[myelin]

I've had a lot of luck with the Plugable 2.5G USB-C adapters, although on some ports they're incredibly unreliable -- I'm guessing maybe something about the power supply?

On a CalDigit TS3 dock, I've had one working off the rear Thunderbolt socket for over a year, but it fails in minutes if plugged into the USB-C one. I've never had issues with a CalDigit Elements (TB4) hub. I've had success plugging them directly into various Chromebooks. On one Windows laptop, they seemed to work on one USB-C port but not the other.

So... reliable once working, but getting there can be a pain.

[kalleboo]

The CalDigit TS3 dock has two different USB 3 controllers inside of it, each driving half the ports. One from Fresco Logic and one from ASMedia. I can't recall which one right now but one of them is unstable crap and the other one is better. You can see which one you're using in the Mac System Report (AppleUSBXHCIFL1100 vs AppleASMediaUSBXHCI). So try switching around ports. The Thunderbolt is a pure passthrough so that will use Apple's own USB-C controller.

These were my notes

* Front 5Gbps USB-C Fresco Logic

* Front 5Gbps USB-A Fresco Logic

* Rear 10Gbps USB-C ASMedia

* Rear USB-A, Right-hand 3 Fresco Logic

* Rear USB-A, Left-hand 1 ASMedia

[rconti]

Interesting! I'm using a TS3 dock and my entire use case is to bypass the 1GbE on the dock and get 2.5G to my work laptop. But once I started having issues I took both my laptops directly to my main switch to rule out house wiring issues, so I didn't spend much time dealing with the different ports on the TS3.

My logic was that I didn't want to spend $400+ on a TS4 for my WORK computer, just to get a faster ethernet for the lulz. I was happy to spend $25 for bragging rights.

Of course, now that I've spent that same $25-30 4 times, it's beginning to feel like less of a bargain.