Install unrecognized USB Ethernet devices on macOS

Do you know what USB device is it? Me neither.

I'm moving from my attic to the basement, and I needed to connect my Mac to the router, because the WiFi connection is terrible. I have a USB Ethernet device that I used with a miniPC, but it was not recognized by my macOS. I found a way to install it, and I want to share it with you.

Introduction

So, If you have a USB Ethernet device that is not recognized by macOS, you can try the following steps to install it. At least, it worked for me, and I hope it works for you, too. 😉

Steps

1. Open the Terminal and connect the USB Ethernet device to the Mac.
2. Run the following command to list the network interfaces:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices

3. Identify the new network interface that appears after connecting the USB Ethernet device. It should have a name like "USB Ethernet" or similar.

Warning

You can use the Application Utils > System Information If you don't feel comfortable with the Terminal.

Now you have some information to get the driver for the device. You can search for the manufacturer's website or use any search engine to find the driver. In my case, It was ASIX AX88179 chipset, so I downloaded the driver from the official website. Another way is to search by product_id or vendor_id.

All stuff to get it working on macOS.

I only needed to install the driver, restart a couple of time, and the USB Ethernet device was recognized by macOS. I passed from 150 MB/s using WiFi to ~600 MB/s. Not bad!

Video showing the speed downloading RPi OS image from the Internet using Ethernet.

Can't see the video?

I don't know why, this video is only played using a Chromium based browser. 🤷‍♂️

Right click and download it.