Kanex DualRole Combines USB 3.0 Hub with Gigabit Ethernet

btarunr · Jan 31, 2013

Kanex, a leader of innovative Apple and iOS connectivity solutions for homes and businesses worldwide, today announced DualRole, a USB 3 Hub and Gigabit Adapter all in one solution. The hub portion uses the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard for fast transfer speeds between devices and your computer. It has three extra USB 3 ports which enable users to connect more USB 3 devices such as hard drives, digital cameras, MP3 players and more. The Gigabit Ethernet adapter adds a Gigabit port to your MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with Retina display or any other USB 3 enabled computer and provides a fast and secure wired connection without hassle of Wi-Fi setup.

"We designed DualRole with MacBook travelers in mind," said Kelvin Yan, president of Kanex. "We know when on the road sometimes you need an Ethernet connection for Internet or network access or even more USB ports, which is why we combined both a hub and adapter into one small compact solution."

The Kanex DualRole is bus-powered however for additional power; users can plug in a 5V wall power adapter to provide more power to the USB3 ports. This enables users to connect USB 3 devices that require more power to operate.

Pricing and Availability
The Kanex DualRole is available for $69 through select retailers and our website.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Aquinus · Jan 31, 2013

Excellent. I might see if I can get some at work. I would love to free up my Thunderbolt port on my Air when I need Ethernet.

Baum · Jan 31, 2013

Nice one.. bought a USB 2.0 Hub with inbuilt LAN a while ago just because it makes work easier and convieneient having another LAN card on any device.

Mussels · Feb 2, 2013

this looks pretty good for my laptop actually. it doesnt have usb 3.0, but even 2.0 will manage 30-35MB/s over ethernet. the hub is a good bonus.

Aquinus · Feb 2, 2013

Mussels said:
this looks pretty good for my laptop actually. it doesnt have usb 3.0, but even 2.0 will manage 30-35MB/s over ethernet. the hub is a good bonus.

Yup yup. It's just extra sexy for those of us with USB 3.0 and only 2 ports and no Ethernet port on the laptop.

(Stupid Macbook Air, good thing work provided it because I would have never bought it myself.)

Frick · Feb 2, 2013

Aquinus said:
Yup yup. It's just extra sexy for those of us with USB 3.0 and only 2 ports and no Ethernet port on the laptop. (Stupid Macbook Air, good thing work provided it because I would have never bought it myself.)

Macbook Air's doesn't have ethernet? :wtf:

Aquinus · Feb 2, 2013

Frick said:
Macbook Air's doesn't have ethernet?

Nope. 1x power, 2x USB 3.0, 1x stereo mini-jack, and 1x thunderbolt port... That is it. :banghead:

I hate the older Airs more because its lacking USB 3.0 and doesn't have a thunderbolt port. It forces me to use an external hard drive using USB 2.0 to image the machines. Thunderbolt from SSD to SSD for imaging is great though.

NdMk2o1o · Feb 2, 2013

$1500+ laptops with no ethernet.... interesting :wtf:

Aquinus · Feb 3, 2013

NdMk2o1o said:
$1500+ laptops with no ethernet.... interesting

Well, I have the 13" MBP and they actually cost closer to 1200-1300 USD when you buy in bulk. The new MBPs don't have Ethernet built in either. They expect you to use a thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. Which is fast, but I like using TB for a display.

NdMk2o1o · Feb 3, 2013

Aquinus said:
Well, I have the 13" MBP and they actually cost closer to 1200-1300 USD when you buy in bulk. The new MBPs don't have Ethernet built in either. They expect you to use a thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. Which is fast, but I like using TB for a display.

An ethernet adaptor costs $10 surely including one on the MBP wouldn't have been asking too much considering you're spending $1300+ on the thing and you're shit out of luck if you want to connect an thunderbolt display and ethernet to your MBP unless you buy a thunderbolt splitter and thunderbolt to ethernet :wtf:

Aquinus · Feb 3, 2013

NdMk2o1o said:
unless you buy a thunderbolt splitter

They don't exactly exists because of how Thunderbolt works. It would be a hub more than anything else and they cost an arm and a leg to get. I'm not going to lie though, it's pretty awesome being able to connect PCI-E cards in an enclosure using ThunderBolt. Giving a laptop a desktop-level video card would be pretty awesome if you had a desk all setup for it. Then you have potability and performance all in one.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 16GB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 4070 Ti EX
Storage	Samsung 990 1TB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 2TB external SSD, 4TB external HDD for backup.
Display(s)	32" Dell UHD, 27" LG UHD, 28" LG 5k
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	Display or Thunderbolt 4 Hub
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 15.3.1

System Name	ChaosMoes
Processor	Intel® Core™ i5-3570K no OC yet
Motherboard	Asrock Z77 Extreme4
Cooling	Scythe Ninja 3 Rev. B
Memory	16GB 2xPatriot DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1866 Kit (PV38G186C9KRD, Viper 3 Venom Red)
Video Card(s)	ASRock Radeon RX 590 Phantom Gaming X 8GB GDDR5 188€@13.07.19 Amazon Sale
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256GB, + ST32000645NS Seagate Constellation 109€ reichelt.de 2012
Display(s)	27" Phillips PHL 276E9Q 189€ @ Saturn(Germany) 1.09.2018
Case	Zaria A20 !!!THANK YOU TECHPOWERUP.COM!!!
Audio Device(s)	onboard Sound
Power Supply	SeaSonic Prime Ultra Titanium 750W
Mouse	Logitech M705
Keyboard	Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 2TB external SSD, 4TB external HDD for backup.
Display(s)	32" Dell UHD, 27" LG UHD, 28" LG 5k
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	Display or Thunderbolt 4 Hub
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 15.3.1

Kanex DualRole Combines USB 3.0 Hub with Gigabit Ethernet

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

Baum

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

NdMk2o1o

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

NdMk2o1o

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 7600
Motherboard	MSI X670E Gaming Plus Wifi
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance @ 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston KC3000 1TB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Plantronics 5220, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Dell SK3205
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

System Name	Ryzen Reynolds
Processor	Ryzen 1600 - 4.0Ghz 1.415v - SMT disabled
Motherboard	mATX Asrock AB350m AM4
Cooling	Raijintek Leto Pro
Memory	Vulcan T-Force 16GB DDR4 3000 16.18.18 @3200Mhz 14.17.17
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Nitro+ 4GB RX 580 - 1450/2000 BIOS mod 8-)
Storage	Seagate B'cuda 1TB/Sandisk 128GB SSD
Display(s)	Acer ED242QR 75hz Freesync
Case	Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair VS 550w
Mouse	Zalman ZM-M401R
Keyboard	Razor Lycosa
Software	Windows 10 x64
Benchmark Scores	https://www.3dmark.com/spy/6220813