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You are here: Home / ESXi / Sonnet Solo5G Multi-Gig (1G/2.5G/5G) USB Adapter works with ESXi

Sonnet Solo5G Multi-Gig (1G/2.5G/5G) USB Adapter works with ESXi

03.11.2020 by William Lam // 5 Comments

Last week I caught this tweet from Blake Garner who is an active VMware Community member that I follow and I came to learn that Sonnet just launched their first Multi-Gigabit (1GbE, 2.5GbE & 5GbE) USB Network Adapter called the Solo5G.

Nice! 5Gbit adapter for under $100! https://t.co/Rt7e6EUeOI

— Blake Garner (@trodemaster) March 4, 2020

This of course piqued my interest for VMware Homelabs as last year we had just enabled the first Multi-Gigabit USB Network Adapter from QNAP supporting ESXi using the popular USB Native Driver Fling for ESXi. The QNAP device uses an Aquantia chipset and I had a funny suspicion that the Sonnet device might be using either the exact same or simliar chipset.

To confirm my theory, I reached out to the folks over at Sonnet and they were kind enough to send me a unit for validation which just arrived earlier this week. I had an Intel NUC 10 (Frost Canyon) already running and I just plugged it in and to my surprise it worked immediately since it already had the USB Native Driver Fling installed.


So there you have it, same chipset as the QNAP and best of all this device is only $79.99 USD which be purchased directly from Sonnet here. As of writing this blog post, the Solo5G is much cheaper than the QNAP. In fact, it seems the price of the QNAP has significantly increased since I had first blogged about it. I think multi-gig NICs both USB-based but also PCIe and respective switches is starting to become more mainstream, at least in the consumer markets and this is certainly an easy way to add additional bandwidth without breaking the bank. Big thanks to the folks at Sonnet and Blake for sharing the news!

More from my site

  • Updates to USB Network & NVMe Community Driver for ESXi 7.0 Update 3
  • USB Network Native Driver Fling for ESXi v1.6
  • USB Native Driver Fling for ESXi adds support for Multi-Gig (1G/2.5G/5G) Adapter
  • USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling now supports vSphere 8!
  • USB Network Adapters without using the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi

Categories // ESXi, Home Lab Tags // 2.5GbE, esxi, fling, Sonnet, usb ethernet adapter, usb network adapter

Comments

  1. Ricardo Matos says

    03/11/2020 at 12:28 pm

    Hi Will,

    Word of caution, those devices are USB 3.0. You can check on Amazon UK, a user bought one of these and couldn't push it beyond 3.2Gb/s. Based on the priced, the 2.5Gbe adapters deliver a better benefit/cost.

    Reply
  2. D. N. says

    03/11/2020 at 2:19 pm

    Would you happen to receive a "discount code" with this product? ๐Ÿ™‚ I could use one! ๐Ÿ™‚ Ask you rep.

    Reply
  3. Mohammed AlBalushi says

    10/28/2020 at 3:40 am

    Best usb to Ethernet 5GbE for Intel NUC Kit NUC10i7FNH

    Best usb to Ethernet 5GbE for
    Intel NUC Kit NUC10i7FNH
    1-Sabrent USB Type-A or Type-C to 5Gigabit Ethernet(NT-SS5G)
    2-TRENDnet USB-C 3.1 to 5GBASE-T, TUC-ET5G, 2.5GBASE-T RJ-45, Integrated USB Type C
    3-any things else please advice๐Ÿ™
    #homelab #ESXionNUC

    Reply
  4. Jay Thompson says

    01/28/2021 at 1:18 pm

    I have Sabrent 5Gbe USB adapter hooked to Skull Canyon on VMware ESXi, 7.0.1, 17325551 and I show it running at 1Gbe and 5Gb on the QNAP switch. I validated Sabrent works on Synology 918+ using latest DSM but it seems Sabrent does not work.

    Reply
  5. parallaxjr says

    04/03/2022 at 9:01 am

    Note that Sonnet has discontinued their 5GbE USB device so this is no longer an option.

    Reply

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William Lam is a Senior Staff Solution Architect working in the VMware Cloud team within the Cloud Infrastructure Business Group (CIBG) at VMware. He focuses on Cloud Native technologies, Automation, Integration and Operation for the VMware Cloud based Software Defined Datacenters (SDDC)

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