It’s thesis time, which means that slow internet switches from tedious to down right infuriating. WiFi is all well and good in a coffee shop, but you want a cabled connection at home.
Having a MacBook Air (which comes without an ethernet port), I had to buy a USB 2.0 to Ethernet adapter. My choices were either to buy one from Apple (£25+P&P!!) or one from eBay (£4.50 delivered). I chose the later, obviously! The downside? You need a driver. And the MBA doesn’t have a disc drive.
The product is a ‘USB 2.0 Ethernet Adapter’. Under (Top Left)-> About This Mac-> More Info-> System Report -> USB, look for a device labelled ‘USB-MAC controller’. My I have Product ID: 0×7830 and Vendor ID: 0×9710 (Moschip Semiconductor Technology). I got my driver from Asix.
I never particularly love installing random drivers as you never know if you can trust them. I write this post to tell anyone similarly affected that the above driver works and that Asix are a real and legit company.
Additional:
I’m running MacOSX 10.7.5 (Lion) on a Mid-2011 MBA.
Obviously, I’m writing this post to help out anyone else in my boat. I take no responsibility if you mess your system up …
Thanks Adam! I stumbled across this while trying to find a driver for the same chipset. In case anyone else find this, I can confirm that the driver from the Asix link above works on Mountain Lion (10.8.5).