).

In principle yes, in practice no. I checked the possibility of adding a riser card before turning to the USB solution. The issue is that the position of the PCIe socket on the mainboard (distance to as well as lateral position relative to the opening in the back of the chassis) and position of the screw hole to fasten the riser card at the back of the chassis must match to make this work mechanically. I tried one spare riser card and I could not make it fit.

I had no issues with the USB adapters under Linux and would love to find a practice-proven adapter for FreeBSD/OPNSense. If that fails I will migrate to a SuperMicro X11SBA-LN4F with 8 GB RAM for the expense of 300 EUR+.

Best regards,
Boris

[s4rs]

Just so happened I ran into the same issue. I switched to a Realtek USB 3 adapter instead of the AX88179 I had and it works just fine. I have a fan-less mini pc with dual nics so I had to go the USB route when setting up my guest wireless network.

I did have an issue, when I first plugged in and configured the adapter it work for a bit then stopped. I rebooted and all my adapters were re-swizzled. What was my WAN adapter became the LAN adapter, and the USB adapter had to be reconfigured. Once I sorted that out I did a power cycle to make sure things stayed and they did.  Its all good now.  Good luck.

[gothbert]

Just so happened I ran into the same issue. I switched to a Realtek USB 3 adapter instead of the AX88179 I had and it works just fine. I have a fan-less mini pc with dual nics so I had to go the USB route when setting up my guest wireless network.

Thank you for the recommendation. Browsed a hardware price comparison portal yesterday and found that even on the manufacturer's website or in the product documentation information on the chipset is given only in some cases and then it's either Asix or confusing Do you still know the brand and model of the Realtek USB 3 adapter you use?

[s4rs]

I got this one from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WHL9ENY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (WEme USB 3.0 Type C to RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter)

This isn't the adapter I'm using but it is a realtek. I have it plugged into my Thinkpad Carbon X1. The one i am using for Opensense is generic and I ordered it long ago. No markings and I can't find the receipt.

One interesting thing about the adapter I am using is it screwed up my vlans. I had to run it through a dumb switch first then to the port based vlan (untagged). If I used the adapter directly in the port it caused all sorts of issues.

My wife and I were watching a show I recorded and have on our Plex server. It kept pausing. So this morning I did some investigation and found all sorts of vlan bleeding. Not sure how this could happen but it was. I disabled the switch port and then found this subnet was still messing up DHCP on our home network. I had to disable/enable the USB adapter in Opnsense for the two subnets DHCP server to get sorted. Really strange stuff. I'm sure their is an explanation but I can't figure it out.

While I was playing I found if I put a dumb switch in between the adapter and the netgear smart switch all worked fine. I have a mix of netgear and dlink smart switches on my network. I might try the dlink at some point and see if it has the same issue as the netgear. But anyway my isolated guest network is now working great and no issues on our home vlan. Just a heads up..

[gothbert]

WEme USB 3.0 Type C to RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Thank you for the information on the adapters you use. Unfortunately this item does not ship to where I live.

...
Just a heads up..

That was the last nail in the coffin. I will save me further hassle and go for the SuperMicro board given the fact that any decent adapter will amount to about 10 percent of the price of the board. And I need two adapters.

Thank you for your time and consideration. That helped me to make the decision.

Kind regards
Boris