Netinstall-related USB/Ethernet dongle problems

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

I posted this here because it’s a hardware and netinstall issue, though not exactly RouterBoard hardware.

For years, I have been using a USB2/Ethernet adapter as a separate interface for performing netinstalls, and for cabled access to routers (since my computer has no ethernet jack). It uses an ASIX 88772A chip. It works 100% fine and is deadnutz reliable, but the physical form factor (a solid length of plastic with no intermediate flexible cable) made it awkward and particularly unsuitable for the field.

To move up to GigE performance, I got a USB3/GigE adapter, which turned out to be made with a Realtek 8153 chip. It also worked fine, but had one fatal physical flaw: the casing was mismanufactured such that nearly no RJ45 plugs would ever lock into it, no matter how cleverly you tried. This made it completely unsuitable for the field, as well as causing constant disconnection problems in general.

Recently, I purchased another brand of USB/GigE adapter to have something suitable for the field. It also turned out to be based on the Realtek 8153, and didn’t have any physical shortcomings. But in the intervening time, Realtek seems to have updated their Windows 10 driver for this chipset. The new unit runs common traffic OK, but is completely flaky for running netinstalls — the most common problem being netinstall briefly flashing “Sending offer,” after which the remote unit immediately drops out of Ready status for about 10 seconds and simply refuses to install, ever. Worse, the new driver seems to have completely disabled my old GigE unit. I’m now back to using my 10/100 dongle to run netinstalls.

This whole experience (plus Realtek’s awkward, unhelpful driver website) has soured me on Realtek. So, the following questions:

  1. Has anybody ever seen this “drop out of ready” behavior in netinstall, and have a solution for it?

  2. Might it be fixed by changing some option in the 8153 driver to a non-default value? (It sure has more options than the 88772A driver.)

  3. Can somebody recommend a USB3/GigE dongle with a higher-quality driver?

Thanks for helping.