Intel Gigabit CT PCI-E Network Adapter EXPI9301CTBLK

My Dell Dimension E510 desktop had the PRO/100 VE desktop adapter as its NIC, which worked just fine. I was upgrading my E510 from XP to Windows 7 and wanted a new Ethernet card so I chose the Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter. I had PROSet software installed along with the driver for the PRO/100 VE.Some helpful instructions for those that want to upgrade your driver or install a new Ethernet card; With PROSet, you must first remove your current adapter from the PROSet software BEFORE uninstalling PROSet and the current driver. If you don't you may end up with a phantom adapter that causes problems when you try to install a new version of PROSet and an updated driver.I installed the Gigabit CT card while still running XP. I had a free PCI-Express (x1) slot, which made installing the new card easy. During system startup I entered Setup and disabled the PRO/100 VE NIC and then proceeded with the rest of startup. I then installed a new version of PROSet and a new driver that I downloaded from Intel's web site. I didn't have to reboot after installing the software. The card just worked.When I upgraded from XP to Windows 7, the OS recognized the Gigabit CT card and installed drivers automatically so I didn't have to worry about downloading and installing a driver after installing the OS. The only thing is that Windows 7 didn't install PROSet, which is optional software anyway so it's not required.My house is wired with CAT5 instead of CAT5e or CAT6 so I really don't get the benefit of having a Gigabit network adapter. My VPN router is not a Gigabit router. It's only rated at 75Mbps. With my current Comcast service I'm getting about 25Mbps download and 4Mbps upload, which is about the same as I was getting with the PRO/100 VE NIC so having a Gigabit card isn't making any difference for me.However, the card works flawlessly and I'm very pleased with it. If you're wired with CAT5e or CAT6 and have Gigabit network equipment I would highly recommend the CT Desktop Adapter. It's a great Ethernet card, easy to install, works with Windows 7, and it provides great performance even in a non-Gigabit environment. You can download the latest PROSet and driver from Intel's web site.

Slide into the slot, power up your PC, done. Works reliably with no issues. Tested separately on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. No driver installation necessary on either OS. Therefore, lack of official continued support from Intel for this strictly speaking outdated device is not an issue at all.I haven't tested Linux just yet, but IIRC recommendations for this Intel device, it's a very common and well-established controller which routinely has a ubiquitous support in Linux as well.Got it to solve my "Oh, apparently, MSI MPG B550 GAMING CARBON WIFI board has a crappy Ethernet controller (LAN), namely Realtek RTL8125B (2.5Gbps), which has a known, documented on forums, and admitted by Realtek IIRC, unsolvable-in-SW hardware bug for 1 Gbps mode that all the so-called review media failed to mention, which results in the board regularly (2 times a day?) dropping the connection when it's running 1 Gbps, 1/3 of the time not restoring at all, 2/3 of the time silently restoring itself to 100 Mbps mode" problem, with the only known workarounds being either rebooting the device or physically unplugging and plugging in back the Ethernet cable.My only dislike is that it's a bit expensive for what it is, but I gather, resellers know why people are after these bad boys (see the above - Realtek RTL8125B is a commonly used 2.5 Gbps controller present in other boards as well, and I have little doubt there are other LAN controllers out there that are just as faulty as well), so they drive the price up, either intentionally or just mechanically based on the supply/demand analytics. Can't really do anything about it...

I felt I needed to install a new subnet to run older Windows OSes. The networking software products I sell run on everything from Windows 95 to Windows 7, so a new release of my software has to be qualified against older, vulnerable OSes. Yes, I do have customers running Windows 98 and 2000. Now that XP will no longer be supported as of April of 2014, I decided to isolate the older OSes from the rest of the network.Because of the nature of the products I sell, I could not simply install a $20 router to NAT the subnet. Linux allows a single NIC to handle multiple IP Addresses, but that left me with an Ethernet collision domain that overlapped IP Subnets. That works, but not without occasional complaints. The Linux CentOS that I run gives me relatively powerful tools to route and firewall a subnet.I went looking for an inexpensive NIC that I could install on a open slot in my server, preferably a PCI Express x1 slot. I strongly preferred a gigabit NIC to speed up network backups. BTW, the test OSes all run as VMware or VirtualBox guests on host PCs that do support gigabit NICs.This NIC fit my needs, so I ordered it from Amazon where I am a Prime member.The NIC arrived a day early. It went into the server with no problems and was working within 30 minutes.I am very pleased with the Amazon service and the Intel NIC's performance. Price is fine. Amazon Prime convenience is wonderful.I have had the NIC installed for less than a day, but I do have a great deal of experience with Intel NICs so I am expecting that the device will work for years. If this NIC does not live up to those expectations, I'll update this review.