Xircom RealPort CardBus Ethernet 10/100

...without a problem.

I emphatically recomend this card to anyone looking for a PCMCIA network adapter. I've had absolutely no problems at all, it really has been a fantastic little bit of kit of very high quality. I will certainly be buying Xircom products again.  ... more

For some unkown reason, Compaq decided that they wouldn't put a network socket on my laptop - who is going to need to connect their laptop to a network eh? Obviously no one at Compaq, but for the rest of us we all do! Fortunatly my laptop has 2 PCMCIA slots that I hardly use so a PCMCIA network adapter would be ideal. The problem with these though are the fact that many of them have bits sticking out, or a dongle, or both. This would have been an absolute pain when lugging the laptop to and from Uni as I'd either loose the dongle, or break it, or the bit sticking out would get stuck everywhere and so on. Luckily I discovered the RealPort range of PCMCIA adapters from Xircom. The main advantage to these is that they have a full sized standard network socket on the adapter so there are no bits sticking out, no extra wires and so on - its like there was a normal socket there. They only problem is that it will take up both slots to make space for the full sized socket.

The card its self is of a very high quality. It supports all sorts of special features like SNMP network management, BatterySave (tm) for increased battery life, and of course full 10/100mbps speeds (because this card uses the CardBus feature of the more recent laptops you really can get 100mbps, just make sure your laptop can support it). Another neat feature is the network status lights are integrated into the socket - when they are on it illuminated the actual plug so you know what is going on. Even just the feel of it in your hands suggest quality - its very solid and well put together unlike some PCMCIA cards I have seen.

I've found the card to be absolutely faultless and of great quality. I got mine second hand and it came without a driver CD, but Windows XP detected it perfectly - its even automatically detected and configured as an ethernet adapter under Linux (Red hat 8) which is another bonus. There are drivers available from their website though if you want to get them and some of the associated utility applications, manuals etc.

There are quite a lot of these available on the second hand market now going for around £20-30, which I think is a bargain as they were generally sold for about 3 or 4 times that much when new. My second hand one is like new - many of these cards stay in the computer for their entire lives so they dont get damaged easily. I've been using mine for about 9 months now (not to mention how long it was used before I got it) without a problem.

I emphatically recomend this card to anyone looking for a PCMCIA network adapter. I've had absolutely no problems at all, it really has been a fantastic little bit of kit of very high quality. I will certainly be buying Xircom products again. 

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