USB-Ethernet for Pi Zero W

I wouldn't want to run anything that is critical to the whole network over wifi.

Id be tempted to substitute a Pi4 B or similar By the time you have added all the extra hardware to the Zero....

Part of why I want to do it with the Zero is to make it as low spec and low cost as possible. Of course now I have checked for USB-to-ethernet connectors, and it turns out micro usb ones are 5 times as expensive as normal ones.

Don't see why not, prevents you from being affected by wifi interference.

One thought though, if you want an Ethernet Pi it could be worth upgrading to a fullsize Pi with Ethernet included. The cost of a used Pi 1/2/3 might be in the same ballpark as buying a USB ethernet adapter: a 2 or 3 would give you better performance and you get spare USB ports where the ethernet would block the Zero's single USB (and you need an OTG cable for the Zero on top of the ethernet dongle).

A counterpoint though is that the Pis before the 3+ only have 100Mbit ethernet, whereas a gigabit USB dongle would get you about 300Mbit. I'm not sure what bandwidth you get out of the Zero W wifi, but perhaps more than

Theo

That was sort of my point...

#iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"xxxxxxx" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point:

It for sure is no match for Ethernet

I get more from my laptop against the same access point

ah, found one for under 10 bucks, that should be ok. Will try to use that one.

Ah but that's assuming that the Pi Zeros are quick enough to run the USB network interface at the maximum possible speed. Unfortunately benchmarks show that's not the case. Here they only get 56Mbits/s to 111Mbits/s on a RPi Zero W using a USB Ethernet adapter:

The built-in WiFi is even worse, 38.8Mbits/s max., and they also say that its performance depends on the orientation of the board.

In any case, in this case I want it for DNS resolution and some nntp feeds. It even has more or less acceptable speeds on wifi (microseconds), I just want a more stable connection. I don't think that should make much of a difference.

I think it connects a bit faster than that, but for sure if throughput is your destination, a Pi zero isn't where you start.

My second one is doing a sterling service and has saved me way more than it costs by managing my central heating with some smarts.

My first runs a hifi system in one room, connecting to my media server or the internet to play music.

So much easier than sticking vinyl on the turntable or a CD in the player..

Used to do that over a 9600kbps modem back in the day Certainly fine on 10Mbps Ethernet

Nothing beats the stability of a wired connection.

David

I was just realizing that both my Pis have bluetooth, and that I could actually do something with that. Unfortunately so far I haven't been able to discover the bluetooth speaker I have with the Pi. I guess I have to work on that.

Amazon seems to charge about the same for both. I found plenty of options for MicroUSB Ethernet adapters in the $10-$15 range:

^^^^^^^^ That should be 9600 bps (9.6 kbps)

Yeah, I have it running now. Seems to be fine.