Hardware ReviewsD-Link DFE-905 Network Kit for Small Workgroups
OK, so the name is a mouthful and may be too much for your typical home consumer ("Am I a 'small workgroup'"? one might ask). And, maybe the fact that you have to open a couple of computer cases to install it (just like most kits) will be too much for the typical home consumer. BUT...if neither of those things give you reason to pause, then this kit is an absolute winner. We know the word "value" has become overused and abused, but it is the word that quickly comes to mind after you've spent some time with this kit. Read on... Overview The DFE-905 kits comes in a nice, compact box that unfortunately isn't too inviting to your basic home consumer. The box says "network kit" to those of us with some experience at this, but it says "complicated" to those who don't. D-Link might want to spend a little time and effort to correct that minor problem (but clearly a marketing, ease-of-use problem--not a technical or product problem). Once inside the box, you'll find a small but useful "Quick Starter Guide," two more detailed manuals on the NICs and hub, the two fast Ethernet PCI NICs, the 4-port dual-speed hub, an AC adapter, a VERY generous set of two 20-foot lengths of category 5 network cable, a single driver diskette and a CD-ROM with the Quick Starter guide in html format, DirectX 6.0 drivers (for Win95/98 games) and even a couple of games, in their demo/shareware versions, that allow you to play over the network against an opponent (a very cool way to see what network gaming is all about).
The included DFE-904 hub has 4 ports, all of which can be selected for normal Ethernet (10Mbps) or fast Ethernet (100Mbps). This is a great feature because if you have four computers to network, including two with existing 10Mbps cards, you can install this kit and set the hub for 10Mbps. The new cards in the kit are 10/100Mbps cards, so as with most, they'll work at the 10Mbps speed. Then you can later upgrade your two older cards to fast Ethernet and set the hub switch to 100Mbps and voila!, you have a fully functioning 100Mbps network. In contrast, most setups would require you to purchase a 10Mbps hub to work in your existing network and then throw it out when you upgrade to fast Ethernet all around. This switchable hub saves you $50-100 right off the bat. All in all this is nice package that doesn't score any real extra points. It just has everything you need, so no complaints. All the pieces look good, as well, although the hub doesn't score any high design points (see photo above). But, come on, it's a small hub you can hide anywhere you want. Installation We admit it. Opening up a computer case to us is so simple that we simply have a hard time considering it as a factor for home PC network kits. That said, we know it IS but will not "mark off" against nearly all network kits that use NICs and require you to open the box. Instead, we'll make it clear that some kits are far easier for starters because they don't require you to open the computer. It was simply no big deal to open our two test machines, plug these fast Ethernet cards into an open PCI slot, plug the cables into the NIC and the hub, plug the AC adapter into the hub and start the machines. Like clockwork, both Windows 95 and Windows 98 on our test machines recognized the card that was installed, asked for drivers (and we pointed to the included diskette), installed the software and requested a restart. We did have one small problem on the Windows 95 machine. Upon restart it did not follow the steps outlined in the starter guide. In fact, we couldn't see the other computer, and in device manager the NIC had the dreaded yellow exclamation point (meaning the card was not fully functioning). Frankly, it took us awhile to figure out the problem, but the solution was easy enough. It seems that when we pointed the install program to the driver diskette, Windows 95 found an .inf file and completed the installation. Unfortunately, it appears the .inf file is for the Windows 98 driver which IS DIFFERENT than the Windows 95 driver. The driver we wanted was conveniently in a Win95 directory on the diskette. Once we pointed the install program to the .inf file INSIDE the Win95 directory, installation progressed and completed exactly as outlined in the manual (and no more dreaded yellow exclamation point). Installation on the Windows 98 machine was also quite easy, but the install program did not automatically bring up the dialog boxes outlined in the starter guide (including the Network dialog box, where you give your computer a name and the fast Ethernet card properties dialog box, where you select "auto" for the 10 or 100Mbps speed selection). But those were both easy enough to find and we completed installation without any other problems. The final thing to double check on this kit is the small switch on the side of the hub that selects the speed of the hub. Make sure it's set to 100Mbps if you are using it only with the included NICs or if you are also using existing NICs that support 100Mbps. If you are using existing 10Mbps NICs, set the switch to 10Mbps until you upgrade those cards to fast Ethernet as well. We then made sure File and Printer sharing was selected and shared the c drive on both computers to begin our performance tests. Performance Needless to say, this fast Ethernet kit is very quick. In fact, as you can see below it is so fast that our "basic" test machine (a Cyrix 166+ and 540 hard drive) couldn't take advantage of the faster speed. But on the Read tests (which move our 30 meg test file from the basic machine to the advanced machine ( a P-2 266 with 5.7 gig Maxtor drive), the kit was downright blistering. That's a 30-meg file moved in just over 20 seconds!!
Summary Overall, this is a great kit. D-Link has put together a very nice package at an unbelievable price. With some fast Ethernet cards from other vendors still in the $100 range, getting two cards, a hub and two long cables is an absolute steal. It's hard to find anything to "mark off" against the kit, but we suppose the few minor installation problems we had keep the kit from getting an absolute top score (an A+). This wasn't really a problem with the installation routine, but the starter guide could have done a better job of pointing out how to avoid the problem and matching the actual experience many people will have with the install routine. Again, those are minor problems. Bottom line, if you are looking for a good, inexpensive fast Ethernet kit, take a very long look at the DFE-905. HomePCnetwork has other fast Ethernet kit reviews in the works, and will have many others in the future. Yet, for the time being, the D-Link fast Ethernet kit is tops at homePCnetwork.com and we award it our Editor's Choice Award.
Grade = A Details
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