2.5 and 5 gigabit USB ethernet dongles are available. They are not even too expensive. Does anyone have experience with these? Are they engineered in a way that doesn't put too much load on the host? Are they reliable? Background: I don't actually need anything faster than 1 gigabit yet, but the time to start migrating is always yesterday. Some ordinary motherboards come with 2.5 gigabit ports already. I don't know what the world will settle on as the new standard LAN speed. But it sure looks like we'll all want to be doing 2.5, 5, or 10 gigabits on our wired LANs in a few years. Does anyone have an inkling about what the next consensus will be? 2.5 gigabit hardware is cheap but might not be enough better than 1 gigabit to be worth the transition. So it might not become the consensus speed. 10 gigabit hardware is still quite expensive. More than I'm willing to pay right now. It is possible that 5 gigabits is a good compromise. Some example fast USB ethernet dongles: <https://www.servethehome.com/ugreen-usb-type-c-to-2-5gbe-cheap-network-adapter-review/> This cost the authors about US$20 from Amazon but in Canada, right now, it is $50. The least expensive 2.5 that I found is generic, of unknown quality, for $33: <https://www.primecables.ca/p-390236-cab-pc-08159-usb-30-to-25-gigabit-lan-ethernet-cable-adapter-primecables> Canada Computers has a few at $35: <https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=5_3598_3616&item_id=198719> 5 gigabit is available, but more expensive. Here's a review (it contains links to reviews of other 5 gigabit units): <https://www.servethehome.com/sabrent-nt-ss5g-review-usb-to-5gbe-nic/> I don't see it on Amazon.ca even though it is on amazon.com.