Customer Reviews

NETGEAR FA510 32-bit CardBus Moble Adapter (10/100 Mbps)

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

 

 

Used this in my Dell Notebook, and with my NetGear switch. Runs really fast, installed easy, and I've had no problems with it all

I needed an NIC for college so I could hook up to my campus network. This one looked like the best value out there, so I sprung for it. Installation was a breeze on my laptop, and I connected to the network at school with no problems at all. So far, internet access has been uninterrupted, and the card itself is pretty sturdy. It's a shade more expensive than you're liable to find elsewhere on Amazon, but I consider it worth the price.

This product is not well supported for the Windows NT environment. They blame the configuration problems on the laptop manufacturer who in turn blames Netgear. The real culprit is probably NT, but Netgear they shouldn't advertise it for NT if they can't support it.

The coupler (ACC-017-015 FA410) plug that mates to the card is easily broken. Torque transmitted from the RJ45 end of the coupler eventually breaks the plug.

Otherwise this is a great little card. Just make sure you know where to find a supply of couplers!

OK, fine. I'm the first to admit that I'm not a tech head. That's why I always do my best to match product specs with the system I am buying for. After doing this to the best of my ability it was annoying to realize that this card did not fit into the PCMCIA slots on either of my 4 year old laptops. The company provided specs need to be more straight forward.

This card works better than Linksys NP100 (has compatibility issues with other Linksys products, can you believe it?) that is I have not experienced any incompatibility with other network cards in my house with things come with the package. This card should have gotten five stars, except there is a major problem with this product - IT WILL NOT WORK with my home-made RJ-45 cables! NOTE: It will only work with the "RJ-45" cable that comes with it. So do be aware of what you are getting into before buying it! Get a 3Com 10/100 card is definitely the way, no incompatibility and no cabling issue.

This device almost fell into my system by itself. I have a Compaq Presario 12XL310 with Windows ME. The software detected and installed the card automatically. I was online to my LAN in far less than 5 minutes. Although they are all somewhat fragile, the "dongle" seems nice quality.

I use Windows 2000 on the laptop.

Install was relatively easy. When I inserted the card, Windows 2000 immediately installed a generic driver, without asking any questions (as far as I remember). I needed to replace it with NetGear's driver, but it was not very hard to do.

One of the reviewers here complained that the card has problems with "foreign" cables. Mine worked fine with a 50ft network cable that I bought separetely.

I measured the network speed, and it is not very great, but acceptable. I got about 3MBytes/second when copying 100MB file using NetBEUI protocol. I used to have 6-7MB/sec at work (with SMC cards).

Many people say the dongle break easily. I have the card only for a couple of days, so I did not have enough time to break it yet. But at work I have a D-Link card with the same kind of dongle, and it did not break for at least a year. You just need to handle it with respect :)

The dongle is extremely fragile. I've broken two so far. The technical support is terrrible. Netgear has had "unexpected high call volume" for months. I spent 4 hours on hold for them to confirm what I already knew (it was broken and I needed a new card). Frustrating.

This is terrible product. The connection between the network card and yout note book depends on a connecting wire which gets destroyed easily. No oned carry the accessory, so you have to order it fro about [money amount]+ S&H