TRENDnet USB to 10/100Mbps Adapter TU2-ET100

I was looking to purchase a USB>Ethernet adapter for my Series2 Tivo. Since the Tivos are known to be a little picky about the adapter used, I did a lot of research to find out what was out there. This adapter kept popping up, so even though it’s not listed on Tivo’s website (http://tivo.com/adapters), I decided it was worth a shot. It had gotten great reviews pretty much everywhere.

The adapter (TU2-ET100) arrived yesterday. The USPS shipping was a bit slow, having actually PASSED my house in route to another hub before coming to me. But the packing was good, and it was in a nice box with a CD and fairly basic instruction book. I did not need either. The adapter itself is pretty light weight, but not fragile. It’s a little boxy, but that actually is a good thing as I want it to sit flat.

Within a second of plugging this in to my Tivo, it had obtained an IP address from my router and was churning away with full-duplex speed! The world of networked Tivo has opened lots of cool doors, thanks to this simple little adapter! According to the box, this adapter WILL work with the Nintendo Wii, as well.

Note to those looking… BE CAREFUL not to mistake this with the TRENDnet USB to 10/100Mbps Adapter (TU-ET100C) adapter, which sells for a similar price (slightly cheaper) and looks more “modern”, but only operates on the USB 1.1 specification.

Also note… don’t waste your time going to Best Buy. They don’t sell these, and the guy who offered to help me find it told me matter-of-factly that “there is no such thing as a USB>Ethernet adapter.” Sure thing, buddy.

The ethernet port on my laptop stopped working, so I got this adapter to keep my laptop connected to the internet. It works great out of the box and I have noticed no decrease in internet performance relative to when the ethernet port was working.

This adapter is brilliant. I was forced to improvise when the network limitations at college would not allow Xbox LIVE to connect through the wall’s ethernet port (while my laptop still could connect easily for some reason). Additionally, the wifi was too poor to use my laptop as a wireless router for the Xbox 360. Hence, having only a single hardwired ethernet port, I felt out of luck. This product salvaged that. It adds another fast ethernet port to my laptop, allowing me to run high speed internet through the built in ethernet port on my laptop, and then run another ethernet cable from the USB adapter to my Xbox. Within minutes of opening the TU2-ET100′s box I had high speed internet flowing seamlessly to the 360 as well as my laptop. No problems whatsoever.

Pro:
- Very fast
- Slick design
- Solid construction
- Indicator LEDs are useful
- Perfect solution for Xbox LIVE’s connectivity criteria

Cons:
- More expensive than the cheapo adapters (but this one works… well!)

The photo showing this adapter is of an older version. The functional specs are the same. The new version is just as solidly constructed, and the USB cord is permanently attached now, which I consider a better design compared to the older version. The cord can’t get separated from the adapter and lost – or accidentally pulled out of the adapter. The RJ-45 ethernet port is solid and seating/locking of an ethernet cable in it is positive – it’s not going to fall out unless the plug on your ethernet cable is broken (and that’s your own cable problem, not the adapter’s port).

Plugged it into the USB ports on a couple different computers. Both WinXP SP2 (32-bit) and WinXP /x64 SP2 (64-bit – aka 2003 Server /x64) recognized and loaded the drivers for it without any hassle or having to install drivers. Older versions of Windows (e.g. Win98 and possibly WinME) would require driver installation for it – these kinds of things didn’t exist (nor did their chipsets) when those O/S’s were created. Gave it 5 stars because this is about as easy as it gets – true Plug ‘n Play in WinXP – and mechanically well constructed. You do have to configure your new ethernet port, but you’d have to do that regardless of what kind of network adapter you installed.

I bought this to allow networking with my Hughes DirecTivo and PTVnet from [...] it works perfectly with no issues whatsoever and I would recommend it for any one wanting to do the same with their Tivo

Connected to my Wii usb port, enabled wired connection under internet settings and Wii recognized it and installed it fine. Works great. It uses the same chipset as Nintendo’s version, but its a lot cheaper.

I bought this item specifically for its support under Linux, not Windows or Mac. I’m working with a device whose built-in networking abilities are severely crippled by the Linux driver, and no one knows how to fix the driver. In that context, the TU2 worked beautifully. No driver installation, the drivers Linux uses are solid, and I haven’t had to think about networking since I got it. The adapter is fairly sizable in comparison to what it could be, but it is still manageable in any sane working environment.

All that said, I do expect the USB3 version to include Gigabit support, not just 10/100.

I purchased this to connect the Wii to the internet. Easy plug and play and it works well. Not much of a review, it does what it says it would do and that’s a good thing.

My father’s computer is old enough to where it doesn’t have any Ethernet ports. While upgrading to a new router, the new router would not have any USB ports on the back of it to connect to a computer. So i decided to invest in a short Ethernet cable and the TrendNet USB adapter. The device arrived before the upgrade router and i set up the USB device so it would be ready to go for my father. Setup was a breeze, after putting the CD in, and it was done in about 3 minutes. The router came later that evening and i set it up, and made sure it worked with the router and everything, well it did. The next day, my father didn’t even notice that i had switched out the old router and connected this device to his computer. After i told him, he noticed a little bit of a speed hop. I guess it increased the speed a little bit, and all is good. I recommend this product if your computer does not have any Ethernet ports or if your Ethernet port has died.

For my needs it worked perfectly. Admittedly I needed it for an unusual situation. I have an HP MediaSmart Server, which among it’s many features, it can completely restore any client computer to an earlier backup date (it’s worth it for this alone).

Thus was the need for my daughter’s computer. She had gotten a computer virus, so I decided to just restore to an earlier date. HP provides a ‘Restore Client PC’ CD for this. The problem was her computer has Vista 64 OS, and the restore software could not find the built-in Ethernet port. The restore CD is 32 bit, so the 64 bit drivers didn’t work. I fussed with trying to locate 32bit drivers, to no avail.

So, I bought this. Installed the drivers on a USB thumb drive, plugged it in and 5 minutes later I was restoring. Worked perfect first time.

Bottom line is, it cost me $18, but saved hours of headaches.