Customer Reviews

Belkin Gigabit Ethernet ExpressCard with 1 External Port ( F5U250 )

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second gigabit expresscard I've tried on my laptop. The first, a Linksys Expresscard Gigabit Eth Adapter Pci Express, has a spring-loaded RJ-45 jack that folds down to allow for easier storage, but doesn't protect the pins well and they eventually broke. That Linksys card was not very fast; I never really got gigabit speeds with it. This Belkin card is significantly faster, and was detected by Ubuntu Linux (7.04, Feisty Fawn) right away, nothing to load or configure. I would buy one of these again in a heartbeat. This Belkin card is not as cool-looking as the Linksys, but it has it where it counts, and that's speed.

- The card I received has a different plastic housing for the ethernet connecter than depicted. It looks like all the other 3rd party housings now but works fine.
- There are no link activity lights, only link speed (blue == gig, green == 10/100). I don't think the card is defective, after reading cd docs, manual, web site, googling and running at both gig and 100 mbit. It simply doesn't flash for activity which is a nice feature to have for troubleshooting, monitoring.
- Works with 32 bit Windows Vista, x86_64 Fedora Cora 12 straight out of the box. x86_64 Ubuntu 10.04 b2 live cd failed to even enumerate the device.
- Jumbo frame support with the Windows driver is silly; it only supports MTU 1514, 4088, and 9014 so it didn't work optimally with an MTU 7200 network (a lot of gige equipment is MTU/MRU 7200). Hard coding driver to
only work with two different jumbo sizes is lame but this is a Windows issue since linux supports Jumbos as expected. Interrupt rate on an MTU 7200 network can be nearly double what it should and choke performance.
- I was able to receive at an average of 700mbit (~85MB/s) using Windows Vista on a 2.6Ghz Core 2 Duo, confirming another reviewers results. This is a windows limitation, it appears either the driver or windows itself pins one of the cpu cores on a dual core to read iSCSI data, about four times the cpu burn on linux with the exact same hardware and test.
- Fedora Core 12 moves 120MB/s in one direction (line speed) with only 7000 interrupts per second so the hardware supports interrupt coalesce. Bidirectional gave about 150MB/s but this is a limitation of my testing technique... it looks like the hardware can do line speed in at least one direction despite the occassional frame error. I blame the frame error on the hardware since these are never seen with any of my other dozens of adapters plugged into the same D-Link 24 port switch, but I only tested one Belkin device, so maybe it is a marginal connector.
- Markvel Yukon 2 chipset is supported on linux with sky2 driver, but there is a bit of excess latency (as measured with ping) and it has trouble keeping up as can be seen by the 1% dropped packets.

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:5A:11:4C:B0
inet addr:10.0.1.5 Bcast:10.0.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::200:5aff:fe11:4cb0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:7200 Metric:1
RX packets:16750034 errors:3007 dropped:197469 overruns:28 frame:3007
TX packets:11547815 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:391 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:91600604577 (85.3 GiB) TX bytes:20987881411 (19.5 GiB)
Interrupt:16

kernel log under heavy load
---------------------------
__ratelimit: 11 callbacks suppressed
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8
sky2 0000:0c:00.0: error interrupt status=0x8

This product is trivial to install under both Windows Vista and Fedora. It works as well as can be expected under Windows. The performance is line speed under Linux, but I'd like to see the (probably) driver or hardware improved to eliminate timing and frame errors. It is a bit expensive, the drivers have some issues, but in general it seems to work. Note, I have not tested the Agere chipset or drivers and most experience is with non pci expresscard devices so I can't say how it compares to similar expresscard products.

One thing I recommend doing with this product is enabling 9014 byte jumbo packets (device manager - properties - advanced tab). I've used this with my gigabit ethernet router and my networked external hard drive and got just over 200Mbps coming down from the drive (limitation of the spin rate of the drive). I've also used it with a PixeLink GigE Vision camera and was able to get about 900Mbps out of it!

At the time I bought it this card was listed as a Windows-only product, but I gambled that it would work with OS X...and it does (first-generation MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6.2). Only gave it four stars because the Ethernet jack is a little tight and the two status LEDs on the card aren't labeled and don't tell you anything other than the unit is receiving power. Note: after inserting the card you will need to configure it in System Preferences >> Network.

The internal LAN card in my laptop was going bad and I needed a quick fix. The Belikn card has performed so much better than the internal card that I am not going to replace it. I will continue to use the Belkin for my business demo's.

Transfers files faster than my hard drive can push them. Great piece of hardware for an older model inspiron w/ out gigabit ethernet in conjunction with an RT-N16 (DD-WRT). I am currently using Debian 5.0 w/ the latest distro kernel, and all i had to do to install the card & update my /etc/network/interfaces file w/ the new 'eth#' device + assign it to DHCP. Worth the $$$. No more file transfers at 40-70 Mbps. 900 MB in 17 seconds.

I got this to have gigabit Ethernet capability for my Vaio CR590. Although this product is not approved for vista, it did install correct drivers by automatically downloading them from MS download on vista home premium (32bit). I cannot comment on 64bit version.
Product is nice to have when you require gigabit connection for connecting network drive or other peripherals.
I'm happy about this product and would like Belkin to update the product summary about vista (32bit) compatibility.

Bought an expensive Dell XPS-M1530 laptop, pre-loaded with Ubuntu LTS.
Realized too late that it has no GB ethernet. Looked for expresscard product recognized by ubuntu. Found Belkin F5U250 at Amazon.com, choose free shipment option, came within a week. Plugged the device, a reboot is needed to sense the new HW. Happy with the product: give 5 stars to Belkin (also to Amazon.com).

cjm knoxville, tn

After researching the options out there, I found this Expresscard to be both a good price and a apparently a good product. Without a doubt it delivered on the steady Gigabit connection no problem! I didn't even have to install anything, I just plugged it into the slot, Vista recognized it installed it and that was it! I wish I would have known the ports on my PC were 10/100 not Gigabit ports, but back then I wasn't aware of home connections at that speed, well I'm happy and thanks to the Belkin Expresscard I can have crystal clear connections on my Voip phone.

Ordered the express card after a thunder storm blew out my internal ethernet port. Installation was very easy, just slipped the card into the slot. Connected the ethernet cable, turned on the laptop, and I'm browsing the internet again! Performs wonderfully!