Customer Reviews

Belkin F5D7010 Wireless 54 Mbps Notebook Card

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I purchased this card after borrowing a card with an identical product number from a friend. My friend's card worked out of the box with my version of Ubuntu Linux.
When I received my card, it simply did not work. After doing some research, I found that I had a card with a different version number, and a different chipset. My friend's card had a chipset made by Atheros, which worked out of the box. The card that I purchased had a Broadcom chipset, which is notorious for being incompatible with Linux. Even after going to the forums, I was unable to make the card work.
Belkin is dishonest, in that it makes changes to the chipset without changing the product number, only the version number, which the consumer is not made aware of. Had I been aware that the card had a different chipset, I would not have ordered it.

I am writing this here for anyone having trouble installing this card using Belkin's drivers from their support website.

Simply they are not the right drivers & will not work!

For a working driver for Win9x/2K/XP copy the following into the address bar: http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Windows/IS_STA_2500_D-3.0.3.0_U-2.3.6.0_042505_1.0.2.0.exe

This driver is from the actual chipmaker and works fine :-)

Ralink's name for the product is 11g-RT2500 and downloads for other OS's including Mac can be found here: http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm

I hope this helps to shortcut somebody's efforts to get this card working...

I was looking for a card that I could use easily in GNU/Linux without trying to emulate Windows drivers. I'd read that this was possible with this card so I decided to try it out. I'm running Debian with a 2.6.17 kernel. All it took was the following: download MadWifi (free, open source), extract the program, run 'make', 'make install', then 'modprobe ath_pci'. Using KNetworkManager you can then connect to any detected networks and easily switch between wired and wireless networks. It seems to work very well so far.

I have not tested the card in Windows, although since it was designed for Windows yet works well in Linux I can only assume that it will work at least as well in Windows. According to the very simple-looking quick start guide, Windows users need only insert the CD, go through a standard install wizard, and plug the card in to have it work.

I have used Belkin products in the past and have never been disappointed; it doesn't seem like this product will break that chain.

I don't write drivers for Linux so I want something that Xandros Desktop will support. I decided to give Belkin a try since it's name brand and in case I have issues I can call the tech support. I loaded the bundled CD (which was designed for Windows) into the drive. Copied the "Driver" folder onto my HDD. I went to Control Center, the network section, and added the driver to the list. I put the PC card into the PCMCIA slot, and the device was instantaneously recognized by Xandros. No problem at all. Highly recommend.

I just replaced an older wireless card with this Belkin in my aged Pentium II laptop... wow! Who knew there were so many access points in my apartment building? And I'm getting an 80% signal from my own network, instead of a feeble and unreliable 20%. Way to go, Belkin!

I bought Ver. 5000 of this card to use with my Pismo PowerBook running Mac OS X 10.3.9. Despite the claims on Belkin's website, this card is incompatible with Macs. Belkin does not even provide Mac drivers for this 'Mac-Compatible' card !!! A quick call to Tech Support confirmed this.

Older versions of this card (ver. 2000 and 3000) used the Broadcom chipset and are Mac compatible. Newer versions use the Atheros (?) chipset, which does not work in Macs.

I returned this card and bought the F5D7011 Ver. 1101, which runs natively in Mac OS X 10.3.9 and Mac OS X 10.4.

bought one for my college daughter, installed it prior to her leaving. She was amazed to turn on her computer at the airport and was immediately connected.

This is a great card. I will admit that I purchased it because I got it for $5 after rebates but I am amazed at the quality. I set this card up in less then 10 minutes and I have been successfully using it for over a week now. Not a single negative thing to say so far but I do live in a small apartment in Queens, NY. I sent over 5GB of data through my network and I still received a 2718/620 speed test using Verizon DSL and a Westell 327 router.

My first wireless notebook experience and it was so easy to install. I take my laptop every where in the house; so conveniant.

I upgraded to g from my built in adapter in my thinkpad. At first I got a netgear USB adapter which had horrible reception. This one has good and stable reception. The range still is not any better than my built in Intel 802.b adapter but the speed certainly is. Its only getting 4 stars because it sucks the life out of my battery (netgear had the same issue which is related to loss of energy in the form of heat- its HOT).