10-Second $10 Upgrade to Triple Your Raspberry Pi 3 Network Speed

By Gabriel Staples
Written: 20 Jan. 2018
Last Updated: 20 Jan. 2018

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tldr;

Buy one of these USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapters for $10, plug it in to your Raspberry Pi 3 and voilá! Your new Pi 3 Ethernet connection is now 3x faster than the built-in Ethernet port and 12x faster than the built-in WiFi adapter (source: see my test results below)!

This really matters when you're using your Pi 3 as a network device, server, router, hotspot, NAS, or remote development machine. Pretty much it really matters whenever you want it to work better on your local or wide area network, which includes ssh-ing or otherwise remoting into it.

Details:

I bought the above adapter this past week (here's my Amazon review) and discovered that it worked natively with Linux, including Ubuntu and Raspbian. I was thrilled! No configuration required! Just plug and go. I then decided to test it meticulously in 4 different computers to see how well it can use my new 1 Gbps fiber optic internet connection. I discovered that many factors influence your network and internet speed, including: your computer's ethernet or wifi adapter, your router, your internet service, your USB port (2.0 vs 3.0), and even I believe your hard drive. The hard drive one is interesting to me but I didn't test it thoroughly. It appears however that since Solid State Drives [SSDs] are way faster at random access than Hard Disk Drives [HDDs], which are magnetic spinning drives, they can also run programs faster, and that matters when your browser or system is doing a lot of file reading/writing or caching.

You can play around and do your own internet speed testing with this device in various machines and configurations with a nice command-line Python tool called speedtest-cli.  Note that although the device is rated for 1 Gbps, the fastest speeds I logged were 732 Mbps download and 551 Mbps upload, and that was on a super fast laptop while plugged into one of its USB 3.0 ports. On the Pi 3, the best I could get with this device was 304 Mbps download and 279 Mbps upload, but that's still 3x faster than the Pi 3's built-in Ethernet port and 12x faster than its built-in WiFi adapter.

Details, full test results, and speedtest-cli testing program install instructions are below.

Tested with `speedtest-cli` command-line Python tool in Windows and Linux
 - This tool connects to speedtest.net without all of the fluff, graphics,
   browser, and ads which otherwise get in the way and interfere with the
   quality of internet speed tests
To install in Linux Ubuntu:
  sudo apt install python-pip
  sudo pip install speedtest-cli
To install in Windows:
  Google how to install Python and Pip in Windows, then in the
  Command Prompt run:
  pip install speedtest-cli
To run the internet speed test from the command line in Windows or Linux:
  speedtest-cli
ADVERTISEMENT:
============================================================
Computer Speed Tests:
------------------------------------------------------------
Command: `speedtest-cli`
My Internet connection: I am paying for 1 Gbps AT&T U-verse
  symmetric download/upload speeds via a fiber-optic connection.
My Router: TP-LINK Archer C5 AC1200 Dual Band Wireless AC
  Gigabit Router, 2.4 GHz 300Mbps + 5 GHz 867 Mbps
Testing conditions: all devices were tested on the same day,
  and in the same room as the router. The Pi 3 was the
  closest to the router, being about 1 ft away from it.
  Each result was obtained through approx. 3~10 test runs.
------------------------------------------------------------
Speed Test Results format:
 (Mbps reported connection speed) / Mbps DOWNLOAD / Mbps UPLOAD
============================================================

------------------------------------------------------------
1) Macbook white from 2008 running Linux Ubuntu 14.04
------------------------------------------------------------
 - Built-in Wifi
   - 2.4 GHz: (130 Mbps) / 23~46 Mbps   / 19~33 Mbps
   - 5 GHz:   (243 Mbps) / 133~160 Mbps / 73~86 Mbps
 - Ethernet
   - Built-in Ethernet adapter:
                        (1000 Mbps) / 412~816 Mbps (usu. 600~800) / 156~606 Mbps (usu. 300~600)
   - Rankie USB to Ethernet 1000 Mbps adapter
     - In USB 2.0 port: (1000 Mbps) / 287~305 Mbps / 130~221 Mbps (usu. ~200)
     - In USB 3.0 port: NA

------------------------------------------------------------
2) Dell super fast high-end 8-core 64GB RAM 1 TB SSD 2017
   laptop running Linux Ubuntu 14.04
------------------------------------------------------------
 - Built-in Wifi
   - 2.4 GHz: (300 Mbps) / 59~127 Mbps  (usu. ~100) / 42~58 Mbps   (usu. ~48)
   - 5 GHz:   (866 Mbps) / 297~391 Mbps (usu. ~350) / 110~179 Mbps (usu. ~160)
 - Ethernet
   - Built-in Ethernet adapter:
                        (1000 Mbps) / 527~845 Mbps (usu. 600~800) / 292~462 Mbps (usu. 300~450)
   - Rankie USB to Ethernet 1000 Mbps adapter
     - In USB 2.0 port (via external USB 2.0 hub):
                        (1000 Mbps) / 315~326 Mbps (usu. ~320)    / 259~290 Mbps (usu. ~265)
     - In USB 3.0 port: (1000 Mbps) / 299~732 Mbps (usu. 600~700) / 177~551 Mbps (usu. 400~500)

------------------------------------------------------------
3) Toshiba mid-grade laptop from 2015 running Windows 8.1
------------------------------------------------------------
 - Built-in Wifi
   - 2.4 GHz: (150 Mbps) / 36~42 Mbps / 36~42 Mbps
   - 5 GHz: NA
 - Ethernet
   - Built-in Ethernet adapter:
                        (100 Mbps) / 92~93 Mbps / 94 Mbps
   - Rankie USB to Ethernet 1000 Mbps adapter
     - In USB 2.0 port: (1000 Mbps) / 183~246 Mbps (usu. ~200) / 175~228 Mbps (usu. ~200)
     - In USB 3.0 port: (1000 Mbps) / 157~309 Mbps (usu. ~200) / 252~328 Mbps (usu. ~275)

------------------------------------------------------------
4) Raspberry Pi 3 mini computer running Raspbian 8.0 Jessie
------------------------------------------------------------
 - Built-in Wifi
   - 2.4 GHz: (estimated 54 Mbps) / 21~25 Mbps / 23~28 Mbps
   - 5 GHz: NA
 - Ethernet
   - Built-in Ethernet adapter:
                        (100 Mbps) / 91~93 Mbps / 89~94 Mbps
   - Rankie USB to Ethernet 1000 Mbps adapter
     - In USB 2.0 port: (1000 Mbps) / 243~304 Mbps (usu. ~300) / 159~279 Mbps (usu. ~200)
     - In USB 3.0 port: NA
   
Note: Pi 3 WiFi connection speed is estimated from output of `iwlist wlan0 scanning` and `iwconfig`. Ethernet connection speed is read from output of `ethtool eth0 | less`, or `ethtool eth1 | less`, etc (see `ifconfig` for network interface device list).

END

Keywords: Raspberry Pi speed boost; Raspberry Pi 3 internet speed, speed up Raspberry Pi network speed, 3x speed boost on Raspberry Pi network speeds, Raspberry Pi 3 USB ethernet adapter, Raspberry Pi 3 NAS speed boost, Raspberry Pi 3 faster ssh/faster remote logins/faster home server

Test Time: 3 hrs.
Draft Time: 30 min., since I copy-pasted all test results from the file where I originally logged them