Review on 🔌 Enhance UPS Network Management with APC AP9630 Card 2 by Stephanie Fields

I am ordering a new status card and am receiving a new status card. I install the map and log into the web portal and the screens don't look like they appear on the web. I look and you would look. Installed firmware from 2010! Then I looked a bit more and the production date of the cards was 2010! This card has been in the box for 8 years! Well, I keep updating the firmware released in late 2018 (which works very smoothly) and the card works great. People have asked why it's so expensive, and some have commented that it's just a NIC. it is much more. The standard NIC you buy for $20 or less for a desktop computer is just a NIC. A full (technically multiple) web server and operating system is integrated into this card. Remember that this card has TELNET capabilities, web access and an FTP server (upload and download files). each is its own standalone server running on the card's embedded operating system. All of this works on the card, not the UPS itself. It requires a lot more design time and more expensive parts, but you're basically paying for the time and effort to write and maintain updated code for this product. While the new SMART UPS has intelligent connectivity, this card offers you much more. Smart Connect gives you the ability to view the status of the UPS (faults, battery life/capacity, etc.), send you an email if there are any problems, and that's all it does so you can see the UPS can see measurements. this functionality is also included free of charge in the smart UPS. So if you just need basic monitoring and email alerts about a few important events, you might not need this card. However, if you actually want to change the settings (ANY SETTINGS) in the UPS, you can use the control card. The Management Card may also email you for a number of other reasons if you deem it necessary. You can also manually control the UPS outlet groups, turn the UPS off or on, run tests, diagnostics, etc. remotely. If you want or need one (or more) of these features, then this card is for you. Then simply temporarily register your UPS with APC Smart Connect to receive an additional warranty period for your battery. I recommend this card and will be getting three more to the two I currently have, which is why all my devices have this card. The reason I gave it 4/5 stars is because of the email notification: the latest firmware supports TLS 1.2, which modern browsers and email providers now require. I'm having trouble sending my SMTP messages when they require TLS or SSL (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) so it seems the card still has encryption issues. For my email to work, I used my ISP's local SMTP server with no TLS/SSL and no authentication (no username and password). My ISP only allows this if the SMTP message is from my account's modem MAC address. The source of the MAC address behaves like a username/password. It's still not perfect since there's no encryption, but at least I don't have to worry about usernames or passwords being shared in clear text. Read around the web, there are some workarounds, but they're messy. If it works the way it's sold I could use my Gmail or Hotmail SMTP directly.