Recommendation for Expresscard Gigabit NIC?

June 16, 2008 10:25 AM

Recommendation for Expresscard Gigabit NIC? The card needs to have one gigabit port, fit in a 34 or 54 mm expresscard slot, and support linux.

I have laptop that is new enough to use expresscard instead of cardbus but still has a 10/100 network interface. I'd like to add a gigabit interface, but I can't find many for sale online; the ones I can find are poorly reviewed and highly priced. Since none of my usual geek friends have made this purchase, I'm turning to the hive mind to ask for a recommendation. The card needs to have one gigabit port, fit in a 34 or 54 mm expresscard slot, support linux, and ideally cost less than $40 with shipping.

posted by PueExMachina to computers & internet (2 answers total)

For Linux support, I think the only option on the market right now is the Belkin F5U250. It's about $10 more than you want to spend, but it's still much cheaper than the Linksys branded one (which doesn't have Linux drivers anyway, as far as I know). I don't have any experience running it under linux, unfortunately. Only 5 reviews at NewEgg, and completely mixed-bag at that... but ALL of the reviewers were running Windows OSes.

NewEgg has a 30-day return for refund policy... so you could send it back and only be out shipping if it doesn't work for you. Wish I had a better option for you than that! Good luck.
posted by XcentricOrbit at 11:10 AM on June 16, 2008

I found the ZEN1220E, which uses the VIA VT6130 chipset.
posted by PueExMachina at 11:34 AM on June 17, 2008