Ethernet sticks, do they exist?

R

Rolf N

Recurring Membmare
Veteran
In the same vein as USB sticks?

Lately I've seen phone carriers advertise numerous "mobile surf stick" type products where you plug a thing into USB and get internet connectivity tunneled through the cellphone network.

I guess you can make anything work as long as someone sits down to write a driver, but USB isn't naturally a networking standard, and probably won't work outside a certain zone of support.

So ... ethernet sticks. Integrate a DHCP server. Plug and go with no software to install, ever, no matter what OS. Maybe even plug it into the WAN port of your router.

Of course this poses the question of who actually implements power over ethernet, and why not :p
USB's evolutionary advantage in this field seems to boil down to its built-in 5V power supply.
One could envision a weird Frankenstein device that plugs into ethernet (for data) and USB (for power) at the same time. I'd buy two :p
 
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There are "pocket" 3G wired/wireless routers around, but having to do their own processing they're both bulkier and more expensive than the 3G USB sticks. (Edit: Or they may use an existing USB stick for the 3G connectivity part). Power supply may be a combination of external, battery, and USB (for charging). I don't think the ones I've seen have been able to operate on USB alone (except as a big USB dongle without the router functionality). Not enough juice.
 
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There is an USB CDC (communication device class) which should be universal. Currently it includes many subclasses including ISDN, Ethernet, ATM, and wireless mobile.
 
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