2.5 GbE USB adapter for Synology

Last updated on 22 Feb 2023 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 DSM driver for realtek RTL8152/RTL8153/RTL8156 based USB Ethernet adapters
1.1 Supported NAS platform
1.2 Supported RTL8156(2.5Gbps) based devices
1.3 How to install

Is there a 2.5 GbE USB adapter for Synology?

Before Aquantia based PCIe cards and adapters used to work. But Synology saw people using Qnap components inside Synology, so they blocked this chip. But realtek seems untouched still.

Yes, looks like bb-qq has made this possible. Also someone in Germany has put this into practice. I have added videos and links bellow from these. I will update you when I test this myself. And you will also see an article and video.

Here is what I found so far.

2.5GbE USB adapter for Synology

 

https://github.com/bb-qq/r8152

Realtek based USB3-2.5Gbps: https://github.com/bb-qq/r8152
Aquantia AQC11U based USB3-5Gbps (QNAP QNA-UC5G1T): https://github.com/bb-qq/aqc111

DSM driver for realtek RTL8152/RTL8153/RTL8156 based USB Ethernet adapters

This is a RTL8152/RTL8153/RTL8156 driver package for Synology NASes.

Supported NAS platform

  • DSM 6.2
  • apollolake based products
    • DS918+ (confirmed working)
    • DS620slim
    • DS1019+
    • DS718+
    • DS418play
    • DS218+

You can download drivers including other platforms from the Release page and determine a proper driver for your model from this page, but you might encounter some issues with unconfirmed platforms.

I very much appreciate if you report whether it works.

Supported RTL8156(2.5Gbps) based devices

Currently I only confirmed products marked “confirmed working”. If you got other products and they do not work, please create a issue with its vendor id.

  • ASUSTOR AS-U2.5G (Type-C, confirmed working)  USA   UK
  • Plannex USB-LAN2500R (Type-A, confirmed working, Japan only)   USA   UK
  • Buffalo LUA-U3-A2G (Type-A, confirmed working, Japan only)USA   UK
  • CLUB 3D CAC-1420 (Type-A) USA   UK
  • TUC-ET2G (Type-C)  USA   UK
  • CableCreation B07VNFLTLD (Type-A)USA   UK
  • Plugable 2.5G USB C and USB to Ethernet Adapter UK   USA 
  • StarTech.com USB 3.0 TYPE-A TO 2.5 GIGABIT  UK   USA 
  • Sabrent 2.5GbE USB Adapter NT-S25G  UK   USA

Aquantia AQC11U based adapters

  • USB 3.0 Type-C to 5GbE Adapter (QNA-UC5G1T) by QNAP

 

How to install

  1. Go to “Package Center”
  2. Press “Manual Install”
  3. Chose a driver package downloaded from the Release page.

Detailed instruction is here.

 



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88 thoughts on “2.5 GbE USB adapter for Synology”

  1. Hi Robbie thanks for this, i luckily got a 6bay synology nas which had 10gbe nic installed by your company, panwan was the sales agent, awesome chap. I then built 10gbe network, as my nas, router, switch, router satellite extension all had 10gbe backbone. I’m looking now for 10gbe or 5gbe for my new m4 MacBook which. Annoying doesn’t have Ethernet. WiFi 7 isn’t as reliable, and thunderbolt dongles are £250+. Which is crazy. I’m hoping the new caldigit ts5 will have 10gbe Ethernet
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  6. Thanks for this. I had a bit of a fumbly moment trying to navigate github to find the appropriate spk file but, even with that, was able to get my 2.5 Gbe USB NIC set up in about 15 minutes. Easy to follow instructions and very happy with my results.
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  12. Purchased the UGREEN 2.5G adapter model CM648. I got the driver to install and my synology 918+ recognized and created LAN 3, however it only connects at 1000 Mpbs. I’ve tested the adapter with my PC and it connects 2.5.. also test the cables as well. My switch is 2.5G all ports. Anyone experience this?
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  13. DS420+ 
    adapter ULT-WIIQ USB 2.5G
    MacMini directly to NAS – Confirmed it works! 🙂 2x 16TB SHR give me 250/270MB/s write/read (measured with BlackMagic Disk speed test) but when in real live downloading something from NAS to computer it shows the transfer even slightly more than 300MB/s.
    Thanks! 🙂
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  14. thanks for this very informative video. my confusion is more about getting more bandwidth from the RT6600ax router to my home network. Since the RT6600ax only has a single 2.5GbE port (in), which method should I try to then connect the (RT6600ax) to my home network Synology NAS. Even implementing your 5GbE solution or having a native 10GbE port in the NAS, won’t I still be left with the RT6600 outputting only using a 1GbE port. What am I missing here please?
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  15. Thank you ! Mine did say error but I reinstalled, then had to repair, but then it worked flawlessly. :))) very cheap and easy 2.5gb upgrade. Transfer speeds went from 113MBps to about 280
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  16. Those disclaimers at the start are enough to put me off. Why can’t Synology just have upgradeable slots, or just include 10g nics on devices that can benefit from the transfer speeds
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  17. if i have the dongle with 2.5 and the original 1g port hook up, how will stuff know which IP to use? Specifically, i use synology drive to sync my NAS, desktop, and laptop. Itd be nice for synology drive to use the 2.5 dongle and have jellyfin use the 1g port
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  18. My 1817+ with Intel Atom C2538 is not supported??? From what I found it’s a Rangeley family not on the list doing an internet search of the chip, HOWEVER I recalled when I do manual updates of the DSM it shows up as an AVOTON, I used that option and all went well first try, no hickups, using a 2.5 G version
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  21. Thanks so much for this video. It was really easy to understand and follow. I did have some installation issues and had to install/un-install/re-install the driver software a couple of times (even after entering the additional commands via SSH), but it’s working great now. I’m using the CableCreation (Realtec 8156 chip) adapter I found on Amazon. No issues when restarting the NAS. My DS920+ running DSM 7.2 immediately goes to 2.5 Gbps. I’m getting 250-270 MB speeds. I have one of the DS920+ 1 Gbps ports plugged into my switch just in case I have a problem, but so far so good. Too bad Synology makes us jump through this hoop to get 2.5 Gbps Ethernet when every other NAS company has 2.5 Gbps Ethernet as standard

    Hey Synology, how about this. 1 Gbps on the J series, 2.5 Gbps on the value series, 2.5 Gbps (upgradable to 10 Gbps) module/PCI slot on the Plus series, and 10 Gbps on the XS series as a new standard to get you back in the game. Your DSM software is really good, but without quality hardware, you’re falling behind.
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  31. Does not work for DS920+ DSM 7.2.1. When I enter “sudo install -m 4755 -o root -D /var/packages/r8152/target/r8152/spk_su /opt/sbin/spk_su” into SSH, I get error: “cannot stat ‘/var/packages/r8152/target/r8152/spk_su’: No such file or directory”. Any suggestions?
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  32. I have a DS918+ with one 3.0 port at the rear and one at the front. I run my UPS usb cable into the rear and use the front port for backups. Could you make this work with a hub or something to run but the 2.5GbE adapter and the UPS cable into the one rear port?
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  33. Can I get 2.5gbps USB network dongle to function on a relatively new DS224+ so I can hook it to my 2.5gbps switch? (I have 2 Linux PCs, and soon a 3rd, connected to the switch @ 2.5, primarily for rsync backups of backups). I saw someplace, someone saying that DSM 7.2 blocks these… I hope not. My 224+ is running DSM 7.2.1-69057 Update 3.
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  34. Long-term update. I’ve been running 2.5 GBE with a CableCreation adapter ($35 US Amazon) on a DS920+ for about six months now with no unusual behavior, no hangs or reboot required. I keep one 1 GB port set up on a different IP address in case this one ever fails but so far no issues whatsoever and I get reliable 240-250 Mb/s via SMB without jumbo frames.
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  35. thank you for your video, I just have question, on GitHub they tell we can configure the Nic, with this two commands : ethtool –set-priv-flags eth2 “Thermal throttling” off // ethtool –set-priv-flags eth2 “Low Power 5G” on…. I ve typed in my terminal but don’t know really if it s ok, could you add and explain this in your video ?? thanks a lot
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  36. Thanks for the video, as usual the most informative. Accomplished the procedure on a 1621+ with 2.5Gbe usb adaptor and works like a charm. However, as usual, the speed is limited by the hard drive R/W speed, but surprisingly using SSD cache in read/write mode (even for the Plex server) did boost the transfer speed from 80Mb/s to 140Mb/s over web browser in Windows 11. I also disabled all “jumbo frames” which tends to slow down transfer speed for some reason.

    One problem I cannot get the solution for, Windows 11 doesn’t allow the SMB connection off the bat I did notice in your video that it did on your machine. Sure would be nice if you could provide a quick video on the fix for that because I am surely not the only one.
    On my MAC, SMB transfer is now up to 400Mb/s.
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  38. DS920+ I used the TRENDnet TUC-ET5G, TRENDnet TEG-S750 10G switch, Broadcom 57810S PCIe card, and Cat8 ethernet cables. $320 for everything plus a couple hours configuring. Runs rock solid 275 MB/s
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  44. Thanks for the video. Apparently the support for 923+ is not there yet from bb-qq. I tried installing r8152-r1000-2.17.1-1_7.2.spk for 2.5gbe twice but failed. If you come across anything, would be greatly appreciated.
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  45. I only have a single NIC (2.5Gbe) on my PC. Have connected it directly to my NAS and getting sustained read/write speeds of 283 MB/s which is great. I set the USB adapter in the NAS as 10.0.0.10 and it also has the internet connected to one of the supplied 1GBe ports on the NAS.

    How do I bridge the two, so that I can access the internet on my PC via the NAS? Or do I need two NICs in my PC?

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  46. I have the QNAP 5 GBe adapter, a DS920+ running DSM 7.2 update 3. I’ve downloaded the DSM 7.2 driver from github for the gemini lake processor in this NAS. The isntall fails the first time but the command to fix the install cannot find the /var/packages/aqc111 directory. Can someone help me understand what I am doing wrong?
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  47. G/Day there m8 i have a ds420j synology nas and i am struggling to to install the USB Network drivers. i cant seem to located the correct file to install .. can you please help me
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  50. i would like to have know the performance of this 5gbe . most files are a minimum of 4gb i think changing the file size to make the benchmark look better is wrong .
    because if on large files you are only getting 150 to 200 its not worth buying the 5gbe Qnap . at 100 pounds . when you can get a 2.5 gbe and it do the same thing
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  51. Thanks, I managed to install the driver on a Synology 1813+ configured as SHR+2, with DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 6. The connection with Trendnet 2.5 shows as 2500Mbps, then installed the volumes from the IP address of the new connector , but the maximum transfer speed is a little less than 1Gbps… Something could be missing?
    Partially it works but if the speed is less than 1 gigabit it doesn’t make sense. ????
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  53. I had hoped that enabling link aggregation of the existing dual 1GB NICs on my NAS would double my connection to 2.0GB but I’m learning that it only enable two different computers to talk to the NAS simultaneously at 1GB each. 🙁 Not sure I want to hack in a 2.5 GB USB NIC…. But the video is great if I ever change my mind.
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  55. Hello my friend, thank you for your video, I have a Synology DS223 with a ‘Realtek RTD1619B SoC’ processor. Is it possible to connect using this method? I dont see the driver on that web. 🙁
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  58. So to upgrade my DS920+ to 5gb . Am i right in thinking i need a 5 gb switch and a 5gb adapter ?
    Also will my asus rt-ax88u work ok with this? or do i need a 5gb port router ?
    This sounds expensive what brand would be most cost effective for this upgrade.
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  62. I inadvertently upgraded to DSM ver 7.2 … will this work on that version … oh yea the armada chip used by my nas has 2 7.1 version drivers ??? I don’t know why …thanks
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  63. Thanks, you saved me hours of debugging because the original GitHub installation was missing the information that we need to RUN the damn driver package before we can use it. And I feel so stupid that I forgot to do it on my own.
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  64. You’d think by now, you’d just be able to hook it up via USB directly without all this faffing about. Got my adapters ordered, hopefully see some improvement ????
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  66. Wonderful video. Worked great to get my old DS1513+ that I use for backups working on my 2.5GbE network! Used the Asus USB-C2500 adapter and it worked pretty much just as easily as you showed here.
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  67. Noob here. If my network speed is under a gig Is there a point to doing this upgrade? Do I need to put an adapter on my router or mesh system connected to my adapter on the Nas to get those speeds? Thanks
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  68. I did it exactly the way you suggested, the new LAN Connection is showing up under Network in DSM shows the full 5000 too, I set the LAN3 to DHCP and here is the problem, the Synology Assistent isn’t finding the new connection, it always shows me one only, the original one, any ideas?
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  73. Firstly – thanks for the video. After watching your reviews for some time I have now fully invested in to Synology hardware (both routers, access points and NASes), and I must say that it’s amazing decision. Thanks for that!

    A quick question – does similar method shown in this video is available to add an additional 2.5/5Gbit ethernet to the Synology WRX560 router?
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  76. Get QNAP QNA-UC5G1T its Marvell tech inside instead of Realtek, Linux ready and so its plug and play, only 5Gb is with Marvell, don’t get fooled by the 2,5 Version – its realtek and it will fail
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  80. PS: @9:42, it is strongly recommend to type “exit” in the command-line to logout the SSH session, not “just” closing the SSH Client software.
    As not all SSH clients will close the active SSH connection when you close the SSH Client.
    Security above all!
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  83. Thank you for the turotial.

    Worked fine with DS218+ and CableCreation‎ CD0673 (https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07VNFLTLD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1)

    However, I have one query and I probably know the answer.

    Is it possible to do Link Aggregation with DS218+ eth port and USB-eth port?

    I do not see any option in Control Panel – Network – Network Interface – Create

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  84. Also worked with DS 1817+ Avaton core CPU with r8152-avoton-2.15.0-5.spk at Plannex USB-LAN2500R (Type-A, Japan only)

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