Karoly Negyesi on Twitter: “Apparently some/many/most powered USB C hubs with Ethernet are causing serious problems when not connected to a computer. This is such an amazing interaction of various standards.”
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/04/05
TL;DR: for the foreseeable future, avoid USB C hubs with built-in Ethernet as they will bring down your local LAN when no PC is connected to the hub.
[Wayback/Archive] Karoly Negyesi 💉💉💉 Слава Україні! on Twitter: “Apparently some/many/most powered USB C hubs with Ethernet are causing serious problems when not connected to a computer. This is such an amazing interaction of various standards. “
- [Wayback/Archive] KittensInc comments on Powered USB-C hubs which are confirmed not to spam wired network?
- [Wayback/Archive] Powered USB-C hubs which are confirmed not to spam wired network? : UsbCHardware
USB-C hubs breaking networks — really?It sounds unlikely but it seems like a longstanding issue if you look for it.
This carefully researched 2018 reddit post does the best job documenting the issue in depth, manifesting on a TOTO USB-C hub. This blog post describes the same issue with Aukey and Flyland hubs. This 2020 forum post describes the issue with an Orbi router. More recently, this 2021 forum post describes it in a Dell monitor’s embedded USB-C hub
I believe I’m seeing it myself. My new Anker PowerExpand 8-in-1’s Ethernet port lights up with a lot of “phantom” network activity even when there’s no computer attached. Then later, a computer and other devices plugged into the same network switch as that USB-C hub will lose wired connectivity. Restarting the switch resolves the problem. But the problem is also solved by never leaving the hub USB-C powered and connected without a computer!
Via: [Wayback/Archive] Kris on Twitter: “USB C Ethernet Adapters mit PD killen Dein gesamtes Ethernet, weil einige Switches keine Ahnung haben wie man mit Pause Frames umgeht.”
–jeroen
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