StarTech.com USB to Fiber Optic Converter - 100BASE-FX SC - MM - Windows Mac Linux - USB to Ethernet Adapter - USB Network Adapter (US100A20FXSC), black

I'm using on a laptop running Ubuntu Linux (20.04). I just plugged it into my USB Port and it appeared as eth1 without any extra driver installation. Seems to be working perfectly

This very expensive dongle works out of the box with RHEL9 and recent Fedora distributions with 5.X and newer kernels. We are using this for optical isolation between our music server, and the rest of the network, and the sound compared to copper ethernet, is great.But we cannot recommend this seller or even recommend this product to our customers, since the seller is very hard to deal with, to provide us with a valid VAT invoice. Their invoice does not mention their own VAT number. Our accountant has complained about this. Seller is stalling and we already missed our quarterly VAT deadline because the seller has failed to provide us with a valid invoice.So if you are a business and need a valid VAT invoice, don't buy from this seller.

I connected this to a MacBook 2015 (same results for MacBook Pro 2018) with a USB-C to USB-A adapter. As the photos show the adapter powered up (light is one for power on the adapter). As the screen shows macOS can see the Ethernet interface. When the transceiver is inserted the Ethernet shows up as connected (the light shows that on the adapter) -- and correspondingly in the software. But it does not work. As the last photo shows (are does not show) -- there is no link or traffic light (both of which are the bottom left -- and right respectively of the CAT5 / RJ45) shown inserted into the transceiver. What I think is going on here is that the adapter does not have the electrical power required to power up the 1000Base-TX transceiver. Sadly this is a far more common case than 1000Base-SX, so the adapter just does not work. Same results on another computer with a different C to A adapter (different brand).Disappointed as it would have been nice to be able to connect directly to my wired networks (PON, 1000Base-TX and 1000Base-SX) when needed....

A few of years ago, I would have happily parted with my left leg to have one of these!And finally, here it is. Throw in your Gigabit SFP, plug it into your USB, and off you go!Being able to use different (MSA Compliant) SFP's is wonderful, fewer parts to carry around - I just add one of these, and ALL my SFP's can be USB connected.The case is well made, very robust, however, a lack of cover on the SFP port is irritating. DuckTape to the rescue! And that is the only flaw I can find in this productThe speed? Amazing! What you would expect from Fiber. The speed was constant over long runs, and over long files, not just bursts.The unit is sturdy.

Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of StarTech and their products, both in my professional uses and personal uses.This product does what it says it does. It works, yes. However, the main appeal to a fiber optic connection is the crazy fast speeds. I'm sure it's capable of those speeds until it reaches the USB-A 3.0 connection to the PC/Mac and is hit with a bottleneck of slow transfer time. This product would be much more practical in USB-C 3.1 and would be a perfect fit for Thunderbolt 3 to SFP. Hopefully a product with high fiber rated speeds on both sides of the dongle is released by StarTech soon. I have confidence that it will be, they are an industry leader in innovation.