Some users have reported network issues when using the Ethernet port on our UD-6950PDZ USB-C Triple 4K Docking Station.  Either the computer is unable to connect to the local network or network performance slower than expected.  This issue affects a small number of the initial production run of these docking stations and we have addressed and resolved the issue with the second production run.

This issues may affect docking stations with serial numbers begging with: 2728, 3248, 3249, 3250, 3364, docking stations with serial numbers above 3364 are not affected.

For users who experience network connectivity problems we recommend contacting our support team via email at 'support@plugable.com' and we will be happy to help confirm if your docking station is affected and get the replacement process started, or if the docking station is not affected by this fault we can then help to troubleshoot and resolve the networking problem.

Detailed Problem Description

We have had two distinct behaviors reported:

1. Some users have been assigned IP Addresses in the 169.254.0.0/16 network address range or have not received full DHCP address assignment

2. Some users have received DHCP assigned IP Addresses but have limited or no internet connectivity or poor network performance

Cause

This behavior is caused by lower than expected voltage reaching the Ethernet PHY chipset, this chipset converts and transmits Ethernet data to the Ethernet port.  In the low voltage state receiving and transmitting data may fail causing either reduced network performance or failure to establish a network connection altogether.

Affected Docking Stations

UD-6950PDZ USB-C Triple 4K Docking Stations with DisplayPort and HDMI with serial numbers begging with: 2728, 3248, 3249, 3250, 3364 may be affected by this behavior.  Docking Stations with serial numbers greater than 3364 are not affected.

Mitigation

Please contact our support team at 'support@plugable.com' and include in the body of your email:

1) The Amazon Order ID ( available from amazon.com/orders ) for the original purchase of the docking station

2) The serial number from the bottom of the docking station in the format '####A#####'

A description of the behavior you are seeing and we can proceed from here.

At this time we are recommending affected users unplug the Ethernet cable from the docking station and rely on WiFi if available, use a separate USB Ethernet Adapter, either connected to the docking station or computer, or for computers with built-in Ethernet ports the cable may be connected directly to the computer. This should ensure a reliable network connection while we work with you to resolve this issue.

Resolution

We have re-designed the Ethernet logical to physical component of the docking station to ensure stable Ethernet connectivity and are replacing faulty docking stations with the updated model.  New docking station sold through Amazon since July 2022 all have the updated Ethernet configuration and are not affected by this behavior.

If you are experiencing network issues with the UD-6950PDZ docking station, please contact our support team at 'support@plugable.com' and include the information in the Mitigation section above.