Connecting via USB with just the upload rate on Arch Linux or Manjaro
Connecting via USB with just the upload rate on Arch Linux or Manjaro
You're interpreting your experience with USB tethering accurately. On Windows, speeds are solid, but on Linux you're capped at 2 Mbps for downloads. It seems the USB drivers for that chipset might not perform well. You might want to switch to a different port—like USB2 instead of USB3 or vice versa—to see if another chip offers better kernel support. Even with Gigabit USB2, it should still be sufficient unless you need higher throughput.
The device (Dell Optilex 390 sff) lacks USB 3, and I've checked every available port I could find.