Not Bad for a Sub-Thirty Dollar PC Card

There was a time when the lowly notebook computer was considered a mere adjunct to the all-powerful desktop workstation machine. Entry into the true road-warrior /desktop replacement notebook arena with all of its associate bells & whistles carried a very hefty price-tag. So in an effort to keep notebook computers affordable for you and me, manufactures skimped on a lot on niceties like network cards, and decent sounding speakers. And it is only recently that sub-$1500.00 notebook computers started looking, acting and performing like real desktop replacement machines.

We have in our aging inventory of notebooks quite a few mid-range machines without network cards. But we had to create a classroom with network and Internet access for twenty people, and we had to use our aging, but still viable cache of notebooks to pull it off. Since half of the computers lack network cards I had to order (relatively) cheap PC Card Ethernet cards; I choose the Netgear FA511.

The Card

What’s in the Box
• Cardbus Fast Ethernet Mobile Adapter
• Installation Manual
• Installation CD-ROM
• Support Information Card

The Netgear FA511 is a 32-bit, high-performance, Type II CardBus Ethernet 10/100 PC Card adapter. With the Netgear FA511 installed any CardBus-equipped computer can connect to an Ethernet (10Mbps) or Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) network. The FA511 is (almost) completely Plug-n-Play, dongle free, incorporates Bus-Mastering capabilities, operates at a low 3.3 volts, and supports hot-swapping.

In order to dispense with the ungainly and somewhat fragile dongle that accompanies a fair number of PC Card Ethernet adapters, the FA511 is equipped with a rather large end that allows the user to plug a RJ-45 cable directly into the card. Because of the size of the head, the FA511 should only be placed in the top PC Card slot otherwise the card will take up the entire card slot area. Also one the grey end are two status LED’s, Link/Activity and 100M.

Installation

We installed the FA511’s on notebook computers running both Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2. On the Windows XP computers, installation was truly Plug-n-Play. But on the Windows 2000 computers, while the cards were detected, the OS did not have drivers and we needed to install the included software in order to get them to work properly.

Speaking of the software, it talks, literally. A male voice comes on halfway through the installation and talks about the benefits of the FA511 and guides the users through the setup process. At first this was a bit disconcerting, but I soon got used to it. While his guidance might prove useful for the, a more experienced user will find little use for it.

Use

If set to auto-sensing and used in conjunction with an auto-sensing hub or switch, the FA511 will automatically transmit and receive at either 10 or 100Mbps; i.e. 10/100. But you cannot always count on the hub or switch utilizing the auto-sense technology; it is much better I have found to set the card at one link speed or another.

Our classroom was equipped with 100Mbps switches, so I set the speed of the cards accordingly. All of the cards performed as expected; I found the ability to plug the RJ-45 cable directly into the FA511 a big plus, especially in the environment in which they were operating; i.e. a classroom with very tight seating arrangements. Real-world throughput is about what I would expect from a 32-bit NIC; i.e. web pages returned fast, and browsing the LAN was trouble free.

If you are searching for a low cost, reliable, versatile, plug-n-play, easy to configure, PC CardBus NIC from a company known and respected for reliable, networking products, then look no future then the Netgear FA511.