D-Link DFE-530TX+ 10/100 Fast Ethernet Desktop Adapter

I have been using D-Link brand for about 4 years. During the years I have been networking, I have used Intel, 3com briefly, SMC, and Netgear as well. I have read so many negative reviews about Linksys that I won’t even bother. Intel cards are excellent, but not real cheap. The cheapest I have found was about…, which isn’t bad at all, but if you are looking for an economical network card that isn’t loaded with every feature and it doesn’t have to start your car, Intel is a little too much. 3com is one of the better brands, but still expensive. The rest are fairly good, but I started using D-Link after my last employer relied on them heavily.

The entire office network of nearly 20 computers was done using D-Link hardware. They used D-Link network cards, switches, and routers for the Novell and Internet connections.

What surprises me is how low cost the hardware is. They are usually the same as other brands, perhaps even a few bucks cheaper at times. I bought an 8 port 10 mbps hub for…., and am considering their 8 port 10/100 switch now. On top of this, for home or small office, the hardware works excellent.

In the 4 years I have used D-Link, I have only ever had 2 bad network cards out of the box. 2 in a row at that. This is out of using dozens upon dozens of their cards. Not a bad ratio really. No company can make hundreds or thousands of a product on an assembly line and have NO faulty items come out.

I have used them under DOS, Windows 95/98, Novell, Lantastic, and Red Hat Linux with no problems. This card is very widely supported. On the downside, I would not use this brand for anything CRITICAL, such as a large business environment with a mission critical server or anything that demands HEAVY use, such as a call center that relies on a central database being accessed by hundreds of users.

This doesn’t mean they are junk. Not at all. For mission critical, Intel or 3com is BY FAR better, HOWEVER, if you are networking 2 up to several dozen machines together and it doesn’t DEMAND HEAVY use, they are excellent products.

My last employer depended on D-Link and so did the technicans for the support database. It never failed us.

I am only reviewing the product, not the support. I have read some negative reviews about their support, which could be true. I have never called them.

The heaviest I have used their hardware on my end was about 2 years ago for network gaming. About 7 or 8 machines with various network cards (a few had D-Link) were hooked up to a D-Link 8 port 10 mbps hub playing games. We were HAMMERING on the network and the hub had no problems handling the load. An inexpensive… hub at that.

Bottom line: mission critical and heavy demanding use, consider Intel or 3com, which are designed for that, but typical home/office/small business use for dozens of people AT ONCE on the network, D-Link will handle it just fine.

My first impression is “this is such a cheapo lookin’ card, but for the price, I guess I can give it a try”… Boy, was I wrong or what? The installation is so easy, it took 2 minutes and 40 seconds, including opening and closing the computer cover, and software driver. The card’s performance is second to none, far exceeds my Linksys and Netgear, even Intel cards. Ever since, I’ve buying this particular card for my home and professional networking use, and it never failed me.

I know some people gets uncomfortable when they see a “ancient floppy disk” for storing driver. But darn it, it works great. And what’s amazing about D-Link, is that they always seem to include the latest driver in their packaging. I have bought over 60 of these cards, and the driver date is just barely 2 – 3 months old on every purchase. Consider Linksys, their drivers are at least 1 year old. To top it off, Windows 2000 and ME has build-in drivers for this card, and the floppy isn’t even needed.

Overall, this is a good performing card at a wonderful price. They use the SAME chipset (stamped with their own name) that other competitors use as well, but they did it much less expensive… Definitely +++!

This is a good card for most of us who want to get networked. There are good linux drivers out there and performance is pretty decent….

However, if you’re looking for a card to put in a server where high transfer rates are very important and low CPU usage would also be nice, look for another card. In my own tests of transferring files across a network from a fileserver, this card used 40% of the CPU where other cards that I have tested (but are more expensive) use about half of that with slightly higher transfer rates.

I purchased my D-Link NIC at Best Buy, but would highly recommend this to the Amazon buyer. Works like a champ. I purchased two more and they worked great as well. Windows XP had its own drivers, no need to install the drivers that are included. I used the card with Win 2000 and Win 98SE in the past and worked like a champ. I would recommend this card to anyone who needs one.

This card works beautifully in PCI Macs. I installed 2 ofthem after reading some comments on the … pages. You must download… … …and modify the driver from the realtek site but theinstructions and task is easy. Start to finish I didn’t take morethan 5 minutes. My experience matches many others. This is a very cheap alternative to $30-$50 cards from other vendors.

I installed 2 cards as part of the home network kit and they worked immediately and without problems. I instantly had all 3 of my home computers linked together and could share files and play games. I just installed the Midpoint Lite software and can share my internet cable connection on 2 computers. The 3rd has a network card from a different vendor, and the software won’t work with it (manual states this explicitly). I came here to buy another one … I’ve not had any problems with the card and it zips!

This installed on my XP machine in seconds flat. I physically instlled it into an available PCI slot and then started back up my PC and it installed automatically. I didn’t even have to touch software configuration, it just plain works.

If you in need of a NIC then I suggest you pick one of these up for the low price that it is and in minutes you will be Ethernet and Broadband ready.

I bought this card over 6 months ago, and it has worked great. The physical (PCI) installation is simple and straightforward. The driver installation on floppy took a little while, till I used the “help” folder (in DOS window) and reviewed OS specific instructions (W98SE in my case). The manual is skimpy on the driver/software installation. I use it with the DI-704 router which is just great. I called D-Link tech support once on another issue, and they were very helpful. From personal experience I have been extremely pleased and would recommend D-Link and/or Netgear, in terms of product quality and tech support. I have tried Linksys products twice, and returned them, and would never try again due to very marginal performance and even worse tech support.

Took no time to install the hardware and drivers. Running Windows ME and the whole thing took less than 5 minutes. This was my first time installing a NW card, and had no problems. Card is working well with my cable modem. Can’t beat it for the price!