diff --git a/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/Kconfig.projbuild b/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/Kconfig.projbuild
index f5d288e9a..e1fee9b61 100644
--- a/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/Kconfig.projbuild
+++ b/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/Kconfig.projbuild
@@ -49,6 +49,17 @@ menu "Example Connection Configuration"
                 select ETH_USE_SPI_ETHERNET
                 help
                     Select external SPI-Ethernet module.
+
+            config EXAMPLE_USE_OPENETH
+                bool "OpenCores Ethernet MAC (EXPERIMENTAL)"
+                select ETH_USE_OPENETH
+                help
+                    When this option is enabled, the example is built with support for
+                    OpenCores Ethernet MAC, which allows testing the example in QEMU.
+                    Note that this option is used for internal testing purposes, and
+                    not officially supported. Examples built with this option enabled
+                    will not run on a real ESP32 chip.
+
         endchoice
 
         if EXAMPLE_USE_INTERNAL_ETHERNET
diff --git a/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/connect.c b/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/connect.c
index 36e5326eb..1c6bd98d1 100644
--- a/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/connect.c
+++ b/examples/common_components/protocol_examples_common/connect.c
@@ -232,7 +232,12 @@ static void start(void)
     eth_dm9051_config_t dm9051_config = ETH_DM9051_DEFAULT_CONFIG(spi_handle);
     s_mac = esp_eth_mac_new_dm9051(&dm9051_config, &mac_config);
     s_phy = esp_eth_phy_new_dm9051(&phy_config);
+#elif CONFIG_EXAMPLE_USE_OPENETH
+    phy_config.autonego_timeout_ms = 100;
+    s_mac = esp_eth_mac_new_openeth(&mac_config);
+    s_phy = esp_eth_phy_new_dp83848(&phy_config);
 #endif
+
     esp_eth_config_t config = ETH_DEFAULT_CONFIG(s_mac, s_phy);
     ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_eth_driver_install(&config, &s_eth_handle));
     s_connection_name = "Ethernet";