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Linksys PCMPC200 EtherFast 10/100 CardBus PC Card

Linksys PCMPC200 EtherFast 10/100 CardBus PC Card

List Price: $58.99
Your Price: $39.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Next Laptop Network card.
Review: .

I can't believe how cheap this card is. Just a year ago this was selling for around $160. The high rating was for price and performance.

I will make one caution. This product has a dongle--a cable to connect the card to a network Cat 5 patch cable. These things can get damaged easily if you are not gentle with them.

A better designed card, sticks out of the laptop a half and inch and connects directly to a Cat 5 cable. This will cost you a lot more, but it is more robust and you don't have to keep track of the dongle.

Even better is a wireless connection to your network--that will cost a lot more, and will not allow to to connect to someone else's network if they don't have a transceiver on their network.

At this price I would purchase this product since I have a 10/100 hub and love Linksys products. At the present my slower 10BaseT network card is still functional, so I will hold off a while yet.

The price is the more important factor, and the speed is second.

The other Linksys laptop product is slightly cheaper is the Linksys PCMPC100 EtherFast 10/100 Card. This is listed at a full duplex card, but after reading about this card, I think that is a typo.

The above listed card is definately a full duplex card will give you as much as twice the performance of a half duplex card if used with a full duplex hub.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good card - but careful if using with other OSes (linux)
Review:

There was a bit of advertising trickery on the part of Linksys - they changed the chip used in this card, added a 'v2' of the model number on the card itself, and shipped new windows drivers. This means that Linux (and possibly other operating systems) claim to support this card, based on the model number, but actually don't. Well, at least, not yet. I was able to get this card working (and working well) under linux with drivers from www.scyld.com (although, it wasn't easy).

I had no problems under windows 98se with this card at all - I can't even remember if I had to use the shipped drivers (win98se may have known about this card already).

Beyond the model change, this card is a good card. Affordable, stable, and very strong for a 'dongle' card.

I did e-mail Linksys once, when I thought my 'dongle' connection was bad (it wasn't), and they e-mailed back in 2 days, which is pretty good these days for technical support. Creative Labs, that multimedia giant continues to keep me waiting for an RMA CD-RW drive after 2 MONTHS now...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good card - but careful if using with other OSes (linux)
Review: Don't buy this card if you have Microsoft ME. It is impossible to get a driver.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Microsoft is the pits
Review: Don't buy this card if you have Microsoft ME. It is impossible to get a driver.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Solid Product...
Review: I bought this network card at the same time as I bought the Linksys 4 Port Cable/DSL Router/HUB figuring I wouldn't have any compatibility issues. I was right. It's easy to install in your standard laptop PCMCIA/Cardbus slot. Windows 95 autosenses it. You load the drivers from a floppy. Reboot, and you're up and running. It took all of about 10 minutes, including re-boot time.

Performance is no problem, as it (and the router) autosenses the correct speed to send at. On a fast network (10Mbits; which is 10x faster than most broadband connections) it goes fast, on a faster network (100Mbits), it goes faster. For the money, you just can't go wrong.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BIG problem
Review: I got the card and used it for a year, it worked wonderfully untill the connection pin on the dongle bent, I couldn't bend it back properly and had to get a replacement.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Card with one small setback
Review: I have been able to get much use from this card. My only reservation has been with the 'dongle' for lack of a better word. The cable that acts as a go-between from the card to the network cable is prone to damage if left hanging unsupported. Eventually, the weight will cause a lack of connectivity. I've had to replace it twice. But I consider it a minor problem with a fine product.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Card with one small setback
Review: I have been able to get much use from this card. My only reservation has been with the 'dongle' for lack of a better word. The cable that acts as a go-between from the card to the network cable is prone to damage if left hanging unsupported. Eventually, the weight will cause a lack of connectivity. I've had to replace it twice. But I consider it a minor problem with a fine product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No luck reaching technical support. Web site no help
Review: I left a message and was told someone would call back in two hours. Nothing. Called again. This time I was told 3-4 hours. Nothing. Called again. Closed for the day.

I found one article on this card in the knowledge base.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No luck reaching technical support. Web site no help
Review: I like the card a lot, but the dongle that it comes with is pretty bad...one of them broke within a couple months, and I had to return the whole card. I'm on my second one, and already the dongle has broken so that the activity lights do not function...I expect that sooner or later it will lose all functionality (again).

What a shame because otherwise it's a good product.


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