Hardware Reviews
ALFA AFS05 10/100 5-port Ethernet Switch OK. We admit it. We had never heard of ALFA before LanMarket sent us this 5-port switch for review. Still, at a rock bottom price of $79.95, we were willing to listen. That is the best price for a 5-port switch we've found anywhere. Some kits, including the D-Link DFE-910 that we recently reviewed, can be found for as little as $100 and offer two network cards, cables and software. So you could argue they present a better value. On the other hand, if you already have enough network cards and cables, you can save $20+ and get just the ALFA switch. And what about features and performance? We found both to be rock solid for an $80 switch. In fact, that combination easily deserves a homePCnetwork "Editor's Best Buy" award. Read on. Overview
The ALFA switch comes in a small, plain brown box. Inside is the switch, a power cord and a small manual. Frankly, you don't need a lot more with a switch. The manual covers how to plug in the cables and how to use a small push button on the right side of the front panel to turn port 5 from normal operation to "uplink" operation, allowing you to connect another switch or hub without the need for a special crossover cable. The switch itself is fairly standard. It has 5 ports on the front. We prefer ports on the back for most desktop setups, but it's actually better in some situations and not a big deal either way. Next to port 5, as we've mentioned, is a small switch that lets you set port 5 to normal operation (for connection to a PC or other network device) or uplink mode (for connecting to another switch or hub). Next to port 1 is a series of lights that provide excellent information for all of the devices connected to the switch. A bottom row indicates a "link" with any network device turned on. A second row blinks with any data activity across the network. A third row indicates whether the device on that port is running in full duplex mode. The fourth and final row of lights indicates whether the device is running in fast Ethernet, or 100Mbps, mode. Installation Installation was a breeze. We simply plugged the included power cable into the back of the switch and then plugged it into a power outlet. By the way, we LOVE the internal power supply versus one more power brick (the small power supply many devices use) to squeeze into our outlet strip. Next, we simply plugged the Category 5 cables from our network computers into the ports on the front of the switch. That's it. We were up and running. Performance Once again, to test the true performance of a network switch, we ran a number of tests. First, to test basic network performance between two computers we have added a new test to our arsenal. These tests use Qcheck, a freeware networking testing utility, that uses software "endpoints" on both test computers and a small utility to actually run the tests. For all tests, the utility sends data packets back and forth between the two computers. The utility tests true network performance and tries to avoid complications from the actual performance issues of the computers. For a response time test, Qcheck returns the minimum, maximum and average number of seconds it took to complete a transaction. For our tests, the transaction we use is sending a 32,000 bytes back and forth 10 times. We report the average response time in milliseconds reported by Qcheck. We run the test using both IPX and TCP/IP protocols. The results for the ALFA switch are shown here. For comparison, we included test results for the only other switch we've tested, the D-Link DSS-5+, and an Accton Fast Ethernet hub. As you can see, the results are a bit mixed, but the the ALFA
switch certainly holds its own and even beats the D-Link in the IPX test. Still, keep in
mind that it would be impossible to detect this difference in real-world use. You might be
surprised that the Fast Ethernet hub beat the switches in the IPX test. Again, the
difference is minimal and keep in mind that a switch doesn't really show it's performance
until it gets a bit more loaded with more network connections (PCs) and network traffic.
Keep reading for more on that. For a throughput test, Qcheck returns the amount of data that
was successfully sent between the two endpoints. For our test, we sent 1 megabyte across
the network. In Fast Ethernet mode, the network should have been able to transmit the data
at 100Mbps. Reality, of course, is a bit different and we reached just above 70Mbps with
TCP/IP...still a respectable performance. IPX throughput was significantly less, but well
above Ethernet at 10Mbps. Again, in both instances, the ALFA held its own. For a streaming test, Qcheck returns the rate that streaming data was received by the second endpoint, the amount of packet loss that occurred and the CPU utilization for both endpoint computers. In short, the test reveals whether your computers and network connections are "capable" of streaming video performance. For our tests, we ran a 1Mbps test for 30 seconds. The result: the ALFA switch resulted in no loss data. CPU utilization, which is more of a test of the network interface cards we use for our standard tests (D-Link DFE-530TX+), was 28%. Tests using the D-Link switch and Accton hub returned nearly identical results. Next, to test the true full-bandwidth performance of the switch, we used a test that we devised earlier. We used four computers connected to the switch. We'll call them Test1, or T1, T2, T3 and T4. From T1, we copied a 30 meg file to T2. From T2, we copied a 13 meg file to T1. From T3, we copied a 30 meg file to T4. And from T4, we copied a 13 meg file to T3. In short, two 30 meg files and two 13 meg files are transferred across the switch at the same time. We ran the same test twice and averaged the results, shown below in seconds to complete all file copying. For comparison, we also ran the test on the recently reviewed D-Link DSS-5+ switch (part of the new DFE-910 kit) and the D-Link DSH-5 hub (part of the original DFE-910 kit). Although the hub seems only a bit slower, we should also point out that the hub indicated massive data collisions during the test. Neither switch indicated any such collisions. Although for this test that didn't seem to cause any problems, data collisions could be problems for other network applications. Thus, as you can see, this test does show the difference switches can make in home network performance with several computers sending lots of data back and forth.
Finally, we ran two subjective tests on the setup. First we played an AVI file across the 4 computer network. Specifically, we played a 13 meg file on T2 from the T1 machine and a 30 meg file on T1 from T2. We did the same thing on T3 and T4. With the ALFA switch, all of the files ran quite smoothly. Second, we played a network game that requires a lot of data thrown back and forth between 4 machines. Again, using the ALFA switch, we never had any problems on any of the machines playing the game. Summary Overall, the ALFA AFS05 switch from LanMarket strikes us as successfully meeting its market niche. Clearly, this is targeted as a "bare bones" network switch and we think it hits the mark. Obviously, you don't get much with bare bones: a small (but adequate) manual, no troubleshooting guides, etc. What you do get is the least expensive 5-port switch we've tested (and really even have seen) with solid performance and looks. If you need a couple of network cards and cables, we suggest you spend the extra money for one of the Fast Ethernet home network kits that now include a switch (versus a hub). But if you really only need a switch, take a good look at the ALFA AFS05 and save $20 or more. Without much "extra value," we are withholding a top (A or A+) score for this switch. But, in terms of sheer value, we think the ALFA AFS05 deserves an A rating, with a few points left over for a vendor who comes up with a better switch or extra additions for the same price. For now, the ALFA AFS05 is the price/performance leader and well deserves our homePCnetwork "Editor's Best Buy" award. Grade = A- Details
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