Hardware ReviewsD-Link DSH-5 10/100 Dual Speed SOHO Hub with Switch Once again, we believe D-Link has come up with a killer product for home PC networks. We get a lot of e-mails and posts on our message boards from people struggling with the decision to build networks at home with regular (10Mbps) Ethernet or fast (100Mbps) Ethernet gear. Often, they have one or two regular Ethernet cards already and wonder about switching over to 100Mbps cards and the much more expensive 100Mbps hub required. Well, this product (and products from other vendors we have yet to receive for review) is one very simple solution to that problem. In short, this hub will support either regular or fast Ethernet cards on ANY of its five ports and in any combination. The hub also includes some special features we'll touch on later. And, finally, the price is outstanding. We found it for $71.95 + shipping at Buy.com. Overview
This is a good, solid hub from D-Link. It includes five ports, each of which can automatically handle connections to regular or fast Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). The hub has a small fan on the side to help cool the device and we've noted on the message boards that some people dislike that. We, however, have no problem with one more fan in our home office since most of our computers have extra fans to help with cooling anyway. On the back of the hub is a small switch that allows the hub to work in this "dual-speed" way OR to have one port work in what D-Link calls "advanced expansion mode." According to D-Link, this mode "allows you to (1) expand the distance between the DSH-5 and any hub to which it is cascaded and (2) expand beyond the standard fast Ethernet 2 hub count limitation." In addition, this switched mode allows full duplex operation on the advanced mode port, meaning the port can receive and transmit at the same time, increasing hypothetical transfers across this bridge at 200Mbps. Clearly, for a home-targeted hub, these are advanced features that most home users will never use. Still, since this is an extra feature added to a $78 hub, no one should complain. We didn't spend a lot of time looking at these advanced features for obvious reasons. Advanced users should check out the D-Link web pages on this product for more information. The hub comes packaged with the power supply (power brick, as some call it) and a small but adequate manual. Installation As with all hubs we've tested (and ANY hub for that matter), installation was a no-brainer. Connect the hub to its external power supply and connect each machine's NIC with a regular, category-5 cable. Keep in mind that you can plug and unplug cables to the hub while it is powered on, but you should turn off a computer before plugging or unplugging cables from a NIC on the computer. Performance As we expected, the hub performed in line with other hubs we've tested. On our main performance tests (copying a 30 megabyte file back and forth between our two machines; see how we test for more on the setup and tests) the D-Link hub averaged 16.94 seconds in 100Mbps mode (red bars below). To test the ability to auto detect a 10Mbps device, we set the NIC in our advanced test machine to 10Mbps manually (through the network control panel). We then tested the hub at the 10Mbps speed and it averaged 36.98 seconds (blue bars). Both scores were on par with other hubs we've tested. In fact, they were a little better than previous scores, but some of that we have to attribute to a recent change in the hard drive on our basic test machine. In order to ensure that the hub was, in fact, at least partially responsible for the quick transfer rates, we re-tested our machines using the identical setups and network cards (D-Link DFE-530TX) on the previously tested DFE-904 hub. Those results are indicated in the yellow bars. This setup averaged 17.52 seconds in our tests, compared to 17.80 seconds using the older test machine hard drive when we tested the hub in our article on hubs a while back. Bottom line, if you follow all of that, is that the new DSH-5 hub is still among the fastest hubs we've tested. Still, as we revealed in the hub article, the speeds are so close you probably would not detect them in real-world use. Then again, the DSH-5's outstanding performance just adds to the value.
Summary Overall, we think this is a very nice hub and an outstanding value. If you are adding a new computer with fast Ethernet capability to an existing 10Mbps Ethernet network, don't hesitate to purchase this hub as a great way to bridge between these two technologies. Later, you can always upgrade the other components to fast Ethernet and this hub will keep pace. For example, many people have asked us about 100Mbps cards for an ISA slot (computers more than a few years old will have only ISA slots). Unfortunately, we don't know of any that are inexpensive. Thus, with this hub, you can buy or keep an existing 10Mbps ISA card and purchase/install new PCI 10/100Mbps cards on newer computers. You can invest in this hub to allow both to work on your home network now. Later, when you upgrade or replace the computer with only ISA slots, you won't be stuck buying a new hub in order to have a complete 100Mbps network. The only reason we have not awarded this hub an editor's choice award is that we would like to first get our hands on some of the other new low-cost, dual-speed hubs that we know are out there. Once we do that, we may revisit the DSH-5 and bestow the award. In the meantime, if you need the dual speed or other features this hub offers, we highly recommend it. Grade = A Details
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