Ethernet Connection for iPads

[John_Wetter]

Hi Everyone,
Following my 2014 JNUC session, there were several questions about one item in my presentation... Using a camera kit, USB-to-ethernet adapter and a USB hub to get your iPad online when it falls off wireless... This really helps for pushing 'clear passcode' commands or resetting the iPad and inserting a activation lock code, etc.

Here are the required items:
-powered USB hub (the ethernet takes too much power for the iPad to directly handle most of the time)
-Camera kit (lightning or 30-pin to USB plug)
-Apple USB to Ethernet adapter
-iPad

Take the powered USB hub and plug the USB to ethernet adapter into the hub and plug it into an ethernet cord. Then, take the end that you'd normally plug into your computer and plug that into the camera kit adapter. Then, plug the camera kit adapter into the iPad. You'll get an alert on the iPad that it isn't a supported USB peripheral. This is a good thing! It means it was detected. If you don't get this warning, check all your connections as something isn't right.

Give the iPad 30 seconds or so and you should be online. Push notifications wills tart flowing but sending an empty push might get things moving more quickly. Then, send whatever command you need to send and you should be set! I've had to sometimes reboot the iPad with everything connected to see it and if you disconnect it, it almost always needs a reboot to see it again a second time.

So, this isn't bullet-proof but works awesome to get a clear passcode or reset command to an iPad that is locked out. It works about 80-80% of the time for me.

[damienbarrett]

My school is affiliated with a iPad/Laptop manufacturer here in NJ that is working on a USB-over-Ethernet controller that will work with iPad carts. It's a really intriguing idea, providing a "bridge" between Configurator on your workstation that points to a Ethernet-to-USB device that then is plugged into your sync/charge cart. So you're basically plugging your iPad cart into your LAN and then you can manage the cart full of iPad from anywhere and don't have be physically connected to it.

Their device is undergoing final testing from UL and FCC, but should be on the market in a few months. They've promised me an early prototype to play with, which I should have soon. If anyone is interested in learning more about this, let me know, and I can update this thread. They are currently building out the website for the product or I'd link to it, but it's mostly blank now.

[ItsMe_Sean]

Hi @john_wetter][/url][/url][/url

After receiving the link to this from a co-worker, I have tried this and it seems to work like a charm for disabled iPads.

As all our iPad fleet is supervised by a dedicated management laptop, I already have the established trust to be able to unlock the iPad.
So when one of our students disables their iPad for entering the passcode too many times and permanently disables it, we can use this method to unlock it again. After being able to send the clear passcode command, it needs to be plugged into iTunes on the management laptop and synced, which then unlocks the iPad.

I have since purposely disabled my dev iPad twice and unlocked it both times because of this.

Cheers!

- Sean

[dstranathan]

Sorry to bump old posts, but...

Is there a hardware adapter/splitter solution out there that will provide Lightning to USB and also provide a second Lightning port for A/C power, too?

I manage a lot of wall-mounted iPad conference room kiosks (running Roomr). Wi-Fi is fairly flakey here due to lots of concrete as well as interference from scientific equipment.

[dstranathan]

Apple released a new Lightning to USB 3 adapter in March 2016. It provides both USB data and A/C power in a single Y-style adapter. No USB hubs or thrid-party drivers/frameworks.

Bye-bye, Wi-Fi.

I'm so excited that I made a pretty diagram.

[cgalik]

@dstranathan

Apple released a new Lightning to USB 3 adapter in March 2016. It provides both USB data and A/C power in a single Y-style adapter. No USB hubs or thrid-party drivers/frameworks.

Have you tried this method yet for connecting an iPad (not necessarily a Pro) to ethernet? I'm thinking of purchasing, but wondering what your experience may have been?

[dstranathan]

Yes, I have 10 iPad mini 2 (Retina) running both iOS 9.2.1 and 9.3. They are used as conference room kiosks running Roomr. All of them work great in the configuration that I illustrated above.

My biggest complaint is iOS doesn't reflect the lightning Ethernet interface in the iOS GUI (that I am aware of), so you can't see relevant IP information, etc.

[cdenesha]

@dstranathan NICE! Thanks for sharing!

I have an ethernet rig with the powered USB hub but did not realize that I could skip the hub now! I was just about to purchase a couple of more sets, so good timing.

chris :)

[CasperSally]

thanks for reminding me about the adapter set up @dstranathan - going to place an order

[mostlikelee]

@dstranathan (or anyone for that matter), what cases/mounts are you using? I can't currently hide all those dongles in the wall so I need a mount that will neatly hide them.

[dstranathan]

Wall Mounts:
Wedge Tablet Wall Mount
Link: http://armoractive.com
Weight 1 lbs
Length 2.75 in
Width 4.75 in
Height 5.50 in
Color: Black
Note: Drill (4) 5/16" holes for wall mounting.

Enclosures:
Full Metal Jacket Enclosure 2.0 - iPad mini enclosure
Link: http://armoractive.com
Weight 2 lbs
Length 10.625"
Width 6.625"
Height 1" Color: Black

Cables:
iXCC ® Apple Certified 10ft 8 pin Lightning Cable Black EXTRA LONG USB SYNC Cable Charger Cord [MFI Certified]
(Amazon)

Lightning Extension Cable (6 foot Black) dockXtender for Lightning by CableJive.
(Amazon)

[Sandy]

Dang it!!
I finally got my new USB 3 Camera adapters and am not able to get it to work to wipe passcode from an iPad Air that has dropped off wifi.
Using the diagram above from @dstranathan and making sure I had the iPad charger 10w, no connection. Switched back to the old 30 pin and powered USB hub, worked right away....

[ItsMe_Sean]

@Sandy

Are your iPads running iOS 9.2.x+. As I'm pretty sure it needs that version of iOS or greater to work.

[Sandy]

Ooo, good call! That one is done and gone so i cannot verify, but could very well be as it was a resigned staff member ipad...i'll put this to the test today

[dstranathan]

Correct - I think iOS 9.2.x+ is required for Lighting to work as a network interface.

[dstranathan]

News flash: iOS 10 (beta 1) now shows Ethernet/Lightning interfaces in the Settings app.

The Ethernet pane itself is blank (at least on my test iPad Pro 2), but this is certainly good news for IT going forward..

Ethernet in 'da house, yo.

[brookstravis]

Any luck with non-Apple USB ethernet adapters?

[dstranathan]

I havent tried. I'm using 100% Apple-branded adapters here.

[Owley]

I keep getting "Accessory Unavailable - The attached accessory uses too much power"... and this is going thru a powered usb hub (Amazon Basics USB3). Anybody have any ideas for getting around this? I'm using Apple USB to Ethernet adapter and the older Lightning to USB camera adapter (not the newer USB3 camera adapter). I've also tried a Linksys USB3 ethernet adapter and a Plugable USB2 ethernet adapter.

[jaycraft]

@Owley

You need the newer Lightning to USB 3 camera adapter, since that provides power at the "iOS End" so to speak. I have gotten something to work with the non powered camera adapter in the past with a hodgepodge of powered hubs and such, but it sort of just works with the new adapter. Plus you'd want to have your iOS device continue to charge anyway while feeding the additional "network card".

@brookstravis

Non-Apple USB adapters work as long as they have the right chipset. I've gotten a "Woopower" 3 port USB 3 plus gigabit ethernet device to work as well as an Anker USB to Ethernet dongle. I guess anything with the Realtek RTL8153 chipset will work (which also work in OS X without additional drivers).

[Olson]

I'm having a problem with JSS commands to iPad . I have an iPad in "Lost Mode", wifi is not up, so JSS can't connect to the iPad. I've connected the Ethernet setup from the iPad to the network. I have an IP Address, but none to the commands to the device are reaching the iPad. Any ideas or suggestions?

Tom

[Drtrider]

@Olson , I've got the same issue. Let me know if you find a solution.

[mpittcasd]

Just checking it with the same issue. We recently ordered a Lightning Camera adapter (not sure of the specifics, just got brought into this one and landed here after some quick research) to try connecting an iPad mini that dropped wifi. I plugged the Apple ethernet to USB adapter into the camera port and tried a power cable plugged into both my 10w adapter and a smaller one that I'm not sure of the wattage but both were giving the "device requires too much power" message on the mini. I tried through a powered USB hub as well but no go. I tried doing the same on an iPad Air and was able to get the "unsupported device" message but the command I sent didn't go through even after a few minutes. The Air was on 7.1 last time it checked in so I'm not sure what it's at now. Hopefully someone will have a surefire solution they could share.

[dstranathan]

On a related note...

Just saw this article on 9to5 Mac: https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/01/ios-10-2-ethernet-adapter-ui-settings-app/

[Sandy]

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/23838/ios-10-3-1-and-clear-passcode-command

There is a firmware update for the USB 3 Camera adapter that fixed this

[gbyers]

We bought a bunch of these and they work great

[Emmert]

Is this a picture for ants?

[brookstravis]

Ugh. So close, but yet so far. This will let you cut out the USB Camera Connection kit, but it still doesn't solve the PoE problem, so you still need a pigtail and a PoE splitter to make that use-case work. Seems like sorting the USB data issue would be the "problem", not the PoE split, so I wonder why they didn't do it. It would solve the bus-powering problems, as well, where PoE was available. grumble grumble

[dstranathan]

Starting in March 2018, I have been deploying these POE devices:

https://www.amazon.com/WT-AF-5v10w-802-3af-Splitter-Output-Ethernet/dp/B01H2EHX60?th=1
https://www.poetexas.com/collections/poe-for-tablets/products/gaf-5v10w

These POE adapters replace the Apple USB 10-watt "wall wart" and a Lighting/USB cable. This frees my iPad kiosks from requiring a hidden AC outlet to be located nearby (usually hidden up behind a ceiling tile or a soffett).

I also migrated my kiosk calendar software from Roomr to Teem (EventBoard).

[brookstravis]

As I mentioned previously, I need both power AND data over Ethernet for my deployment scenario, and I would prefer to avoid a Rube Goldbergian mess of adapters/splitters/extender cables if possible. I don't see why building a PoE splitter into the lightning/ethernet adapter, itself, doesn't make more sense. I've been told that the USB-ligtning bridge is the toughest technical problem, and it seems like they have that in-hand.

[mscir]

Sean.Polden

" I already have the established trust to be able to unlock the iPad. "

Would you mind talking us through a procedure to be able to do that?

Thanks,
Mike

[AVmcclint]

How does one determine the MAC (hardware) address for the iPad's Ethernet connection? We have to put some iPads in conference rooms and the only way InfoSec will let us do that is if they can exclude the MAC addresses from the network security (sadly SCEP has been ruled out as an option). I've looked through the Ethernet setting on the iPad while it is plugged in and there is nothing I can find that displays the MAC address (except for wifi).

[mpittcasd]

Can you turn off wifi on the iPad so it's only using the ethernet connection then use ARP -a from a different computer?

[brookstravis]

The MAC should be printed on the USB adapter or, at least, the box it came in. Alternatively, you could connect the adapter to a PC/Mac and get the MAC that way. You can enter them in Jamf Pro in case you end up using them for other devices and want to avoid enrollment collisions.

[mlindros]

Hello. I'm a computer programmer, but this particular topic is not in my wheelhouse for the moment.

I have a situation where my son's iPad Air 1 tablet got damaged and broke down. It took my local shop 3 months to fix it. Luckily they didn't charge me much to do so. The problem is that my son forgot his passcode and it is now permanently disabled.

I have switched computers, etc, and this tablet has not been synced with iTunes. I am feeling pretty desperate to try to save my son's data. He has played countless hours on his games, created some really impressive Minecraft worlds and will be heartbroken if it is all just lost.

The iOS is likely a couple of years (2) old because the tablet has been sitting in damaged mode for a while. WiFi is off. I tried setting my router to the previous password but it didn't connect. There is no option for sliding the screen and showing the convenience panels.

No iTunes backups.

No iCloud backups.

No nothing except the data being on the actual iPad.

I am so surprised that Apple has not created a recovery mechanism for people who have their Apple ID and password. This is pretty standard with software in general. I have also been able to take hard drives off of computers and hook them up to a USB cord and read them directly on another computer. I am just not seeing this type of option for me here. I am not sure what options, if any, are available to me here. You fine folks seem to have some knowledge that might be able to help.

What are my realistic options? I'm willing to jail break, buy accessories, learn whatever I have to learn, etc. I'd like to be my son's hero here if at all possible.

[brookstravis]

If you happen to know someone who has access to the digital forensics tools that police use to pull data from iPhones, they might be able to extract an image that could then be brute-forced, but aside from that…

[gskibum]

Over time Apple has been locking things down even more. This is a good thing.

The just-released v1 of USB Restricted Mode is a big step toward keeping even law enforcement out of iOS devices.

IMHO, this is a teaching moment to the young fellow. The importance of maintaining backups is often a lesson that has to be learned the hard, painful way.

Apple isn't relaxing access to locked devices, they are increasing the obstacles toward accessing them.

A large part of the appeal to enterprise and individuals of the iOS ecosystem is integrity and safety of data.

[brookstravis]

Ok. Looks like we might have a winner. Seems RedPark has come out with a combination Gigabit + PoE to Lightning adapter that will work with the iPad: https://redpark.myshopify.com/products/gigabit-ethernet-poe-adapter-l6-netpoe

Heckler Design sells it as an accessory to their wall mounts. Major downside is that, including the cable they sell, it's $125 ($99 for just the box), but it requires a micro-B USB to Lightning cable.

[ewettach]

Hi, I wanted to thank everyone for the posts reguarding this and wanted to update this thread for those that may be in the same boat as us. I can confirm that the RedPark Ethernet adapter mentioned above by @brookstravis is working great for us.

We use it especially for devices where students forget their passcode and the iPad is either disabled or gets powered off and back on. In both situations, WiFi is turned off so the JSS is helpless in clearing the passcode. However, this Ethernet adapter works great!

Tested most recently on 13.3 and still works great.

[dhanadhan]

We use it especially for devices where students forget their passcode and the iPad is either disabled or gets powered off and back on. In both situations, WiFi is turned off so the JSS is helpless in clearing the passcode. However, this Ethernet adapter works great! Tested most recently on 13.3 and still works great.

@brookstravis @ewettach @dstranathan @jaycraft Does that Gigabit + PoE to Lightning or any other Lightning to Ethernet adapter work even if you have the USB restricted mode enabled? This security feature disables the lightning port and leave it usable only for charging. If an iPad is disabled (sitting on lock screen without WiFi) and USB restricted mode is enabled, will the Lightning to Ethernet adapter work?