Networking Reviews

When I first bought this XJack card, I thought that it was a great idea; I could collapse it so that I wouldn't have to eject the card when putting my laptop away. However, I have used it in several different environments with several different APs and it will drop the connection every once and awhile.

Right now I'm sitting about 80 feet away from the access point and have the speed turned down to 1Mbps and it still drops the connection every couple of minutes. The signal strength seems to very a lot from Very Low to Good when the laptop is just sitting stationary.

Anyways, I hope this helps you make a smarter purchase.

When I first find this model on cnet, I decided immediately that this is what I am looking for! the only reason is its Xjack Antenna. I don't care much about how fast a pc card would work, I care about the convienence. My laptop is ibm x series, I don't like(actually hate)the design of a big head antenna outside my laptop body. It's so clumsy and ugly!
Now I really love this xjack antenna, it work well, very convenient to use and looks just like integrated in my laptop. the max download speed I got so far is 300k bytes/sec, not best but fast enough for me.

I was able to get a strong signal in every corner of my house and out in the backyard. That's about a 120-ft radius. After I moved into a college dorm last week, the card could pick up strong signal from my Netgear MR814 router all the way down the 150' hallway, thru all the wooden doors and cement walls. In my room I could even push the x-jack in and still pick up a signal. The only thing that stops the signal from reaching the social lounge was a thick steel fire exit.

The very first one of these I got was the new fan-less design. It worked great for about a year but then it fried one of its ports AND took out my 3Com network card at the same time. :-(

I called and D-Link replaced the switch for free (but of course wouldn't even send me one of their 10/100 cards to replace the 3Com), but the replacement I got is one of the older "with fan" units.

The problem? The fan is now making a horrible noise/rattle but has not actually failed as of yet, so I doubt D-Link would replace it again until the fan actually died...

Bottom line - great product, reliability is a bit suspect, though, and I'm a bit unhappy they replaced my newer unit with a refurbed "Rev. A" unit...

It's great for any home user just coming into the world of networking. Most people mistakenly buy a hub at a slightly lesser price, but switches are far better for even the less technically hard-core users. You pay roughly 1/3 more for a switch but it gives you up to TWICE the speed of a hub because of the difference in the way they utilize a thing called full duplexing (sending and receiving information simultaneously). A hub will only do full duplex with two computers talking on the network, which is rarely the case, and with more than two computers it will go at half duplex. A switch does full duplex all the time regardless of how many computers are communicating at one time.

I have had this equipment for a year now. In the past 11 months I have used it at my home network with an ISDN connection, but last month we upgraded to ADSL and the result is even better.
My home is in Guatemala City and on this small country we have plenty of communication technology that makes this kind of services posible.
Again, is the best equipment your money can buy, zero problems. I really recomend it.

Adaptec has a Duo Connect PCMCIA card that has both a firewire and a USB 2.0 port. This is perfect for video editing on a PC laptop: connect a camera to the firewire port and an external hard drive to the USB 2.0 port. When not video editing, you can use the extra USB port for your printer, mouse, etc., or keep the hard drive attached to run games.

This is one amazing product, I got this for my laptop Inspiron 8100. Though, I already had a 4 pin firewire port but the problem as you may or may not know is, 4-pin firewire can not supply power to the connected device. Most of the firewire devices i have are dependent on bus-power e.g. Compact Flash reader, so I chose adaptec card bus as it have an optional power input line so the connected devices can draw power.
Overall, its very handy and useful plus the installation was smooth (you just plug & play, XP will instantly detect it).

p.s. just a little thought, firewire have nothing to do with "video editing" nor it will improve with using different software. FIREWIRE is a communication standard i.e. IEEE 1394/1394b , the later is also known as FireWire800 and gives twice as fast speed as normal firewire.

Installation was a snap.
I was downloading movies from my Sony Digital Camera and burning movies on a CDR in 10 minutes.

I have a Dell Inspiron 5000. Installation was easy and my DSL is getting lightning speeds.

Received in two days, and card works very well.

As with all D-Link products I have tried and own, this adapter card works great. It installs easily and comes with a protective case. It is the 16 bit 670TXD card, and I cannot tell any difference in performance between it and the 32 bit 690TXD. The 670TXD will work in any PC card slot, but the 690 TXD needs a 32 bit cardbus slot and costs a little more. If you have an older laptop without a built in 10/100, and you do not want the cost of wireless, then the D-Link 670TXD would be a great choice. Beside the convenience of mobility with wireless, wired is always better in terms of reliability and speed of connection. I have used the 670TXD under W98SE and ME with no problems, and would recommend this card.

I was looking for a cheap router that was compatible with XBox Live, and this was it. I had it up and running with no problems whatsoever in about 10 minutes, and I've had flawless operation ever since. If all you are looking to do is share your high-speed internet connection between two pc's or with an XBox, then I highly recommend this product.

Once I took this out of the box, I was able to have a network up and running in 5 minutes. I was very suprised as to how easy it was to set up and allow all the computers on the network to share my cable connection. The included software makes everything very simple, and I would definatly recommend this to anyone who wishes to put together a small network in their house or office.

I bought this router so I could have the internet and XBOX Live running simultaneously. It took just a few minutes to set up, and was very simple. I would highly recommend it!

At $... w/free shipping, this player is about the least expensive DVD/SACD player I have come across. I am very happy w/the DVD playback and the sound of SACD.

I have one cause for concern regarding SACD playback, though: When I put in hybrid CD/SACD, the player often refuses to recognize the SACD layer and only plays the CD layer. It usually takes a few times of putting the SACD in before it will recognize and play the SACD layer. It is very frustrating when I put an SACD in and can only get CD.

Overall though, the features work great. The remote and menu system are a bit complex at first, but they soon become fairly easy to navigate.

I love the price - great deal for an SACD-compatible DVD player. I use a Kenwood receiver and speakers (HTB-504 home theatre in-a-box) but have replaced the sub with a Velodyne CHT-12. I connected the 6-channel analog audio with 3 pairs of Stealth FLR silver interconnects, the digital audio with a Stealth Fineline MK II S/PDIF digital coaxial cable, and the video with Audioquest/Cinemaquest YIQ-3 component video cables. The SACD sound is outstanding, and I actually prefer it for use as a DVD player over my Toshiba SD-3755 5-disc DVD changer, even though Toshiba DVD players are generally considered better than Philips. It automatically adjusts to correctly display widescreen movies, whereas with my Toshiba I have to use the 16:9 enhanced mode on my Sony TV. I couldn't be happier with the purchase, and, in retrospect, would gladly have paid more for it. The buyer should be aware, however, that it can get quite expensive buying the high-quality interconnect cables necessary for SACD playback.

This is a good DVD player at a very reasonable price. But it has an additional feature which makes it very special: in addition to DVDs and regular CDs, it plays the new SACDs -- which are the finest sounding recordings currently available.

When conventional CDs became available they displaced LPs in the marketplace because of their small size and the fact that their sound did not degrade with the ticks and pops that even the best-maintained LPs eventually acquire. But, despite these advantages -- as well as significant improvements in CD sound over time with technological advances such as oversampling -- many connoisseurs maintained that CDs never achieved the warmth and high-frequency sweetness characteristic of top-grade audiophile LPs. Now that has changed. Super Audio CDs are superior in sound to the finest audiophile-quality LPs I've ever heard. Furthermore, even conventional CDs played on a SACD player sound better than they do on typical CD players. In fact, the best conventional CDs in my collection equal audiophile-quality LPs in sound when played on a SACD player and the new SACDs sound even better. If you're going to buy a DVD player, why not get one like which also plays both CDs and the new terrific-sounding SACDs?

When I received the card, I was able to put it in the PCMCIA slot of my PowerBook G4 (running Mac OS X 10.3.3, the best operating system known to humanity so far), insert a CompactFlash card into it, and began working with the photos immediately. The OS recognized it as containing photos and started up the iPhoto application for me.

The reason I give this item only four stars is because I need to physically remove the adapter card from my computer whenever I want to change to a different CompactFlash card. It would have been nice if SanDisk had either provided an ejection mechanism or maybe just make the CF slot a little shallower so that I could grip the CF card to pull it out.

However, that's a minor inconvenience. It works 100%.

This real plug and play compact flash card reader is a must for every laptop owner. Any laptop has a PCMCIA slot, and every laptop nowadays comes with a modem , LAN , built in, so you use the PCMCIA slot for nothing, but the reader.
I usually keeps it plugged in the laptop, and take a backup for my critical files on it. With a 512 MB card, it really takes a lot, and provides me with peace of mind with an online , reliable and fast backup.
With technology, the storage capacity doubles every 12 months , and the MB/$ drops by half every 9 month. Soon, you will be able to buy a 10 GB compact flash card for the price of 512 MB nowadays. And, still , you will use the same reader !!

This will be a short review. I have not had the product long, but in the time I have had it, this card reads the images so quickly and I think faster than a USB 1.0 port. Amazingly inexpensive too. Excellent buy if you have a laptop.

Configuration:

I just received the product a few days ago. The quality of the cables and hardware are very good compared to the similar products from Belkin and I/O Magic. The USB and RGB cables are connected but can be easily separated. This was necessary because my IBM T40 has the USB ports on the left side of the unit and the RGB out on the right, a stupid design by any stretch of the imagination.

I had to separate a thick molded attachment (about 18" down where the cable makes a "Y") and pull about 2 feet of the cable apart to make it work. The shielding is first rate and remained completely intact.

Hooking It Up:

The set-up of the KVM switch is simple: Turn everything off, hook everything up, power up the computers, and you're done. It took about 10 minutes. It's nice that all the connectors are on the back of the switch, saving you from the big and ugly 'spider' of cables on your desk. The supplied power supply was not necessary for my setup: IBM T40, Dell 400SC, Viewsonic CRT, MS PS/2 Natural Keyboard (w/USB adapter), and Logitech Mouseman USB Optical Wheel-mouse. Both system are running WinXP Professional.

Operation:

We are talking a standard KVM: hit the button, it beeps and goes to the other computer and enables the mouse and keyboard after a 3 second scan interval completes. Nothing fancy here. All of my keys work on the keyboard and all of the mouse buttons work with my Logitech Mouseware software. See below the one Mouseware issue.

Issues:

I typically use a refresh rate of 85hz on my monitor, but I found the scan lines to be very pronounced when viewing a white screen. This was not the case when directly connected. I upped the refresh rate to 100hz and that fixed it. The scroll-wheel will only go one line at a time on the IBM laptop, but works fine on the Dell server. This is not the case when I attach it directly to the laptop.

As I'm typing this review, I can honestly say it does what it is supposed to do. Leaning forward to hit the select button causes a moderate single "beep", but it's not overly annoying, yet. The ability to switch using a 'hotkey' on the keyboard would be nice, but I was willing to make the sacrifice for a good quality product.

Conclusion:

It was well worth the money. Yes, I'm lazy and would like to switch computers using my keyboard, but I made the trade-off for a good quality product. There's no software to install, so that's one less thing that could cause problems. If I could rate this 4.5 stars, I would, but that's not an option. In any case, I hope you found some of this information helpful.

First of all, this KVM is very well-made, with high-quality video and USB cables. The enclosure is actually metal, and feels very solid. Once it's hooked up and working, it works very well.

This KVM is actually a USB hub; the "switching" part simply moves the computer connection from one machine to the other. The good news is that you can hook up any USB keyboard and mouse and all of their functions work. I'm using a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro, an Intellimouse Explorer, and a Contour Designs Shuttle Express with it - the KVM has USB type A connectors for three devices on it - and all three devices are fully supported by my Athlon/WinXP system and my Powermac G4 running OS X. Like one of the other reviewers mentioned, if you test your devices beforehand by disconnecting them, then reconnecting them, and they still work correctly, then this switch will work for you. Devices like USB memory cards, which have to be "stopped" before they can be disconnected, won't work.

The video quality is also very good; I'm running at 1280x1024 and it looks as good as it does with the monitor plugged directly into the Radeon cards in both machines.

This switch does not switch audio. It also does not have any keyboard-based switching ability, so place it somewhere you can easily reach it.

Setup was tricky, however, and involved some e-mail back-and-forth with Connectpro's support people. It turns out that what you have to do to get the switch working right is this:

1. Plug the power into the switch.
2. Plug the VGA cables for the two machines in. Do NOT connect the USB cables for the two computers!
3. Connect your monitor to the switch.
4. Connect your keyboard and mouse directly to the first computer.
5. Power up the first computer, and log in.
6. Now, connect the KVM's USB cable to the first computer. If you're running Windows 2000 or XP, the computer will detect the KVM as a generic USB hub.
7. Connect your keyboard and mouse directly to the second computer.
8. Press the "select" button on the KVM to select the second computer.
8. Power up the second computer, and log in.
9. Connect the KVM's USB cable to the second computer. The computer will recognize the KVM as a generic USB hub. (In MacOS X, it will show up in the Apple System Profiler.)
10. Now, move the keyboard and mouse to the KVM. You should be good to go at this point.

I'd have given this KVM five stars, were it not for the poor manual (like another reviewer said, it seemed to be for some other switch), and the need to contact tech support to get the proper connection instructions. To their credit, Connectpro's e-mail tech support person was very helpful and courteous, and responded within a business day to all of my inquiries.

I have a PowerBook and on old Mac G3. I use the laptop for work and the G3 is a family computer. Becasue I have limited space, I wanted to use the G3's monitor and keyboard for the laptop when I have extended or complicated tasks to do. The switch works great and allows me to use monitor spanning and an extended keyboard when I am working on large Excel spreadsheets or on PowerPoint presentations. Yet a simple push of a button allows the rest of the family to use the G3.

I prefer mechanical switching betweeen computers to a screen/keyboard based switch, because the former works with lots of different systems -- not just Windows.

Although the instructions were not clear on this, the switch comes with 2 cables, each of which includes a monitor cable and an USB cable. Therefore, you shouldn't have to buy any cables other than those that you already have connecting the monitor and the keyboard to your main computer. The 6 foot cables are heavy, which probably reduces signal loss but makes them a little awkward in my confined space.

The switch is small but heavy, suggesting that it is probably well made.

Hooking up the switch is so simple that no directions are needed. That's good because the instructions were not clear and seemed written for a different switch.

All in all, a product that does what is is supposed to.

My Linksys HPNA bridge works perfectly. It is connected to a Linksys 4-port cable/DSL router/switch, which in turn is connected to a Motorola Surfboard cable modem. I have 4 PCs in various locations in my fairly large home, all connected via the telephone cabling that came with the house. Two more PCs are connected directly to the router/switch. All the PCs can share the Internet connection, printers and files without any problems.

The only slight problem is that with the HPNA 2.0 spec, you don't actually get the 10 mbps throughput which the standard promises. Actual, real-world performance is about 5 mbps. That's still plenty fast for what the vast majority of home users need.

Since I bought my router and bridge, Linsys and others have come out with cable/DSL routers with built-in HPNA 2.0 support. If you're starting from scratch and you want to use phoneline networking, you may want to look at those products first. If you're looking to add phoneline networking to an existing setup, the Linksys bridge will do exactly what you want.

I bought this unit and the PCI card to allow a PC in my basement to network and access the Internet via cable modem. I am very happy with the results.

The setup of the unit wa just a bit confusing, no big deal though. Do it once and forget about it.

I also have a 8 port router so I have them stacked together. Looks very appealing. I also have a wireless AP hooked up to all of this and they integrate quite well.

Overall I would recommend this unit.

I have a DSL modem, which I've been using for a while. I have another computer in another part of my house which, until recently, was used to access AOL via a dialup line.

I installed a phoneline interface on that computer, put PPPOE on it, modified the AOL access to go through a LAN, and bought this box. I connected the AOL computer to it via the phoneline network interface and connected my computer to it via a LAN card.

Now both machines can access the internet via a single DSL modem. It worked first time. No muss, no fuss. AOL access is now completely reliable, and it flies!

I was very impressed with how easy it was to make this work. I have some understanding of networking, but not a lot. If I can make this work, any literate person can.

I'm in the military, and they won't let me sync my PocketPC to a computer since it wasn't issued to me. My only option to download books and software is to actually login with my user account. Wireless access would be bad for opsec, so being tethered to a cat5 cable is the only real way to get access.

The toshiba has it's built in WiFi, but that is only good when an access point is available. A few changes to the 'connections' settings and the Ethernet CompactFlash card is up and running. The provided driver adds extra functionality, and installation was easy. The documentation is a little 'thin' but told me what I needed to know to get the card working on the work network. Wireless is the way to go, but when there are no access points around, this card fills the need.

I spend about 100 nights a year in Marriott hotels. They all have DSL. This card lets me download ebooks and stuff in my hotel room, as well as via my cable modem at home.