The EtherFast 10/100 PC Card will connect your notebook computer to a 10BaseT or 100BaseTX network in just minutes. Ready to run in both half- and full-duplex modes, the EtherFast 10/100 PC Card supports speeds of 10 Mbps, 20 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or a whopping 200 Mbps. Designed for heavy use at the office or on the road, the card adjusts its speed and duplex to almost any 10BaseT or 100BaseTX network automatically--just plug in your cabling and go.
1 Good quality card at a bargain price...
I don't know what some other reviewers are talking about -- the dondle for the card is of good quality. I've had mine for over 6 months, and haven't had any problems at all. I used a coupon from UnderTag.com, so it was almost free for me too.
2 Fragile Dongle
Great card, until dongle broke about a year later. Otherwise, no problems while it lasted.
3 Fast, but dongle breaks too easily.
This product is easy to install on a home network. Just plug and go. The problem lies in the dongle. I have had two of them in the last six months. After a while they just stop working, and this is frustrating because replace dongle costs...
4 works but not durable
It worked for, me but the connection between the card and black cable is not durable. I went thru 2- I'm slow to learn lessons. IMHO I suggest a one piece item. I switched to Netgear only because the other linksys product was temporatily unavailable.
5 Better things out there.....
This product although not defective in perfomance is not a wise investment since the it's dopple design is easily breakable. If you are interested in a perfomance and durability i suggest the Linksys Etherfast 10/100 Integrated PC Card. Since it is integrated there is minimal chance that it will break and uses only one slot on your PC. Plus the price difference is minimal and you get much more for value.
6 Good
Just got one recently and it works fine. Seems like I saw something similar at Best Buy the other day for a little less, but otherwise I'm happy with it.
7 It works as advertised.
I can't speak for those people who have had problems with this card. All I can speak to is my own experience. Installation on my Compaq Presario was a snap. It worked with no problems except that sometime the connection can't be detected and then the computer has to be reset, but I can't prove this is the computer's fault.
Jason
8 It works as advertised.
I can't speak for those people who have had problems with this card. All I can speak to is my own experience. Installation on my Compaq Presario was a snap. It worked with no problems except that sometime the connection can't be detected and then the computer has to be reset, but I can't prove this is the computer's fault.
Jason
9 Good Value
I like this product. I've been impressed with the quality of other Linksys products I've bought. This little PC card is no exception. It's worked flawlessly since I bought it. I've had absolutely no problems with it.
It's performance is very good for file transfers, resource sharing and web surfing. The build quality seems to be very good as well. Quite frankly, I'm amazed they can sell this product for the price they are asking. In my opinion, it's a [great deal].
I think this product is a good overall value. The price is relatively low for a PC card of such quality. It's performance is just as good as some more [pricey]cards from other, ..., manufacturers. Linksys strikes a good balance between quality and price.
It does have a "dongle" for the RJ45 network connector. This is an issue for some people. You may want to consider a network card that has the RJ45 built in if you move around with your notebook while connected to the network.
But, as I mentioned before, I have had no problems. I'd buy another one in a second.
10 Cheap Connector
I'm no wiz at this stuff, but I strongly advise against purchasing this Ethernet set-up. Although it was easy to install, and worked well until it broke,the "dongle" that plugs into the laptop is flimsy and breaks readily. Mine broke within 5 weeks.
11 Dongle hell
This dongle is complete ..., It'll break in no time. Worst off, once it breaks (and it will break) you have to deal with linksys horrible customer service. I would not recommend any linksys products to anyone, and would rather advise everyone to avoid them at all cost.
12 Wonderful Card
Works like a charm. Ive gotten around the donggle problem by mounting it onto the laptop itself. Only problem is that the Ether-Cable has to be slightly taped outward of the Dongle sometimes for it to make a connection.
Yours, Matthew
13 a true bargain. outperforms cards costing over twice as much
This card is, simply put, the best value for the money for this type of product. I have a premium Xircom combo card that I was using until I saw this offered here. I decided to try it out, thinking I would save it as a backup to my "better" card.
As it turns out, this card outperforms the more expensive card by far - it does do true full duplex 100baseT, and the more expensive card doesn't really, even though it claims to (in fact, this card proved it to me). It also had an easier setup procedure. I did not hesitate to box the Xircom up and declare this my favorite card, instead.
The dongle is less pretty than the other card, but the lights are better at giving the status of the Ethernet connection. Don't be afraid of the dongle's reputation as being a weak link - I've had this card for probably 6 months, and I finally *just tonight* broke the cable adapter by letting my laptop fall off my bed. However, until today, the dongle worked great after squishing the cable in my bag, or even leaving it connected to my laptop and sticking my laptop in my bag (not that you should ever do this, but everyone forgets and does it anyhow) and banging my bag around on road trips. It certainly appears no weaker than the other card's. At the time of my writing, Amazon doesn't carry replacement dongles, but another vendor has them for only $11 each before shipping. That makes them "disposable" in my mind.
This card is one of the best bargains I have found on Amazon. It outperforms a top-of-the-line card at under half the price. If you don't break the dongle, it's totally hassle free. What are you waiting for? Buy it!
14 A little Flimsey
I bought this because of it's price and when it worked it was great. You get what you pay for though, the cable sucks, very flimsy. I move my notebook very little and it still managed to get loose and fall out after only 2 months. I just ordered a new card without a dongle cable, I'm hoping I won't have to deal with it again.
15 TechSupport A Joke -- Doesn't Work With WinCEPro
[Linksys PCM100 Reviewed --- Same as PCMPC100 but with integrated connector] -The card does not work with many WindowsCE HandheldPC Pros (NEC780). -I found a Beta WinCE driver on their website... it doesn't work. There is no link on the Linksys website to the file. -Linksys "technical support" and "customer service" are terrible. They are rude, they don't call back, it takes days to speak to an actuall "tech" and they have little knowledge of their product line (or Windows, networking, etc.). -Most shops (including the one I purchased from) won't accept a return for the product, nor will Linksys.
-I also own a Linksys Router/4portSwitch. -Thankfully it works, no need for their "tech support".
16 PCMPC100 Version 3 Bad Driver
I have been working with several Linksys techs these pass days with no successful installation. I just found out from the last tech that he had no successful installation on any of the PCMPC100 version 3 hardware because the driver for version 3 is not available or not working properly. The driver diskette provided listed "Ver3:1.05" but is not for the version 3 hardware. The tech said Linksys is currently working on the problem.
17 Dongle breaks too easily
I'm pretty careful with my hardware, but the dongle on this card broke off far too easily (in fact I have yet to see a dongle survive serious use). Integrated cards do not cost much more. The only reason you might want this is if you really need to be able to have something stick out of a second PCMCIA slot.
18 "dongle" broke
the product works fine - cheap and easy to set up, but the coupler or "dongle" as i've heard it called that hooks up the card to the ethernet cable is very delicate and mine broke after just a couple months of use.
19 Buy the PCM100 IntegratedConnector...
Just a recommendation if you are considering the PCMPC100 card: Buy the Linksys PCM100 which has an integrated port on the end of the card (no dongles to break or lose). It is usually available at the same price (and has the same specs) as the PCMPC100. Both cards are excellent value.
20 How can you go wrong
I bought this expecting it to work out of the box and guess what it did. Isn't that all we should expect these days.
It worked on both a 98 machine and a win 2000 machine with no problem. Both the machines are of course laptops with the standard slow laptop hard drive so really 100MB is total overkill as the hard drive will NEVER be able to keep up with that speed but on the 2000 machine I benchmarked the speed of the drive locally and then timed a large file transfer and with the overhead of TCP/IP the throughput was a respectable 82% of the local drive throughput.
21 design defect?
My experience is that, after a few months of usage, the weight of the dongle has bent something on the card cutting off the connection. So the card has stopped working. It seems the connector is too flimsy.
22 Excellent product but...
This is an excellent product, especially if you consider the price. The only problem I had is that I also have a PCMCIA modem card. The Linksys adapter is wide enough so that I'm unable to connect the phone jack to the modem card when the adapter is connected and vice-versa. It would have been a better design if the adapter's connector was not as wide, or was positioned towards the card's corner, instead of the center.
23 Simple and inexpensive!
This card is exactly as advertised and is a snap to install. Don't be too worried about reports of breaking off the dongle as that can happen to any PCMCIA NIC that uses one. (If your not careful :-) Your only other option is to use one that does not need a dongle, but they tend to be very costly.
24 Great price, but its driver is not compatible with Win 2K
I love the price, but it is very frustrating after I found out that the driver is not compatible with Win 2k even if the box is written "Win 2000 Ready". I actually called the Linksys technical support and they said the MIS engineers messed up. Well, Win 2k recognizes the card but it requires a file named "pc100nd5.sys" which does not exist. Without this file, the driver will not be installed correctly. Linksys said they will fix it ASAP and post the new driver on the web soon. (Yeah right)
25 A little too cheap
The card works great until the dongle (the black cord that connects cable to card) breaks, and it breaks pretty easily, i have had two and neither lasted more than 4 months without breaking.
26 Another unbelievable deal on a network card
.
I can't believe how cheap this card is. Just a year ago this was selling for aorund $160. The high rating was for price and preformance.
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 robest 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.
A steal of a price.
27 This is a great product
This 10/100 ethernet card is really a bargain, when compared with the other ethernet cards such as 3com. The connection, and download ability is tremendous, and makes surfing the net a breeze. I liked it so much, I want to buy two.
