2

I am trying to be able to connect Raspberry Pi 3 to two networks at the same time through Ethernet. Unfortunately it has only one Ethernet port available. The solution so far is to buy a network hat that I can connect through pins to Raspberry (USB-Ethernet adapter will not work because I want to be able to put the whole thing into a compact box).

What are some good network hats available out there that are verified to work for the configuration I described above?

The factors that are important to me are:

  • Cheap price
  • Good availability on the market

Network speed is not an important factor as long as it is more than 1 MBit per second it is okay.

2
  • @ChadG I mentioned in my question that I am not looking for a USB-Ethernet adapter, but rather a hat or a board if you will, something I can connect through pins. Feb 14, 2019 at 18:45
  • 1
    Just put the headline of your question into a google search line.
    – Ingo
    Feb 14, 2019 at 21:26

3 Answers 3

2

I suspect the HAT you're looking for is the PiJack HAT, although intended for the Pi Zero I see no reason why it couldn't be persuaded to work on your Pi 3. Otherwise you may need to roll-your-own HAT using something like an ENC28J60 to give you an ethernet port over SPI and then implement some drivers.

Finally, a controversial suggestion: have you thought about something like the Orange Pi Zero R1 as an alternative to your Pi 3?

1
1

This answer does not exactly fit your question about an ethernet hat, but it is verified to work for the configuration you described above, what's also part of your question.

You may consider to use vlan. This has the advantage that you do not need additional hardware on the RasPi. It gets much more compact and you need only one ethernet cable because you can use one interface (ethernet port) to connect to two (ore more) subnets. To realize this you need a managed switch with vlan support. A quick search give me this NETGEAR 5-Port Smart Managed Plus Switch. This is only to give an idea what is needed. Maybe you will find a cheaper one? With this switch you have two ports spare if you want to build additional RasPis with multi network connection.

-1

It appears your objective is not "Network Hats" per se, but rather getting your Pi talking on two different subnets using just a single Ethernet port.

You could accomplish this in software just by aliasing the single physical interface eth0 as a virtual interface eth0:0 and configuring the addressing for the second subnet on that IF.

3
  • Hmm I don't think I understood your question correctly. I have two separate networks I need to connect to at the same time, both of them do not provide WI-FI connection, so I need to plug two Ethernet cables (one for each network) into separate two ports otherwise it's not possible. Raspberry Pi 3 has only one port, hence my question. Feb 15, 2019 at 9:46
  • If your switch is plugged into a router, the aliased interface can reach the second subnet. Indeed, it's bad form to configure two IFs on the same subnet as this creates issues with ARP flux.
    – F1Linux
    Feb 15, 2019 at 10:09
  • Your answer is wrong. You cannot connect an interface to two subnets only with an additional virtual interface eth0:0. You only can give an interface two ip addresses on the same subnet this way. To use different subnets on one interface you have to use vlan which must be supported by a managed switch.
    – Ingo
    Feb 15, 2019 at 21:39

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.