Dell laptops shipping with 10/100 ethernet adapters -Am I being ripped off?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Dell laptops shipping with 10/100 ethernet adapters -Am I being ripped off?

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589 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1748094 26-Mar-2017 15:34

As far as the specs go you got what you paid for however I don't think it was unreasonable for you to expect GbE in that kind of spec machine - likewise you won't expect USB 1.0 ports, 1x CD-ROM etc.

Try your luck with an RMA as not fit for purpose; they may well oblige otherwise count it as a learning experience to read the full spec and go with a USB 3.0 GbE adapter or wireless AC.

Dairyxox

1594 posts

Uber Geek

#1748134 26-Mar-2017 16:07

Inspiron are their most entry level "home office" range of laptops. It would be interesting to see if the Vostro range are any better equiped, as they are pitched as "small business" laptops.

coffeebaron

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#1748136 26-Mar-2017 16:12

Inspiron is their consumer range.

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linw

2849 posts

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#1748145 26-Mar-2017 16:37

Put me down as being on your side. Ridiculous not having a GB adaptor considering how long they have been available.

PhantomNVD

2619 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1748223 26-Mar-2017 18:23

Agree, would not have thought to HAVE to check something like that in this day and age.

Take it back and get a real one I'd say, vote with your wallet and tell them exactly why you're returning it... if enough people do they'll finally see the point!

mattwnz

20164 posts

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#1748224 26-Mar-2017 18:23

Dairyxox:

Inspiron are their most entry level "home office" range of laptops. It would be interesting to see if the Vostro range are any better equiped, as they are pitched as "small business" laptops.

So in other words it is their normal range that buyers, except business users, would buy. I think it does suck that they only put a 10/100 Ethernet port on this model. But then again, people should check the specs. Obviously they do expect peope to use wifi, as it has an AC card, which is quick. But if you compre it to Apple laptops, do they even have Ethernet ports?

RunningMan

8961 posts

Uber Geek

#1748251 26-Mar-2017 19:03

mattwnz:

[snip] But if you compre it to Apple laptops, do they even have Ethernet ports?

It's not just Apple laptops - there's a whole bunch of Dell laptops that don't list ethernet under the available ports section. For a lot of people, it's no longer a primary interface, with people preferring WiFi.

Not saying that WiFi is suitable for all purposes - it clearly isn't, but it's perfectly adequate and easy to use for a big portion of the market.

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Batman

Mad Scientist
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#1748252 26-Mar-2017 19:04

I have a Dell USB 3 1Gbps ethernet dongle. can only do about 685Mbps ... !!!!!

Dairyxox

1594 posts

Uber Geek

#1748472 27-Mar-2017 08:20

coffeebaron: Inspiron is their consumer range.

Yes I agree, but have a look on dells website, click "For Work", "Laptops & Ultrabooks" and its lists the Inspiron series. It is even described as "For home office computing" exact quote.

Dairyxox

1594 posts

Uber Geek

#1748475 27-Mar-2017 08:21

mattwnz:

Dairyxox:

Inspiron are their most entry level "home office" range of laptops. It would be interesting to see if the Vostro range are any better equiped, as they are pitched as "small business" laptops.

So in other words it is their normal range that buyers, except business users, would buy. I think it does suck that they only put a 10/100 Ethernet port on this model. But then again, people should check the specs. Obviously they do expect peope to use wifi, as it has an AC card, which is quick. But if you compre it to Apple laptops, do they even have Ethernet ports?

Have a look at configuring one of their laptops on their website, I scoured the configuration pages, and there was no mention of ethernet, or its networking specifications apart from wireless specs.

Fishfingers

13 posts

Geek

#1748495 27-Mar-2017 08:59

Firstly, thank you all for your feedback and advice. Yes, I was stupid enough to not read the specs regarding the 10/100 NIC. I overlooked this as I expected to get Gb LAN, as I have done so with multiple other laptop purchases in the past 6 years. What was important to me was Win10 Pro allowing me to create and join a network domain. There's the oxymoron. The laptop is for home office use, but ships with Win10 Pro allowing me to logon to a network domain at 10/100, when all business networks run at Gb. Even my home use free router is Gb, along with an old NAS box and media box. Why go backwards in time, when I already have 5yo technology at home that supports Gb?

The other thing worth mentioning again is that this situation fooled Dell's own tech support staff. They spent over 2 hrs on the phone with me confused over why I couldn't get Gb speeds out of the card. They even contacted Realtek for advice and went as far as suggesting I needed to reinstall the factory image. How's that for a disconnect? -and their comment of putting a crap engine into a Ferrari.

I'll buy a port replicator and easily fix the problem for $130.00, but it hasn't changed my view of Dell dumping old technology on the market. It just makes no sense.

sxz

761 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1748526 27-Mar-2017 09:41

Fishfingers:

Clearly my fault for not checking, but really?,

Nah, not your fault. You can't check EVERYTHING. At some point assumptions will reasonably be made by a purchaser

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#1748562 27-Mar-2017 10:46

I can see why you would feel short-changed. Like you, I wasn't aware anyone still made non-gigabit network ports anymore.

I reckon that this will be marketing ploy - consciously limited to encourage people to buy a flasher, more profitable model - 100Mbs is better than WiFi but not as good at 1Gbs, so for people who care about networking, this will be a middle ground laptop.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1748564 27-Mar-2017 10:50

Wow, it just shows what they really think of their customers I guess .
Just sell low spec to the masses, hope most wont notice.

But may not matter in real life
- whats the speed of your Hard Drive ?
- can the laptop process sustained Gb throughput ?
- when do you really NEED Gb anyway. Its not as if you'll be streaming 1080 vids on that :-)
- what internet sites or network is going to be feeding you sustained Gb data ?

Fishfingers

13 posts

Geek

#1748570 27-Mar-2017 10:59

It's got an ssd, so the hard drive speed isn't the issue. This issue is accessing multiple large graphics files stored on a local network server. It's really noticeably slower opening up these files and dragging and dropping compared to anything else on the network. File sizes are typically 300MB, but can be up to 1.2Gb. Crazy, I know. Just an unexpected hassle for a ssd, i7 with 16Gb DDR4 machine. Talk about a bottleneck.

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