APC AP9630 UPS Network Management Card 2

Like many others have mentioned, this model is older now and officially discontinued but still works great for what the majority of users need a NMC for. Card I just ordered (Nov 2024) was made in 2010 but sealed in a new box. The included serial cable and DVD seem quaint now but thankfully are not needed for most users. The card fired right up in a new Smart-UPS 1500C. It will pickup an IP address via DHCP, which can then be found by various utilities or the DHCP client list. Strongly suggest you update the firmware from the APC website BEFORE configuring anything else given the large version jump. They released a new version 7.1.8 just last week! Definitely a large money saver going with the AP9630!

This item IS discontinued by the manufacturer.The Network Management Card (NMC) is operable, but...Updating NMC certain settings without updating the firmware will will stop response via https.Resetting the NMC will reactivate https.Out of the box, the self-signed SSL certificate is expired, updating the firmware to the latest version (v7.08) will set the SSL certificate expiration to 2035.APC cable (940-0299) is required to update the firmware, and is sold on Amazon.The firmware and update procedures can be found on the APC website.Hope this helps!

Received new old stock from 2008 in factory sealed box with slightly dated software CD and console cable. Installation to my SMT unit was straightforward and firmware update was easy. This card just reached end of support but I expect it will be fine for many years of service and saved some $$ over the newest one. Was able to configure smtp auth for email alerts fairly easily, unlike some previous reviews reported, perhaps due to newest firmware. It has a ton of features, far more than I will ever use beyond monitoring, multiple devices configured to shutdown safely, and rarely for remote power cycle.

RUNS MY NEWER SMART UPS 1500 ONLINE QUITE WELL

i order a new condition card and receive a new condition card. i install the card and log into the web portal and the screens look nothing like what is shown online. i look and would you look at that.... the firmware installed was from 2010! i then look some more and the cards manufacture date was in 2010! this card has been sitting in a box for 8 years!well, i proceed with updating the firmware released late 2018 (which goes super smooth) and the card works great.people have asked why this is so expensive, and some have commented that it is just a network interface card. it is much more than that.your standard NIC you would buy for $20 or less for a desktop is just a NIC. this card has an entire (multiple technically) web server and operating system embedded in it. remember this card has TELNET capabilities, web access, and FTP server (file upload and download) functionality. each is their own stand alone server operating on the embedded operating system of the card. All of this is running on the card, not the UPS itself. this requires much more time to design and more expensive parts, but mostly you are paying for the time and effort to write and MAINTAIN updated code for this product.while the new SMART UPS have the smart connect feature, this card gives you so much more. the smart connect gives you the ability to see the status of the UPS (faults, battery run time/capacity etc), e-mail you if there are issues, that is all it is doing, allowing you to see the UPS readings. this functionality is also included free with the smart UPS. so if you are looking only for basic monitoring and email notifications of a select few important events, you may not need this card.however if you want to actually change settings (ANY AND ALL SETTINGS) within the UPS, you can do this through the management card. the management card can also e-mail notify you for a plethora of additional reasons if you deem needed. you can also manually operate the UPS outlet groups, turn off or on the UPS remotely perform tests and diagnostics etc of the unit all remotely. if you want or need any (and more) of these features then this card is what you want. then you simply register your UPS on APC smart connect temporarily so you can get additional warranty time on your battery.i recommend this card and am going to get three more on top of the two i now have so all of my units have this card.the reason i have assigned 4/5 stars is due to the email notification:the newest firmware does support TLS 1.2 which modern browsers and email providers now want. i have had difficulty in getting my SMTP messages sent if they require TLS or SSL (hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc) so it does seem the card still has issues with encryption. to get my e-mail working i used my local ISP SMTP server with no TLS/SSL and no authentication (no user name and password). My ISP allows this if and only if the SMTP message originates from my account's Modem MAC address. The MAC address origination behaves as the username/password. This is still not ideal as there is no encryption, but at least i do not need to worry about user names or password being transmitted in plain text. reading online there are some work around, but they are messy. if this worked the way it is marketed, then i should be able to use my gmail or hotmail SMTP directly.

Note: Unless you pair this with a compatible APC UPS, it is absolutely a one-star product. Although basically flat, it is not suitable for use as a plate, and (although not tested) appears to have very poor aerodynamics for a frisbee. It isn't strong enough to use as a prybar and appears to have essentially no utility in the arena of self-defense.As a network interface to a compatible APC UPS, though, it does its job and does it quite well. It provides telnet and HTTP interfaces for remote management, SNMP for monitoring, and works with their network software to coordinate the timely shutdown of a number of connected devices in the event of an extended outage.

I had the network management card installed, working and configured, but I had one last step needed to be done -- configure email notifications (SMTP). This is an essential and basic function. I would have thought APC would have tested this inside out; up and down, but no. (Not much testing going on at APC I see!)The software, from the attractive web interface, became stuck in an endless re-boot loop eventually displaying the strange message "The Application Is Incompatible With This APC OS".No amount of resetting in hardware or software would clear this pointless error loop. My time is valuable. Two hours spent on this was enough, so I removed the card and binned it.This is not business quality firmware, and without quality, tested software the product is of much diminished value. Save your time. If the (SMX750) UPS is sufficient without email notifications then it is a very nice and quiet (near silent) UPS, but if you need the additional functionality of the network management card then avoid this line of UPSes entirely. Maybe if you were a guru you could have worked out the TCP/IP stack errors, but why should you on a potentially mission critical product for sale commercially?"At APC quality is job 2.89a!"