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D-Link DFE-530TX+ Fast Ethernet PCI Network Adapter

D-Link DFE-530TX+ Fast Ethernet PCI Network Adapter

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $15.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good for home networks.
Review: The D-Link DFE-530TX+ is a great buy for your home computing needs. If you transfer large files between computers on your home network, having Fast Ethernet (100 Mb/s) connectivity is essential; this card will allow you to add it without breaking the bank. Of course, you will need a 100 Mb/s switch (or at least a hub) to connect them and benefit from the speed.

If you only have one computer at home, and will be connecting to the Internet with a broadband (DSL or cable) connection, the 100 Mb/s advantage of this card is irrelevant, as your broadband connection is slower than 10 Mb/s (standard Ethernet) anyway, and will act as a bottleneck. However, this card is so inexpensive, you can easily justify buying it with the future in mind.

The reason I have given this card only 3 stars is that it does not perform adequately in high-end server and routing applications. I would not recommend this card for use in mission-critical networks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprising Price and Performance
Review: There's not a whole lot to say about the D-Link DFE-530TX+, except that you get a lot more than what you pay for.

This ethernet card will serve you well for many years. We all know that the consumer networking industry moves pretty slowly, so unless you're interested in wireless networking, D-Link's offering will remain competative long from when you purchase it.

The price is nothing to scoff at, either. You may not be able to get quite as much of a rebate on D-Link's card as a few others, but spending those few extra dollars will get you a quality card from a quality manufacturer. I've never had any trouble with my D-Link card, which is more than I can say for some of the SMC cards I've worked with.

When it comes to features, the D-Link comes with everything you would expect on a network card, plus Wake-On-LAN functionality. Now, do you really need your computer to wake up whenever it receives a network request? Probably not, but it doesn't really hurt anything to have the option available. If you want to use Wake-On-LAN, installation will take a little longer as you'll probably need to break out your motherboard's manual to find the header that you connect the cable to. Also, you should be careful with Wake-On-LAN when connected to a Linksys Cable/DSL router, as when the power flickers the router may have some trouble starting back up due to already having a computer connected. This isn't really a major issue, though, and has only affected me once.

All in all, the D-Link DFE-530TX+ is an excellent card for a reasonable price. You won't regret purchasing it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: WARNING - A Good Card BUT Painful Installations
Review: This card has worked perfect with no problems since I got it around a year ago. I was going to get some no-name card but I've read about problems with cards like that. I ended getting a D-Link router (the 604) since this card worked so well and that has been great too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No problems
Review: This card has worked perfect with no problems since I got it around a year ago. I was going to get some no-name card but I've read about problems with cards like that. I ended getting a D-Link router (the 604) since this card worked so well and that has been great too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Macintosh Users Take Note!
Review: This card works beautifully in PCI Macs. I installed 2 ofthem after reading some comments on the ... pages. You must download... ... ...and modify the driver from the realtek site but theinstructions and task is easy. Start to finish I didn't take morethan 5 minutes. My experience matches many others. This is a very cheap alternative to $30-$50 cards from other vendors.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 1 2 3 ... Instaled
Review: This installed on my XP machine in seconds flat. I physically instlled it into an available PCI slot and then started back up my PC and it installed automatically. I didn't even have to touch software configuration, it just plain works.

If you in need of a NIC then I suggest you pick one of these up for the low price that it is and in minutes you will be Ethernet and Broadband ready.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Budget Card
Review: This is a good card for most of us who want to get networked. There are good linux drivers out there and performance is pretty decent....

However, if you're looking for a card to put in a server where high transfer rates are very important and low CPU usage would also be nice, look for another card. In my own tests of transferring files across a network from a fileserver, this card used 40% of the CPU where other cards that I have tested (but are more expensive) use about half of that with slightly higher transfer rates.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Budget Card
Review: This is a good card for most of us who want to get networked. There are good linux drivers out there and performance is pretty decent....

However, if you're looking for a card to put in a server where high transfer rates are very important and low CPU usage would also be nice, look for another card. In my own tests of transferring files across a network from a fileserver, this card used 40% of the CPU where other cards that I have tested (but are more expensive) use about half of that with slightly higher transfer rates.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good product
Review: This is a great product just plug it in and boot up your computer true plug and play! Gets very good speeds very nice! I recomend this to anyone who needs it for home, small bussines also a great tool for students. This is not exactly the divice you want to buy if your interested in your files actually moving at 100mb per sec.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is the worst peice of trash I have ever bought.
Review: This was my first attempt at networking and D-link has made it a nightmare. The cards installed fine, but the booklet only explains on how to install it and hook it into the main board. And it explains it in such a confusing way, you have to read it over and over again until you can understand it. Then it says to refere to the readme file on the floppy disk, when you open it up, all it says is to insert the disk and follow the directions. Wow what help that was. I got in installed, or so I thought I did, I really still am not sure if it's installed. It had no help on how to use the product and make connections with my other computer. Now I see why it was so cheap. Sure this maybe great to an expert, but to any newbie, this will just mess you up and cause you to waste money on it. It changed my passwords on my system some how and just messed it up pretty bad. I needed to format anyway, but I was so surprised on how much it did to my system. The technical help was no good either, I couldnt even get in contact with them. Please avoid this, unless you know ALOT, and I mean ALOT about networking, otherwise it's a waste.


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