💻 Enhance Server Performance with Intel PWLA8492MT PRO/1000 MT PCI/PCI-X Dual Port Server Adapter Review

I bought one of these to use in a VMWare ESXi server; it worked great. However, the server I bought it for couldn't use it. The PCI-X portion of the card is of course optional; it works in a normal PCI slot. However, the board I was trying to install it on first had the chipset right behind the end of the PCI slot, so it didn't fit. I even considered using a Dremel tool to cut off that part of the map, but I ended up just dumping the map on another server. Once on a server that the card fit in…

Great cheap network card. Dual ports are a handy feature for virtualizing network devices or firewalls. This card has allowed me to successfully install VMware on a desktop build. This allows virtualization to be built into firewalls or networks connected. 1000Mbps is probably fast for most home/SMB applications since you're likely to be constrained by memory I/O unless you're using caching or using it to route traffic from many devices.

Very good value, works in a low profile package and does what it says on the tin. No complaints here. I used this in an old low profile HTPC computer case to build a router/firewall computer using the Untangle software. I would highly recommend Untangle to anyone diving into this endeavor. It is very polished and works well. I've used PcCop in the past, and while it worked fairly well, the user interface wasn't very exciting over email.