Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

$29.00

3.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 66 reviews

Available to ship:
Within 24 hours

Gift package available

Product Information

  • The Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter lets you easily connect to a high-performance Gigabit Ethernet network. Small and compact, it connects to the Thunderbolt port on your Mac computer and provides an RJ-45 port that supports 10/100/1000BASE-T networks.

  • What's in the Box?

    • Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with built-in Thunderbolt cable
  • System Requirements

    • OS X v10.7.4 or later
    • Thunderbolt-equipped Mac computer

Ratings & Reviews

  • Exceptional with the 2011 Macbook Air 13

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Installed the new Driver / Thunderbolt 1.2 Update from Software Update, plugged it in, and zoom. Works great, no longer wasting a USB port, and its super fast! Will be perfect in those hotels with no WiFi. No compatibility issues with my 2011 MBA 13 inch I bought last year.

    • Written by from White Plains

    254 of 282 people found this useful

    Was this useful? Exceptional with the 2011 Macbook Air 13
  • Works great on Retina MBP

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works perfectly fine on the new Retina MBP.

    • Written by from Hewitt

    236 of 270 people found this useful

    Was this useful? Works great on Retina MBP
  • Works if you can find the Thunderbolt 1.2 update

    4.0 out of 5 stars

    This adapter requires an update to the AppleBCM5701Ethernet plugin to work. That update was present in the thunderbolt software u pdate 1.2 package. Said update was pulled from the automatic update list due to it crashing non-thunderbolt systems such as old macbook pros. I haven't read a report of any problems for us macbook air users, and it works great on my 2011 macbook air. If you're lucky enough to have grabbed a copy of the update from apple's KB article before it was pulled from there as well, you should be able to use the adapter. Presumably apple will fix this big error in a day or so with a newer thunderbolt update.

    If you know what you're doing, you could always backup your IONetworkingFamily kext before applying the update, and then restore just that kext it if your system crashes from the update.

    Nice performance with this dongle - I get 900Mbps throughput. Driver (and broadcom's specs) indicate jumbo frame support, but I haven't tried it. Jumbo frames not really necessary IMO since the CPU is beefy enough to handle high packet/second data rates.

    Finally a cheap way to get data on&off a macbook air at speeds above USB 2.

    • Written by from Kentfield

    192 of 212 people found this useful

    Was this useful? Works if you can find the Thunderbolt 1.2 update
  • lasted 1 month

    1.0 out of 5 stars

    Always ran hot, bad design or bad ICs not worth the money, All other brands have the same problem. this one lasted about 200 hours

    • Written by from madison
    Was this useful? lasted 1 month
  • Best $30 I've spent in Apple Store

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Dealt with spotty wireless connectivity on my MBA since purchase. Never sure whether ISP, router(s) or the MBA itself. After thi s purchase, convinced it is the wireless.

    This thing screams, and is vital to great HD video tx/rx. The firmware upgrade to 1.2 is real. Won't work without it.

    • Written by from Fitchburg
    Was this useful? Best $30 I've spent in Apple Store
  • Great product for MBP 15 Retina

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works great. Very pleased.

    • Written by from West Hollywood
    Was this useful? Great product for MBP 15 Retina

Questions & Answers

Answers from the community

  • Best Answer

    The previous "yes" answer is correct, it does indeed work under Wndows 7 Bootcamp, but the answer is a bit light on detail for a couple of the steps. Here's a fuller explanation:

    1) download the driver per the instructions in the previous answer
    2) unzip the drivers to a temporary folder on your hard drive
    3) connect the adaptor to the thunderbolt port
    4) reboot Windows

    Windows should automatically detect the adaptor now and install it. You may need to point the installer at the location where you unzipped the drivers.

    If Windows doesn't automatically install the device...

    1) go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware & Sound and open Device Manager
    2) click the name of your computer at the top of the device tree
    3) click Action at the top of the window and choose Add Legacy Hardware
    4) Click Next
    5) Select "Install hardware that I manually select..."
    6) Choose Network Adaptors
    7) Choose "Have Disk"
    8) Browse to the location of the drivers you unzipped earlier.
    9) Click the .inf file
    10) Select Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet from the list of drivers available
    11) OK and install

    You may need to reboot again with the adaptor plugged into the Thunderbolt port to finish the job,

    • Answered by Benjamin C from London
    • 9-Jul-2012
  • Best Answer

    If you own a Macintosh Computer with a Thunderbolt port, then I recommend the Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter because it has Gigabit speeds and works on a standard network.

    • Answered by Joshua G from Ft Lauderdale
    • 3-Nov-2012
  • how do I connect a hdmi display to thunderbolt

    • Asked by Michael K from East Lansing
    • 14-Feb-2013