A Stacked Deck: THG’s First Look At Notebook Network Cards – THG.RU

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THG’s First Look At Notebook Network Cards” –>

Introduction

In August of this year, we opened the new THG networking section with a first look at PCI network interface cards. From the great response to this review, it was obvious to us that you wanted us to dig deeper into networking technology. Before we do another follow up on PCI NICs and 802.11b wireless, we wanted to take a look at NIC technology for Notebooks.

When we first started working on this article, we knew this was going to be quite a challenge. With all of the different types of network interface cards available, we had to establish a few ground rules with the vendors in order to be able to provide you with the best information based on the input from the PCI NIC review.

First, we asked vendors to ship us at least one PC-Card NIC and one CardBus NIC. We also asked every vendor to ship a Mini-PCI NIC, if they had one to offer. As you will find out later in the article where we explain the Mini-PCI technology, Mini-PCI products are normally sold to notebook manufacturers as an OEM product, so this created some obstacles in getting enough Mini-PCI products to test. Because of this, a decision was made to postpone the tests of Mini-PCI products until we had a sufficient amount of cards to test. When requesting the cards from the vendors, we specified two cards based on information from each company’s Web site. We explained to each company that only the two cards that we specified would be assured a testing spot in this review.

Secondly, we explained to the vendors that if they elected to ship a NIC card that was a combo-card, then the modem section of the card would not be tested. Although we feel that including a modem with the card does add value, we also felt that, as this was not the focus of this review, any testing of the modem would not be as in-depth as we would like. If reader interest does exist, we will explore the possibility of doing a modem only review at a later date. In products that included a modem, we only verified the ability of the modem to dial and connect to a remote system. Although we do select a winner in the “combo” category, it should be noted that we considered all modem performance equal.

Introduction, Continued

Third, we told the companies that they could ship additional cards with different connector configurations if they wanted, but if the only difference between the cards they were submitting was the connection method, most likley we would only test one card in that product family. Of course, some vendors were more happy with this arrangement than others and we did receive some interesting responses from the manufacturers regarding which cards they chose to ship. In reviews where we tested a “product family,” they are indicated as such.

If you don’t see your favorite notebook NIC, it wasn’t for the lack of effort. One of the most often received comments on the PCI NIC review was, “Why didn’t you review ‘X’ card?” In an effort to better address this, we gave all of the vendors at least one month from the initial request to respond. We then gave each vendor a hard deadline that was another thirty days from the original request date, so that each vendor had sixty days to ship the product to our labs for tests. In order to be fair, we warned every company that cards received after the deadline would NOT be considered for this review, and we enforced this strict deadline for all participating vendors.

The companies that responded and shipped product to us for this review are: 3Com, Belkin, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, SMC, and Xircom. Several companies that we contacted either did not respond or did not have products ready for review at this time. We feel that this vendor selection is VERY representive of the vast majority of notebook NICs that are currently in use. Some companies wanted us to stress to you that they are always making improvements to their products, and they may have improved or advanced versions of their cards on their future road map.

Here is a look at the complete selection of cards that the companies shipped for us to review. As you can see the amount of cards to review was quite staggering. The main difference between many of these cards was really nothing more than the connector configuration. Selecting the correct connector configuration to fit your needs and situation can be quite confusing.

PC-Card / CardBus / Mini-PCI – Which One Is For Me?

Many people don’t realize that NICs for notebooks and laptops are available in several different formats. Currently, the two best-selling formats are the 16-bit PC-Card and the 32-bit CardBus. Mini-PCI is really the new card on the block. Mini-PCI has been around for about a year, and features a card in the Type III format that is about the size of a SODIMM and plugs into the laptop internally. Although it can be replaced by the end user (in most, but not all cases), it’s a much more involved process than the PC-Card/CardBus cards to which most users are accustomed. The replacement and/or removal process is closer to doing a memory upgrade on a laptop, and the location of the Mini-PCI slot will dictate how involved the replacement process is.

The recently announced CardBay and Miniature Card formats have not yet made their way into the notebook market. You can expect to start seeing laptops arriving with the new CardBay format soon. The CardBay format has support from most of the major players in this market, so, moving forward, we expect it to become one of the standards. We didn’t look at any CardBay or Miniature Card format products in this review.

PC-Card (16-bit) Technology

The PC-Card format is a 16-bit format that is the oldest format in use on notebooks today. It was developed in the early 90’s and became the de facto standard in mobile computing, due, in large part, to the efforts of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA). The PC-Card format features three different types of PC-Cards, and all three card types use the same 68-pin connector. The main difference between the Type I, Type II, and Type III card types is the thickness of the card: Type I cards are 3.3 millimeters; Type II cards are 5.0 millimeters; and the Type III cards are 10.5 millimeters. A thinner card can be used in a thicker slot, but a thicker card can not be used in a thinner slot. The PC-Card technology also supports Zoomed Video, which is a direct connection between the card and the VGA controller. This allows data to be transferred between the PC-Card and the VGA contoller with no buffering because it is transferred over the ZV bus, rather than the system bus. Some MPEG-2 decoder cards can use the Zoomed Video technology, which is referred to as ZV.

The PC-Cards that we looked at for notebooks feature the use of either the Type II or Type III technology. When using the Type III cards, you do lose access to the top slot, but do not have to use a dongle, as the connectors are built into the card itself. The Type II cards come in three types: those that use a dongle of some type to connect the network cable; those that use a plastic connector outside of the card; and the 3Com X-Jack technology where the jack pops out from the card itself. In some cases, use of the plastic connector that resides outside the card can cause you to lose access to the other slot, while in some cases it is still possible to use another card.

16-bit PC-Cards are hampered by the limitations of the 16-bit bus. The use of a 16-bit PC-Card will limit your overall throughput to the network, because the 16-bit data path just isn’t wide enough to get the data through it. Although 16-bit PC-Cards claim 100 megabit performance, in our opinion it would be better stated that, while the card is able to connect at 100 megabit, your real performance is limited to about 20 to 25 megabit because of the limitations of the 16-bit PC-Card bus. All 16-bit PC-Cards are limited to using 5 volts, which means that they do draw more power than CardBus, but the current crop of PC-Cards do seem to conserve as much power as possible. In most cases, newer laptops do support both the PC-Card and CardBus technologies, but most systems that were released prior to 1997 support only the PC-Card technology.

CardBus (32-bit) Technology

The CardBus standard was established in May of 1996 by PCMCIA to address the limitations of the PC-Card standard. CardBus is, in most cases, four to six times faster than the PC-Card bus standard featuring a 32-bit 33MHz bus architecture with a 3.3 Volt power saving design. CardBus features a PCI-like performance level with the DMA and bus-mastering capabilities that were lacking in the original PC-Card bus design. The CardBus design features a 32-bit multiplexed address/data path at 33MHz which yields a peak bandwidth of 132MB/sec. CardBus achieves this by adapting the synchronous burst-transfer orientation of PCI, as well as the bus protocol, which is very similar to PCI. The CardBus design targets high bandwidth products like USB, 1394 (Firewire), and, of course, 100mbit NIC performance. Because of the use of the 3.3 volt low power design, CardBus cards should not get as hot as PC-Cards do. The cards feature the same form factor design as the PC-Cards using the Type I, Type II, and Type III formats. The card is keyed in such a way that you can’t insert a CardBus card into a notebook that doesn’t have a CardBus compatible slot. Using the 32-bit 33MHz bus CardBus design, it is possible to hit true 100 megabit lan performance on CardBus NICs. Like the PC-Cards before it, CardBus designs still include the hot-swapping and plug-and-play capabilities that users have become accustomed to with the PC-Cards.

The CardBus cards for notebooks that we looked at feature the use of either the Type II or Type III technology. When using the Type III cards, you do lose access to the top slot, but you do not have to use a dongle, as the connectors are built into the card itself. The Type II cards come in three types: those that use a dongle of some type to connect the network cable; those that use a plastic connector outside of the card; and, the 3Com X-Jack technology, where the jack pops out from the card itself. (This was not really a change in format from the PC-Card technology that we looked at above.) The 3.3 volt power-saving design of the CardBus cards really showed what true power savings are all about, since these cards cause a lot less drain on the battery. If you have a newer notebook, CardBus does offer a lot more “bang for the buck” as far as perfomance goes, and if your notebook is CardBus compatible, then these are the cards that you should be considering.

One question that people often ask is: “What does the inside of a PC-Card/CardBus card look like?” Here is a look at the inside of the 3Com 3CXFE575CT Type II CardBUS NIC. As you can see, 3Com only has use of about 75% of the total surface area of the card. The other 25% is devoted to its X-Jack technology. Although some cards feature a double-sided board design, 3Com was able to get all of the 3CXFE575CT done using one side of the board, so you are not missing anything by not seeing the bottom of the board.

MiniPCI (32-bit) Technology

MiniPCI is a technology whose time has finally arrived. With the need to use existing PC-Card/CardBus slots for other devices (such as wireless 802.11b, Bluetooth, and various media adapters for Compact Flash/Smart Media), and with notebook manufacturers looking to reduce costs, the new, semi-intergrated solution called Mini-PCI was born.

In January of this year, THG’s Uwe v.d. Weyden took a look at Mini-PCI in the article Nuts and Bolts of Notebooks.

Since we are planning another future article on Mini-PCI that includes testing, I am not going to explain much beyond the basics of Mini-PCI. We will provide a more in-depth look at Mini-PCI technology in the upcoming Mini-PCI review.

Mini-PCI is a small form factor version of the PCI specification. (So, using an adapter, it is possible to test and use Mini-PCI solutions in a standard PCI slot!) The Mini-PCI format comes in several different form factors: the Type I, Type II, and Type III, as discussed previously. The Mini-PCI Type III card looks very similar to the SODIMMS that are used in laptops today, and is fast becoming the most popular of the Mini-PCI standards. The connector that the Mini-PCI Type III card plugs into is also very much the same as that which is used for SODIMMS. Mini-PCI provides the same 32bit 33MHz performance that you have come to expect from the PCI bus. Mini-PCI is starting to show up in many new notebooks as vendors look for ways to provide more connectivity solutions at a lower cost. Mini-PCI is still pretty much an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) product, as you are not yet able to go to a store and purchase a Mini-PCI card.

Although it is possible to replace the Mini-PCI card in your laptop, it isn’t for the faint of heart. Depending on the laptop, you may have to disassemble much of the system to get to the Mini-PCI slot and depending on the situation, this can void your laptop warranty. Often, during the vendor intergration process, it is possible to select or specify which Mini-PCI card will be included with the notebook(s) that you purchase, depending on the vendor and as long as the Mini-PCI card you’ve chosen is compatible. We have been told of cases where companies choose a different card than the one that normally comes with a particular notebook. Mini-PCI can also be used for wireless, and in some cases it is also possible to specify that you wish to use an 802.11b wireless Mini-PCI card, rather than a NIC/Modem MiniPCI combo card. Take the time to talk to your vendor about the possible options – it might result in some time and cost savings.

Although Mini-PCI is supposedly fairly cross-compatible, this isn’t always the case, and, depending on the BIOS, you may or may not be able to use a particular Mini-PCI card in your notebook. Also, differences in the modem and LAN connectors on the notebook itself, as well as the Mini-PCI card, can be an issue. If you have Mini-PCI currently installed in your notebook, the performance of the card will vary. We attempted to get as many Mini-PCI cards as we could for testing, but this wasn’t an easy task. Because of the limited surface area of the Mini-PCI, it takes a lot of development and integration to get all of the chips into a small, double-sided space. The surface area of a Mini-PCI card is roughly equivlent to a single side PC-Card/CardBus card. This can lead to some use of programmable controller technology, which means that many of these Mini-PCI cards require the CPU to do some, if not all, of the processing. In many cases, you can expect to take a performance hit when using Mini-PCI, but the significance of the hit depends on the design and skill of the company who designed your Mini-PCI card.

Here is a picture of a 3Com 3CN3AC1556 Type III MiniPCI card, just to give you an idea of what a MiniPCI card looks like. Notice that the 3CN3AC1556 is double sided, although, due to the sticker that 3Com has put on both sides of the card, the compoents are not visable.

Connector Technology – Which One Is Right For Me?

Before you can really do an adequate comparison of different network interface cards, you must first address what configuration options are possible with the notebook that you have selected. Depending on the notebook brand and configuration, your options for network interface cards may be limited. Assuming that the notebook does not have a Mini-PCI product that is already integrated, such factors as whether you intend to use the notebook in a docking station, or the location of the card slots, might exclude the use of certain cards. For example, some ultra portable models have only one card slot, or one card slot on each side of the laptop. In situations such as this, you would be unable to consider the use of Type III cards because Type III cards require that the two card slots are stacked. I encountered a ridiculous and frustrating situation where the card that was selected would not work with the notebook-provided docking station: the docking station for the notebook had a plastic lip on it to help guide the notebook into the dock, and, unfortunately, the release for the RJ-45 cable was on the bottom of the card. Because of the plastic lip, once the notebook was docked, the bottom of the RJ-45 was covered, and I could not get to the release on the RJ-45 cable to disconnect it when I wanted to undock the computer.

An all-too-common problem created by the notebook manufacturers is what I like to call, “Now, why did you put that there?” In most cases with a “Now, why did you put that there?” problem, you are stuck with some sort of button, switch, knob, connector, or control that is underneath the card slots. In another case that I encountered, it seems the laptop manufacturer didn’t think anyone would ever use the floppy drive with something connected in the card slots. With this design, there is a two- inch connector that you must use to plug your floppy drive into the laptop. The problem with this two-inch connector is that, once it is connected, you will have problems connecting the RJ-45 cable to the card. No matter what solution you choose in this case, you will always be stuck with this disadvange. I recommend that IT shops do limited field trials with their entire test configuration and get feedback from the users to help uncover some of these often overlooked or hidden, but nonetheless significantly annoying, problems.

As for users that are purchasing a notebook, make sure that you see the notebook in person and pay special attention to the location of all of the buttons, switches, knobs, and connectors. When all of the features that you want are plugged in to the notebook, are there features that you can’t activate or reach? This can become a true inconvenience if not well explored. Ask yourself if the inconvenience is something you can live with – if you’re spending the cash, you want to make sure that you are not going be kicking yourself later.

Another factor to consider is the laptop bag in which the computer is going to be carried. Some laptop cases do not provide any extra space for a card that extends beyond the outside of the laptop case. In these situations, the user will be required to eject the card from the notebook before storing the laptop in the chosen case. Having to eject the card creates two possible problems: the user can lose the card, and ejecting it repeatedly causes wear and tear on the card slot. Another possible problem is that the user may re-insert the card incorrectly into the slot, which can cause the system to need servicing, or, worse yet, the user may insert the card into the wrong slot, causing potential configuration issues. In my opinion, it’s got to be a nightmare for the helpdesk people to hear from a notebook user calling from a hotel room in the middle of nowhere saying, “I can’t get my NIC/Modem to work!”

As nightmarish as these examples are, the headaches can be prevented by some advanced examination and planning to confirm that all of the products selected for your notebook will work well together. If you are not using a docking station or laptop bag, then the situation presents fewer potential problems, but it is still very important to know the limitations of the card and the configuration in which you wish to use it.

When looking at the connector possibilities as we did above, they can be broken down into four different types for simplification. I have taken the liberty of giving the connector types names, to help you better recognize which connector technology we are referring to in the reviews.

Option 1 – Classic Dongle Design

The Classic Dongle Design connector was the first connector used for LAN connections, back in the PC-Card era. The dongle, in most cases, connects to the card using two clips on either side of the dongle.

The biggest problem with the dongle connectors has nothing to do with performance, but rather, with the users themselves. Users have problems with the dongles when they lose them or leave them connected to cables. Their replacement can be a significant cost problem for IT shops. Many people have said that they are forced to stock extra dongles, just in case one is lost. The cost of the replacment can be expensive.

Dongles have a low manufacturing cost, but, in most cases, manufacturers charge a premium for replacements. With the shipping cost added in, you can almost buy a new card for the cost of the replacment dongle.

If you are considering a dongle solution, it is a good idea to find out how much the replacment dongle costs, and you might want to go ahead and purchase a spare in advance, since nothing can ruin your day more than losing your dongle. I have been on the user side and the IT side of the lost dongle nightmare, and, either way, the view is pretty ugly! Cards in the Classic Dongle family are of the single slot Type II design. This can be a good option if you only have a single slot on your laptop.

Here is a look at the cards with the dongles attached to them. Although, the cards might look a little different, the dongles are all basically the same.

Option 2 – Outside Hanging Port Design

The Outside Hanging Port Design gets its name from the way that the ports hang outside of the laptop. As we discussed above, this can lead to problems if the proper laptop case with adequate space isn’t selected. In those cases, the card must be removed before the laptop can be placed into the case. One advantage of the Outside Hanging Port Design is that it uses connectors that are easy to access and, in most cases, it is also easy to access the cable release.

The connectors tend to be more standard and to have a better feel than some of the other solutions. In some cases, it is possible to use another card by using one card in the top slot and another card in the bottom slot, in a stacked card configuration. Of course, with laptops getting thinner, the card may extend beyond the thickness of the laptop. Generally, these cards do feature a lower cost than some of the other more advanced designs, but many users say that they don’t like the way they look.

Here is a look at the cards that use the Outside Hanging Port design. In my opinion, this configuration has both positive and negitive issues. The lower cost of these cards is attractive, but some people just don’t like the look. At least it’s a little more difficult to lose the whole card than it is to just lose the dongle.

Option 3 – X-Jack Excellence?

Megahertz, one of the orginial PC-Card makers, developed the patented X-Jack technology that is in use today by 3Com Corporation. 3Com acquired Megahertz some years back, through their acquisition of US Robotics. Orginally, Megahertz was focused mainly on the development of X-Jack for use in the modem market, but after 3Com came into the picture, the futher development of the X-Jack technology spilled over into LAN technology, as well.

One of the complaints that we regularly hear about the X-Jack is that the construction of it is just too flimsy. We beg to differ with that assessment. The X-Jack is constructed in such a way that the card can support a considerable amount of weight hanging from it. When we were at Comdex this year, we heard recurring tales of X-Jack cards at Comdex past being mounted in vises with bowling balls hanging from them. While we didn’t see that, people who did claim it was an impressive sight to see.

The X-Jack of today has been refined to include some new features which have made their way into the new X-Jack LAN cards. The two significant new features are the X-Jack breakway connector and the new, clear-lighted X-Jack. The breakway connector allows the connector to come out from the card when a certain amount of force is placed on the X-Jack. So, if a user trips over the cable, the X-Jack will slide out of the card, and can be easily reinserted back into place. This feature also allows you to replace the X-Jack if it becomes damaged or broken. (3Com is already selling replacement X-Jacks in packs of five for some X-Jack products.) The clear-lighted X-Jack is one of the slickest new features to come along, in my opinion. This X-Jack lights up when you are connected. 3Com chose to use different colors for different speeds. The lighted connector is nice in a situation where the user is calling in and trying to determine if they are getting a connection or not.

Although 3Com does have both of these new technologies for the X-Jack, they have not migrated through the entire 3Com product line. We have to expect that they are on 3Com’s development road map, but, as of now, 3Com has yet to upgrade all of their cards. The most common complaint that I hear from users is that they find it hard to work with the X-Jack. I don’t find that to be the case, but I have seen my share of X-Jack cards with all of the connector pins bent beyond repair. X-Jack is a Type II solution that can work in a lot of situations, but its design dictates that the cable must push down into the X-Jack, so you must make sure that there is nothing under it on the laptop, and that the cable can be fully inserted into the X-Jack.

Because the X-Jack and the X-Jack technology are patented, only 3Com (and some US Robotics products) can offer this solution. Love it or hate it, the X-Jack has been around a long time and and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Development continues with new innovations being added to the X-Jack technology all of the time.

Option 4 – Terrific Type III!

The design teams at Xircom deserve a lot of credit, as they are really the people who developed the adoption of the Type III card. Although there were some minor problems with the early Type III designs, these have all disappeared with the revisions of the RealPort series. The RealPort comes in several different flavors, including both CardBus and PC-Card designs, as well as NIC/Modem combo and non-combo NIC-only designs. Xircom took the development of the Type III card to the extreme next level with the introduction of the RealPort 2 – and the design team at Xircom has to be commended for such an outstanding innovative design!

The best way to explain the RealPort 2 is to imagine a Type III card that can be cut in half and reconfigured any way that you want. You can select two cards from the following types: NIC/Modem combo; NIC; four different types of modems; 802.11b Wireless LAN; ISDN; and Bluetooth. Using the RealPort 2, it is possible to get as many as three devices into those two slots, and if you need to reconfigure, just eject the cards and select the two new cards, and away you go! (Of course, you’ll have to load the drivers and configure the device, but that is pretty much all you’ll have to do!) Xircom has developed a very innovative solution, indeed. However, I don’t want to spoil all of the fun in this article, so I’ll leave the rest of the innovative features for the review of the RealPort 2.

3Com now offers many of their cards in a Type III form factor, as well. They only offer two flavors: NIC or NIC/Modem combo. It appears that most users prefer the use of the Type III cards to almost any other solution, but this convience does come at a cost. In most cases, you can expect the Type III cards to cost more than any of the other solutions. In some situations and configurations, the convience factor makes this the right choice, but there are a few restrictions. Type III cards only work in a stacked card slot, so you must have a stacked card slot configuration. You also will lose the use of one slot with the RealPort and 3Com 3C3 products. This is fine if you don’t have anything else to use, but if you want to add something else, you will be forced to look at the RealPort 2, or other options such as Mini-PCI. Depending on your needs, the Type III has a lot to offer and you and/or your users may like the convenience the Type III offers.

Here is a look at the Type III cards. So as not to spoil the in-depth review of the RealPort 2, the RealPort 2 is shown in the CardBus LAN only configuration without the spacer or a second card on top. Notice the difference between the RealPort and the 3Com 3C3 Type III cards — the Xircom Realport has the RJ-45 jack release on the bottom of the card, while the 3C3 releases the jack from the top of the card. Depending on your needs, you might have to choose one method or the other. 3Com is also using a standard AMP RJ-45 connector jack that is molded into the 3C3 series cards.

A Few More Words Before We Get To The Reviews

In the review section of this article, we focus on the NIC itself and the technology behind the card. We have tried to examine the design on each card in real-world scenarios, and because the cards are often so different, we have spent additional time examining the usability of each card.

In order to help you better understand what to expect when using a particular card, we tried an approach in which I had to “live” with each card for an entire day. With this “day in the life” approach, I was better able to experience both the positives and negatives of each card, as well as to view the “typical,” daily performance of each card.

The THG NNUR Rating

In order to address the “usability” of each card, we came up with The Tom’s Hardware Guide (THG) Notebook NIC Usability Rating (NNUR). The THG NNUR is measured on a scale of one to ten, with ten being ‘exceptional’ and one being ‘not acceptable’.

The NNUR takes into consideration the following: Design Of the Card; Useability Of the Card; Design Of The Drivers; Usability of the Drivers/Control Panels for the Card; and the Stability of the Card. The NNUR does not consider the performance of the card, as we have separate performance graphs to measure that. At the end of each card’s specifications, you will see a THG NNUR rating. Think of the THG NNUR rating as a satisfaction rating: the higher the number, the more likely you will be satisfied with the card.

The Cards

3Com 3CXFE574BT / 3C3FE574BT / 3CCFE574BT – PC-Card

The three cards that make up the 3Com 574 Product Family.

In many ways, it appears that 3Com introduced the FE574BT cards to replace the aging technology of the 589 card series. The 574 card was a radical departure from any of the PC-Cards that 3Com had designed before. Most of the gains in the 574 came from an improved, high-performance chipset, which helped improve performance. The 574 models feature connector technology in Options 1, 3, and 4, which gives the user a variety of form factors from which to choose. Most use of the 574 (like other PC-Card Models) is currently restricted to the replacement of older cards in laptops that don’t support CardBus, or in technology upgrades where IT shops want to upgrade users to 100mbit support. Again, as we stated above (and as you will hear us say again and again…), although the card does in fact connect to the network at 100mbit, because of the restrictions of the PC-Card bus, the throughput averages about 20mbit to 25mbit, which is still an impressive improvement over 10mbit.

3Com has become very connector “agnostic,” which adds flexibility in terms of the connector that will suit your application. Drivers are not a problem, either, because of a unified driver architechure which supports all of the cards in the 574 product line. 3Com continues its use of the Etherlink II technology in this product. Like all Etherlink II series products, it features 3Com-exclusive Parallel Tasking II technology. This technology allows the card and the system to optimize data throughput by performing the read in/ transmit out data functions simultaneously, thus accelerating the speed at which packets are transferred from the network wire to the NIC. Parallel Tasking II Technology has been optimized for use in the notebook space in such a way that CPU overhead is reduced, as well. The important thing to note here is that, unlike most vendors, 3Com is building and designing its own ASIC, which does give them an advantage. The current ASIC in the 574 is not the same as the Etherlink II chipset they have used in the past.

As with most 3Com NIC products in the 10/100 space, the 574 product family also supports Nway 10/100 auto-negotiation, which automatically switches between 10 and 100 Mbps networks. The 574 also supports 3Com DynamicAccess technology for simplified network management. Additionally, the 574 family supports the use of the 3Com Mobile Connection Manager (MCM) software, which can be configured to allow users to select a variety of network configurations. If you have not seen MCM, it may be something that you should consider, as it can allow your users to change network configurations at the touch of a button.

As we talked about in the look at PC-Card technology, the throughput of any card that uses the 16-bit PC-Card bus is limited. 3Com has managed to squeeze everything possible out of the 574 card. 20Mbit to 25Mbit is still a vast improvement over 10Mbit half, but it is far from the “nirvana” of 100Mbit. If you are unable to use a Cardbus card and need a flexible solution in the PC-Card format, the 574 family represents a very good option. Further, if you want a card in the PC-Card format that uses the Type III connector option, this card is the best choice.

3Com 3CXFE575CT / 3C3FE575CT / 3CCFE575CT – CardBus

The three cards that make up the 3Com 575 Product Family.

I have a lot of firsthand knowledge about the 3Com 3CXFE575CT family of Cardbus NICs. The 575 is the card that I have been using almost exclusively for two years. (Of course, I recently switched over to the 3CXFEM656C, but that is another story.) Having used the 575 card for so long, I can tell you that it is a highly dependable product, and it was the flagship product in 3Com’s laptop NIC product line up until the introduction of the 656 cards.

The 575 series builds upon the elements of excellence and reliability in 3Com’s other NIC products, putting them into a CardBus form factor. As with all 3Com notebook cards, you can purchase the card in a variety of connector options, which can provide additional configuration flexibility, depending on the user or notebook.

As with most of the mobile NICs that 3Com manufactures, you can expect most of the standard 3Com features, such as Parallel Tasking II technology, to be found on this card. Nway 10/100 auto-negotiation, which automatically switches between 10 and 100 Mbps networks and 3Com DynamicAccess technology for simplified network management, are also standard in the 575 family. The 575 family also supports the use of the 3Com Mobile Connection Manager (MCM) software, which can be configured to allow users to easily select a variety of network configurations.

From a performance standpoint, the 575 was one of the best-performing cards that we tested. It continued to work well in a variety of environments, without failing or causing any problems. With the 575, 3Com demonstrates that they have the experience to build top-rated products in a variety of configurations.

3Com 3C3FEM656C / 3CXFEM656C – CardBus

The two cards that make up the 3Com 656 NIC/ Modem Combo Product Family.

Every few years, a new version of a product comes along that is very different from all of the previous versions. For some time, 3Com had been selling an NIC modem combo called the 3CCFEM656B. The 656B never really caught on well, mostly due to the 656B’s dual-dongle design. For 3Com’s new 656C design, they started with a clean slate. Inside the card, you will find a single, double sided board that contains all of the components that make up the 656C. What is even more impressive, as we showed you in the CardBus technical breakdown above, is that the inside of a 3Com X-Jack card only allows about 75% of the board space that a non-X-Jack card would provide.

The 656C is available in only two different form factors, the X-Jack based Type II, and the Type III. Like the 575, the 656C features a 3Com custom-designed ASIC called “Odie.” 3Com continues to have an edge over many of the other card manufacturers due to the fact that they design and program their own custom ASIC. The amount of thought and time that went into the design of the 656C card is obvious. No matter which form factor you choose, you get the lighted connector, which I consider to be one of the coolest features of the 656C. Although we have seen this from other manufacturers, the 656C is the first card to feature it from 3Com. In addition, the Type III format features an AMP RJ-45 connector with the release clip on the top of the card. We found this feature much easier to access than with some of the Xircom products, which feature the release clip on the bottom of the card.

Although we didn’t test the modem section of the card, it is important to note that the modem in the card is a controller-less modem. This will present some problems if you attempt to use it in a non-Windows environment. The modem itself has some unique features, like the 3Com Exclusive Line Probing technology, a feature that no other card has.

In the past few months, I have had the opportunity to use this card on an almost exclusive basis. I needed to move from the 575 to an integrated NIC/Modem Combo, mostly due to the fact that I had to have a 802.11b wireless card added to my laptop (It was the new “in” thing to have, and my wife liked it a lot better than the 50 feet of Cat-5e running across the floor!) and I only had two slots with which to work. (Of course, this meant that I had to say goodbye to my old friend, the 3CXM756 Modem, which I can honestly say was a very difficult thing for me to do.) The 656C has performed well, and the card has not missed a beat. I was very doubtful when I switched to the NIC/Modem Combo, because I have never been a fan of integrated anything, but the 656C has performed beyond my expectations.

The 656C ran well in the tests, and we couldn’t find a thing to complain about with this the card. The modem in the card has some features that are way beyond any of the other combo cards that we tested. The 656C performed well, as did the drivers. If you are looking for a combo card that performs well and won’t disappoint you, the 656C should rank high in your final selection process.

Belkin F5D5020 – PC-Card

The Belkin F5D5010 PC-Card NIC.

Belkin is new to the networking product space. The F5D5020 Type II PC-Card is their first effort in this product category. If Belkin has a mission statement in the networking product arena, it would be summed up as, “Provide good solutions at an affordable price.” Notice the use of the words “GOOD” and “AFFORDABLE.” Not to say that Belkin isn’t trying to achieve performance standards, but they are sourcing their solutions in Taiwan and are not really doing much development in the rest of the world yet.

The Belkin F5D5020 is a no-thrills, dongle-based PC-Card solution that is affordable. The first thing that you will notice about the F5D5020 is that the card is very heavy when compared to other cards in this category. When we pulled the F5D5020 out of the test system, it was hot to the touch. While weight and heat don’t necessarily degrade the performance of the card, this design approach is different, because cost is the driving factor here.

As you could guess from this article’s introduction, we are not big fans of the dongle solution. As with all dongle-based cards that we tested, dongles can get broken, they can get lost, they can be forgotten, but they are a less expensive solution than many of the other solutions that you will see in this review.

In the tests, the F5D5020 wasn’t the fastest card that we tested in the PC-Card product space, but it wasn’t the slowest, either. Overall, the card performs well and does get the job done. Its performance is satisfactory, and the drivers were stable in the tests. If you are looking for a low cost PC-Card solution, you need look no futher than the F5D5020, but for an additional $10 to $20 you could definetely do better. We don’t really expect Belkin to improve the F5D5020, as we expect them to put more effort into the F5D5010, since most users want the CardBus performance if they know the difference. Overall, it is a good first effort.

Belkin F5D5010 – CardBus

The Belkin F5D5020 CardBus NIC.

Like F5D5020, the F5D5010 is Belkin’s first effort in the Type II CardBus NIC product space. The F5D5010 shares more in common with the F5D5020 than just the box and the manual, which are almost identical expect for the differences in the cards. Again, this was a solution that was sourced in Taiwan that focuses more on low cost than on performance.

The F5D5010 is a dongle-based solution, like its little brother, the F5D5020, but the F5D5010 is somewhat more robust than the F5D5020, as should be expected due to the fact that it is a CardBus solution. This card didn’t weigh as much as the F5D5020, or produce as much heat as the F5D5020.

With the F5D5010, you don’t get any bells and whistles. You get a dongle-based link and activity indicators, but little else. You do get a well-written manual with simple instructions and ample screen shots which can walk any novice through the installation of the card. The manual does give a good step-by-step overview of setting up Internet Connection-sharing under Windows, which is nice.

Performance of the F5D5010 was below average, it isn’t going to win any speed contests, but it did have solid drivers and steady performance. The F5D5010 presents a good low-cost package with above average documentation, but if it is performance that you’re after, you will need to look elsewhere. Overall, we found the F5D5010 from Belkin to be a good first effort.

D-Link DMF-560TXD – PC-Card

The D-Link DMF-560TXD

The D-Link DMF-560TXD, D-Link’s NIC/Modem Combo card, is one of three 16-bit PC-Card based NIC/Modem combos that we tested. It was the only card that offered Apple Mac OS support, which was not tested in this review.

D-Link chose a hanging port design that they call Direct Port. This translucent housing that hangs out of your PC-Card slot provides connections for both the NIC and the Modem connectors. The DMF-560TXD also offers an array of status lights as follows: Receive, Transmit, and Carrier Detect on the Modem side; Link, Activity, and 10/100 on the NIC side.

The design of the Direct Port is good. We were unable to break the Direct Port away from the card, even after stepping on it. (Not something we would suggest that you try, but then, accidents do happen!) If the DMF-560TXD is used in the top slot, it is possible to insert a second card in the lower slot. We tested with both an Iomega Zip Zoom card and a 3Com 802.11b wireless card, and we were able to use both of these cards with the DMF-560TXD inserted.

The Quick Install Guide that comes with the card isn’t much to talk about, and when compared with some of the other manuals included with the other cards, I suggest that D-Link go back to work on this eleven page fold-up guide, and beef it up a little. To be fair, D-Link does include the manual on a floppy disk. The use of floppy disks for both the manual and the drivers brings up another point: with laptops, most users don’t carry around their floppy drives, and some can’t even find their floppy drives. With the low cost of pressed CD, it is curious that D-Link didn’t elect to go with that option instead. In the case of the Apple crowd, it gets even better, because I don’t think that most Macs are available with a floppy drive. I think this is something that D-Link had better look at more closely. I think it is fine if a manufacturer includes the floppies and the CDs, but it irks me when floppies aren’t included just to save a few cents.

As far as the D-Link’s performance goes, I wasn’t impressed with the NIC performance at all, and, as a matter of fact, I wasn’t impressed with this product at all. Other than the Apple Mac OS support and the fact that the Direct Port was very durable, nothing else about the card really made me want to continue to use it. The performance was average, the price is average, and unless you need the Mac support, I suggest you look elsewhere.

D-Link DFE-690TXD – CardBus

The DFE-690TXD is a far better effort for D-Link than the DMF-560TXD. The DFE-690TXD is D-Link’s CardBus offering that uses a modified version of D-Link’s Direct Port design. Everything negative that I had to say about the DMF-560TXD doesn’t seem to apply to the DFE-690TXD. The DFE-690TXD was another one of the very few cards that included Apple Mac OS support.

The DFE-690TXD D-Link provides a very well-written, color install manual with ample screen shots to help you get the card installed. Beyond that, the DFE-690TXD includes the manual and drivers on CD. I found the manual on the CD to be quite useful.

The redesigned Direct Port on the DFE-690TXD is still as durable as ever. We were unable to break it, and we did try. When I gave it my standard “pull” for the network cable test, the card didn’t suffer any ill effects, even after I intentionally tripped over the network cable. And, with the redesigned Direct Port on the DFE-690TXD, I was able to use a card in the bottom slot of the notebook. The DFE-690TXD includes two lights on the Direct Port itself: Link/Activity and 10/100 connect.

The performance of the DFE-690TXD was in line with what we expected in the middle range of CardBus cards. Overall, the DFE-690TXD performed well and seems to be more stable than the DMF-560TXD. Depending on the price, it is worth considering, and D-Link has done a fine job with the improvements it has made to this product.

Linksys PCM200 – CardBus

Currently, Linksys seems to be all about changes in both design and technology. Linksys has been a favorite provider of networking technology among home users for many years, always providing quality networking solutions at an affordable price. Where Linksys has had problems in the past has been with the physical appearance of its products. In the past, both the Linksys packaging and the external look of the products has been very “plain vanilla.” Linksys has been changing that recently, as we saw at Comdex this year. Most of the new Linksys products now feature the new black and blue color scheme along with much more attractive packaging. The PCM200 does feature some of the new revisions in both its design and in its packaging.

PCM200 uses what Linksys calls a “fully integrated design,” which in this article we call the “Connection Option 2” design. The card is solid and we didn’t feel like the port was fragile or going to break off the card. The PCM200 includes two indicator lights for Link/Activity and 10/100.

Like almost all of the other cards in this review, the PCM200 features auto-sensing 10/100 compatibility. Another feature of note for the PCM200 Minimal Power Consumption is its automatic sleep mode, which conserves battery life. We couldn’t confirm the enhanced minimal power consumption claim, however.

The performance of the PCM200 was good and on par with what we have seen with other Linksys products. The card and drivers were stable, and we didn’t have any problems. The PCM200 is built in the tradition of other Linksys products, that being one of performance and value. Linksys has done a good job with the PCM200.

Linksys PCMLM56 – PC-Card

The Linksys PCMLM56 was the best PC-Card NIC/Modem Combo that we tested. The PCMLM56 is based on technology that Linksys has had for some time, thus the card has matured over the last several years. This does give it an edge over some of the other PC-Card NIC/Modem combo cards in this space.

The PCMLM56 offers the features that are expected with a card in this range. Auto-sensing 10/100 compatibility and Linksys’s Minimal Power Consumption with an automatic sleep mode are also included in this well-rounded package.

The PCMLM56 includes V.90 56K Modem that is compatible with all of the major V.90 standards and includes backward compatibility for all of the older standards, as well.

Speaking of compatibility, one other important point to note: our understanding of the PCMLM56 is that the PCMLM56 is fully Linux-compatible for both the NIC and the Modem. This isn’t always the case for all combo cards, so this is a point to remember if you need or think you may want Linux driver support at some later point.

The design of the connector on the PCMLM56 is sturdy, and we didn’t encounter any problems with the connector on the card. The connector is large as connectors go, but we were still able to get a card in the bottom slot with the PCMLM56 installed. Because the connector is so large, you might have trouble accessing the card in the bottom (depending on what card you are using in the bottom slot) without turning the notebook on its side to gain better access.

The PCMLM56 is one of the lowest-priced NIC/Modem combo cards that we tested, but don’t let its price fool you into thinking that PCMLM56 is lacking in performance. The PCMLM56 performed reasonably well in the tests, and we liked the level of performance for the price. If you are looking for a PC-Card NIC/Modem Combo for a reasonable price, the PCMLM56 is worth consideration. However, if your notebook supports CardBus, you will get better performance by choosing a CardBus NIC/Modem combo.

Netgear FA411 – PC-Card

Netgear invested a lot of R&D designing the replacement for both their older model PC-Card and their Cardbus NIC cards. With the release of the new FA411 PC-Card, the results look to be well worth it. Netgear has totally discarded the dongles and moved toward a hanging port design. In addition to the new card design, Netgear has also entirely redesigned the packaging and documentation.

Netgear has given the FA411 a complete set of driver support for almost all of the operating systems, which is in line with Netgear’s philosophy that it is important to provide customers with drivers for any operating system that a customer may have in his/ her environment.

The FA411 includes two lighted indicators which indicate Link/Activity and 10/100 speed. The connector is longer and thinner than some of the other cards, which means that it will hang futher outside the laptop than some of the other cards. The connector itself is shaped a little better than some of the other models that feature this design, and it does look a little more ergonomic.

In our experience, the performance of Netgear products has always been a “mixed bag;” e.g., some products perform really well, and others don’t. It appears that Netgear put forth considerable effort in adjusting the performance of the FA411, as it performed well in the tests.

With the FA411’s stable drivers and reliable performance, the FA411 is a good choice for users who need a PC-Card solution. The FA411 is priced to sell, and with the level of performance you can achieve with this card, it is a good value.

Netgear FA511 – CardBus

On Netgear’s web site, they describe the FA511 as having “Sizzling 32-bit, bus mastering performance.” I don’t know what Netgear is cooking in their kitchen, but as we explained earlier, ALL CardBus cards have 32-bit bus mastering performance. However, the dramatic description doesn’t derail the FA511 card.

The FA511 can best be described as “lean and mean.” The FA511 is “lean” in the way that you don’t get a lot of extras, but “mean” in the way it performs – like it really means business. The new design of the packaging doesn’t do our old NetGear friend “Gear Guy” justice, but he now has a new home on the connector of the FA511.

The FA511, like the FA411, has a complete set of drivers for just about every operating system. The FA511 does offer Linux support, like the FA411. During the tests, we found the drivers to be stable and to perform well.

Included with the FA511 is basically the same connector and features that are included with the FA411. The lights are in the same place, and the connector has the same design, but this lack of differentiation isn’t something that we feel detracts from the FA511.

Netgear has delivered robust perfomance in both the driver and the card. We found the FA511 card to be quite a value when compared with other cards in the same price range. The FA511 is one of the top contenders in performance versus price comparision. Solid performance and value is what the “Gear Guy” people have delivered in the new FA511.

SMC 8036TX – CardBus

SMC is a company that is gaining new notice in the networking business. Although SMC has been around a long time, people are only recently starting to learn of them. Whether this has been due to a lack of retail shelf space, or a lack of “buzz,” we are not sure. One thing that we are sure of is that SMC has some good products that are absolutely worth a look.

SMC redesigned both their PC-Card and their Cardbus products some time ago, and the single biggest improvement was moving from a dongle-based design to what SMC calls a “fixed port” design. The fixed port RJ-45 connector design is well-constructed, and is of the highest quality. We were not able to break the connector on the 8036-TX. We also like the low profile shape of the 8036-TX connector, as it takes up less space than some of the other cards.

Like many of the cards we have reviewed, the 8036-TX has all of the features that you would expect to find in the typical CardBus NIC. It includes auto-sensing 10/100 compatibility and a Link/Activity light, as well as a 10/100 light on the fixed port.

SMC doesn’t focus on advanced features or doodads that users don’t need. The 8036-TX provides top-notch performance at a good price. Although the SMC might cost a little more than some of the other cards in this product group, the extra money spent is worth it. We give the 8036-TX a thumbs-up.

SMC 8041TX – PC-Card

The SMC 8041TX builds upon the solid foundation that they have been developing in the networking arena. The 8041TX is a complete redesign for SMC. Like the 8036TX, with the 8041TX SMC set out to do what they do best, and that is provide performance and value.

The 8036TX uses what SMC calls a “fixed port” design. The fixed port RJ-45 connector design is of the higest quality and is well-contructed. As with the 8036TX, we were not able to break the connector on the 8041TX. The 8041TX uses the same low profile connector shape as the 8036TX.

Like many of the cards we have reviewed, the 8041TX has all of the features that you would expect to find in the typical PC-Card NIC. It includes auto-sensing 10/100 compatibility and a Link/Activity light, as well as a 10/100 light on the fixed port.

The 8041TX’s performance was solid and we didn’t encounter any problems with the drivers. We found the 8041TX to be a very capable card and a good choice for users who need a card in the PC-Card format. The performance was very even, which means you won’t have any surprises, but the 8041TX didn’t break any speed records, either.

Xircom R2BE-100BTX – CardBus

Xircom, now part of the Intel Networking Connectivity Group, introduced the RealPort2 technology some time ago. The stories we’ve heard about the development of the RealPort2 are the stuff of which urban legends are made. The RealPort2 has its roots in the original RealPort technology that Xircom first developed. It should be noted that Xircom was the first company to bring out a Type III card, and certainly the first to do Type III cards on a large scale.

The simplest way to describe the RealPort2 is to imagine taking a Type III card and sawing it in half in such a way as to leave the connectors intact. Basically, RealPort2 is two Type II cards with Type III-style connectors. When you talk about innovative design, these folks should get an award! (We wish we could have been there when the design people were trying to explain this concept to their boss!)

With the flexibility of the RealPort2 design, Xircom offers a unique “mix and match” format that allows the IT shop or the user to change the configuration of the cards “on the fly.” The only thing that has to be changed is the driver. For example, if your current configuration is a NIC and a Modem and you need to add Bluetooth support, you could swap the NIC and Modem cards to a NIC/Modem Combo card and add a Bluetooth card. Now you have three devices in the two slots, taking the same amount of space as two.

Of course, the value of this unparalleled flexibility isn’t lost on Xircom – they realize that they are almost alone in this market space. Although it is possible to reconfigure some of the 3Com products to do a simular job, that type of solution just isn’t as elegant as the RealPort2. As a result, Xircom can get away with charging a premium.

The R2BE that we tested included the Xircom RealView utility that allows the user to optimize the card. The R2BE also included the Xircom-developed BatterySave technology, which helps manage the card so it draws less power. Also included are most of the other standards that you find on other CardBus cards, such as N-Way 10/100 auto-negotiation. The R2BE LEDs provide convenient status information.

In the tests, we found the R2BE card to be stable, and the drivers to be stable as well. Xircom competes in the high-end card space, which, as you can logically conclude, means that its products cost more. However, as RealPort2 provides the most flexible and unique solution of all of the cards that we tested, Xircom is justified in charging more to help offset some of its development costs. Performance-wise, we found the R2BE to be just a tick behind other cards. Xircom will continue to optimize their drivers and technology, which should yield even more impressive offerings in the future.

Xircom RBEM56G-100BTX – CardBus

The RBEM56G-100BTX was Xircom’s first CardBus version of the RealPort Type III technology. RBEM56G-100BTX provided users with the first CardBus version of a NIC/Modem combo in a Type III form factor.

RBEM56G-100BTX has an impressive array of features, but somehow they seem to be overshadowed by the design of the Type III connector technology. While the TBEM56G-100BTX was not the clear leader in performance, strong support from the user community who liked the connector technology helped vault this card toward the top of the sales charts.

The RBEM56G-100BTX in the CardBus version supports the following list of features: ISDN capable; BatterySave; Wake-on-Ring; MAGIC PACKET WAKE-UP; Wake-on-LAN and ACPI power management; LAN and modem LEDs; Telephone handset pass-thru; Digital Shield; GlobalACCESS; N-Way 10/100 auto-negotiation; and GSM compatibility. This robust feature list made many IT shops sit up and take notice after the release of the RBEM56G-100BTX.

The performance of the RBEM56G-100BTX is much improved over the PC-Card REM56G-100TX, which led to early adoption of this card. Many of the other card manufacturers were caught “flat-footed” and didn’t know how to respond after this card was released, which resulted in a long development cycle while other vendors struggled to develop new cards that could compete with the RBEM56G-100BTX. In the tests, we found that the RBEM56G-100BTX just didn’t perform as well as some of the other cards. It is a stable card with mature driver support, but performance-wise, it is still a step behind some of the other cards in this review.

Xircom REM56G-100BTX – PC-Card

The REM56G-100BTX was Xircom’s first PC-Card version of the RealPort Type III technology. REM56G-100BTX provided users with the first PC-Card version of a NIC/Modem combo in a Type III form factor.

REM56G-100BTX has an impressive array of features, but, again, they seem to be dwarfed by the design of the Type III connector technology. While the REM56G-100BTX was not the leader in performance, if your notebook is able to use the RBEM56G-100BTX (which is the CardBus version), you are less likley to notice the performance shortcomings of this card.

The REM56G-100BTX in the PC-Card version supports the following list of features: ISDN capability; BatterySave; Wake-on-Ring; MAGIC PACKET WAKE-UP; Wake-on-LAN and ACPI power management; LAN and modem LEDs; Telephone handset pass-thru; Digital Shield; GlobalACCESS; N-Way 10/100 auto-negotiation; and GSM compatibility. At the time the REM56G-100BTX was released, many IT shops still were making the transition to CardBus, which made the REM56G-100BTX very popular.

The performance of the REM56G-100BTX was much lower than that of the RBEM56G-100, which is the CardBus version of the card. This is to be expected, due to the fact that the REM56G-100BTX uses the 16-bit PC-Card standard. However, all other PC-Cards in the tests were able to best the REM56G-100BTX. It has good stability as well as mature driver support. The only way we would recommend this card is if you must have the PC-Card format for compatibility reasons, and you want the RealPort technology. If performance is what you want, the REM56G-100BTX isn’t the card for you.

Xircom RE-100BTX – PC-Card

Xircom has worked very hard to improve the performance in its PC-Card NIC with the introduction of the RE-100BTX, developing some new technology and features to help make these gains.

The RE-100BTX has many of the features found in the other Xircom products, plus two features that we had not yet seen in any of the other cards that we reviewed.

The first important feature is Advanced Look-Ahead Pipelining, which Xircom claims can increase Ethernet throughput up to sixty percent. (I don’t know about you, but this sounds like some sort of memory buffer technology to me.) Naturally, Xircom isn’t very specific about what Advanced Look-Ahead Pipelining actually does, but we can tell you that the card does include a 32 KB RAM packet buffer. (We will see how it impacts performance in the tests!)

The second important feature that the RE-100BTX card has is Backward Driver compatibility with Xircom Type II and RealPort2 10/100 Ethernet Adapters (CE3, CE3B and R2E-100). This is a great feature if you happen to have CE3, CE3B, or R2E-100 adapters in your environment.

Beyond these two important features of note, the standard feature list includes: Auto-negotiation of 10Mbps and 100Mbps networks (NWay); BatterySave; LAN LEDs; and 32 KB RAM packet buffer.

The RE-100BTX is a stable, solidly-performing PC-Card. The drivers are stable and also work well. We found the performance to be good, but not as fast as some of the other cards. Overall, the RE-100BTX is much improved over some of Xircom’s other PC-Card LAN NICs, but there are other options that perform better and cost less than the RE-100BTX.

Test Setup

The test setup for the NICs in this review has three basic parts: Laptop Client, Server, and 10/100 Switch. To make sure that no one card had any advantage, all cards used the same laptop, the same switch, the same port on the switch, and the same cable for the test cycle. The laptop was loaded with Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 for all tests. The Server was loaded with Windows NT Server Version 4.0 with Service Pack 6a for all tests.

We used Qcheck to do all of the tests in this review. The reason that we continue to use Qcheck is the simple fact that you can get your hands on it and it is part of the same test suite that most companies use to test their products. This alone makes the fact that we are using Qcheck a sensible choice. We have looked at all of your feedback regarding network tests, and you can rest assured that we are in the process of working on new test methods that will push the limits of any networking device and provide us with the hard numbers that we all like so much.

The Asus L8400 is the laptop that we used as the test and reference platform for all of the tests in this article. We found the laptop to work well and able to handle our standard daily abuse in the lab.

Test Results

We looked at the performance of the all of the laptop NIC cards using Net IQ’s Qcheck utility. Qcheck is part of the Chariot Network Performance Suite. You can download it at: http://www.netiq.com/qcheck/default.asp. Using Qcheck, we ran two tests as follows:

TCP Throughput

TCP Throughput tests the time it takes to transfer a block of data from the test desktop system to the test server system. Sometimes called “bandwidth,” it is a measure of a network’s raw transfer speed. We used 1000kByte test data size for this test.

UDP Streaming

“Streaming tests, like multimedia applications, send data without acknowledgments. In Qcheck, streaming uses the connectionless protocols IPX or UDP. Qcheck’s streaming tests emulate the behavior of applications that use streaming, such as Voice-over IP and video broadcasts. This test indicates how much bandwidth the multimedia traffic might need, and makes it easy to compare the speed of the network hardware with the actual data rate the network is achieving.” (Qcheck Help file)

We set Qcheck with a data rate of 50 kbps for a duration of 30 seconds.

Selecting The Winners

After all of the reviewing and testing, selecting one as the Editor’s choice was not an easy task. Due to the differences in the cards, we could not select just one card. What we chose to do was select five winners, based on what we felt were important criteria. Although test performance did play a part in the selection, the overall usability of the card carried more weight than anything else. So, even if a card didn’t have the highest performance score, it might have scored better in the NNUR, which helped offset the difference in some cases. Now, on to the THG Editor’s Choice(s) in laptop NIC cards.

Category 1 – PC-Card Only Format – 3Com 574 Series

The 3Com 574 Series cards had the best overall performance of all of the PC-Card NICs that we tested. Based on 3Com’s extensive experience, solid chipset driver design, and its flexible connector options, this is the card that we choose. Although it is expensive when compared to other cards in this category, we felt that its performance and usability make it the best selection.

Category 2 – NIC/Modem Combo – 3Com 656 Series

Well, 3Com does it again! The 656 Series packs a lot of punch for the money. The 656 cards fit a mountain of features into one well-developed package. The dual form factor option’s advantage of being able to get the card in the X-Jack Type II or the Type III format really makes this card a great value. It is a good card for IT shops looking to standardize on one card, since you can use the same driver on both form factors. Although it was a little late to market compared with some of the other options, it would appear that 3Com got it right and they deserve a lot of credit for that. The 656 Series provides outstanding performance and good value!

Category 3 – Budget/Performance – * TIE * Netgear FA511 & SMC 8036TX

If price and performance are your primary concerns, then you need to exclude some of the exotic connector configurations from some of the better-known cards. Both the FA511 & 8036TX pack a lot of punch for the money, which can amount to less than HALF of what you would spend for other cards. Of course, you have to give something up, but it isn’t the performance! You do end up with a connector solution that might be considered less-than-optimum by some, but we felt that it was better than a dongle-style connection. We have to give both Netgear and SMC a lot of credit for being able to keep up with the big boys. Way to go!

Category 4 – Innovative Design & Flexibility – Xircom R2BE Realport 2

This wasn’t a hard choice at all. Xircom’s Realport 2 design is the hands-down winner for one of the most innovative designs that we have ever seen in our labs. Their ability to squeeze as many as three devices (with full-sized connectors) into two slots is a feat that we have not seen mastered by any other company. (Of course, it is possible to come close to this with the 3Com 3CXFEM656C, but not without using their X-Jack technology.) In the tests, Xircom is just a hair behind 3Com in NIC performance. If you need a “triple” (three devices in two slots), and you want full-sized RJ-45, then this is the option for you. Xircom has outdone itself with the design of the Realport 2. Hats off to the design department! We can’t imagine what they will do for an encore.

Category 5 – Overall Selection – 3Com 3CXFEM656C

If we could choose only one card, it would have to be the 3CXFEM656C. The 3CXFEM656C packs a boatload of features into one very small, attractive form factor. It uses only one slot, which is nice, and the use of the single-lighted X-Jack design was a hit with us. The fact that it leaves the other slot open was the overriding factor in our decision, because it gives you the room to add another card, like 802.11b, SCSI, or even a smart media card. This card has great performance and does a lot of things right. It might not be the best selection if you can’t live with the X-Jack, but we found it to be the most flexible for daily use.

A close second would be the R2BE Realport 2 from Xircom. We liked the Xircom mix-and-match design of the Realport 2. It was the only card that we looked at that could support a three-device configuration in a Type III format. Xircom has some really creative people in their design department, and they’ve produced some of the most exciting designs that we have ever seen. The R2BE’s performance was slightly behind 3Com’s, but if you need to put three devices in two slots using full size connectors, then the R2BE is a great option. Xircom needs to do a tad more work on tweaking the performance of the R2BE in order to compete at the level of the 3Com cards.

Conclusion

NICs for laptops will continue to be popular. The vendors that we have talked to have indicated that they continue to see some slowdown in sales of PC-Card and CardBus NICs, which is mainly due to the influence of new MiniPCI products that are being added to laptops sold over-the-counter. Depending on the brand of miniPCI that your notebook vendor chooses, you still may be able to get better performance out of your typical CardBus NIC. Some vendors are using the miniPCI slot for 802.11b wireless, which means that you may still have the need for a NIC if you want 100mbit performance when you have access to a cable. Of course, modems are not going away any time soon.

The transition to miniPCI is sad in some ways, because we have seen some amazing technology developed in both the PC-Card and CardBus space. A good amount of this technology can be moved over to the miniPCI, but the problem then becomes the limited amount of board space that miniPCI offers. 3Com and Xircom are already offering miniPCI solutions to notebook vendors. As we have seen in this review, performance does vary, and it might be best to test as many solutions as possible in order to find the right combination of performance and price.

In the six products that we picked as our favorites, you will not find one lemon among them. All six are good products. As we have seen in this review, there is not a “one size fits all” solution. Different users in your enviorment (or you personally, for that matter) will have different needs, which, of course, means different cards will be better suited to different users. Depending on the unit, choosing the “correct” cards for the platform may result in using more than one card or form factor.

We look forward to seeing what the next evolution in mobile computing will bring and what technology will affect mobile networking of the future. We will continue to cover the networking space and develop the test methods to better assist you in making the right purchasing decisions.