Hardware ReviewsDiamond Multimedia HomeFree Phoneline Network Desktop Pac On the box, Diamond's HomeFree Phoneline network kit promises "instant home network - just plug it in and go." While we can't agree EXACTLY with that statement, this kit come fairly close to that simple, easy setup "nirvana." A few problems -- primarily related to installation routine "hiccups" and steps that didn't match instructions -- kept this kit from being perfect. Still, installation was easy, connections worked as promised (including internet sharing) and performance was on par with our expectations for phoneline technology. The price was right, too. We found the Desktop Pac that allows you to connect two computers for $79.61 + shipping at TechStore. If you need to connect two computers on opposite sides of the house, we suggest you read on. Overview We reviewed the HomeFree Phoneline Network Desktop Pac that includes two PCI cards and two phone cords that allow you to plug each computer into a nearby phone outlet. Each card also has a phone outlet to accept a regular phone (since you "stole" the connection on the wall) or modem connection in a pass-through configuration. Keep in mind that this kit will not help you if you have an older computer that has only ISA slots. If you have any doubts, check your manual. Diamond also offers a single PCI card for additional computers on your home network, but does not offer an ISA card.
The kit also includes a 40-page manual that provides good step-by-step instructions on installing the hardware. The software installation instructions are a bit less detailed, but then most of the install routine is fairly self-explanatory as you go through it. Our kit also included a one-page insert explaining installation with Windows 95 (called the Gold version) as we have on our basic test machine. The difference isn't that significant, but our hats off to Diamond for including the extra sheet. It's that kind of extra attention for people new to installing hardware/software that we think makes the difference in home PC networking. Installation We easily installed the two PCI cards in our test machines and plugged the phone lines into each card and then into a nearby wall outlet. Keep in mind that you MUST use the same phone line for networking the two computers. Thus, if you have a second line in your home and a wall outlet that ONLY works for that second line, don't mistakenly plug one computer into that outlet and the other into a wall outlet for your first line. We also had a modem configured in our advanced test machine (to use for internet sharing) and could have plugged the modem phone line into the Diamond card in a pass-through configuration. In our case, we had another wall outlet and didn't need to do that. As the instructions clearly state, we started installation on our advanced test machine equipped with a modem that was going to be used as the internet sharing "server." With the card installed, we turned on the machine and Windows 98 automatically launched the "Add New Hardware Wizard Box." As the instructions spell out, we instructed the wizard to search the CD ROM for the drivers and it did just that, finding a driver for a "Diamond Multimedia Systems PCNet-HL Based Adapter." Unfortunately, the instructions don't suggest that you'll see that name and this could be confusing to novice computer users. Not a big deal, but the first small "hiccup" in our installation. The install routine began to read files from the CD ROM then, strangely, a "Message from HomeFree" box popped up and stated "Please insert the HomeFree installation CD." Of course, the CD was already in -- it was just reading from it -- and the install instructions don't suggest this is going to happen. Small hiccup #2. Finally, the wizard indicates installation is finished and requests you restart the machine, which we did. Upon restart we received a "Microsoft Networking" dialog box that said "The Following Error occurred while loading Protocol Number 0. Error 254 Click OK" Huh? Hiccup #3. We clicked OK, and the install and networking continued without a problem, but we continued to receive this error message until we completed installation on both machines. At this point, the Diamond install wizard continues and takes you through the rest of the setup steps, including picking the computer name, selecting whether this is the first computer (and will be used for internet sharing) and selecting the drives to share. Very nice. We then moved to our basic machine which runs on the original Windows 95. As the manual suggests, the "Select Device" installation box showed nothing. The routine then asked for the Windows CD (which was not suggested in the manual -- hiccup #4) and we had to manually know to point the installation routine to the win95 folder on the CD (hiccup #5 and frankly this could have been a killer if we hadn't figured it out). The next step in the routine outlined in the manual did NOT go as planned and we had to manually restart the setup wizard after the machine restarted (hiccup #6 and, again, not a minor thing to figure out). Finally, the routine installed Winsock (this was not in the manual) and restarted. Upon restart, the routine notified us that is was looking for connections and quickly found our advanced test machine. At that point, we were done. We were able to install Internet Explorer on the basic machine and it automatically dialed the modem on the advanced machine and were up and running on the net. We tried to use Network Neighborhood to look at shared resources, but frankly it was quite slow. Instead, we mapped a network drive and the connection worked very nicely. We were then ready for our performance tests. Performance Diamond says the transmit speed is 1Mbps (megabit per second) and we found it to be nearly that fast in our real-world tests. To test performance, we used a 4 megabyte file and copied back and forth from our advanced and basic test machines. We copied the file from the basic to the advanced (Reads) twice and the other way (Writes) twice and averaged the time. Here's the full chart.
Obviously, this is not nearly as fast as regular (10Mbps) Ethernet speed which could move a 30 meg file in about the same time. Still, it "seemed" fairly quick to us and internet browsing over the connection seemed just fine. We don't have any other phoneline systems to compare this performance to yet, but the Diamond kit is based on Tut Systems' technology and we expect our next phone line kit -- made by Tut -- will perform similarly. But stay tuned for the proof in our upcoming reviews of the Tut system and another from Actiontec. Summary Clearly, this kit had a few minor installation problems, but we worked through them with ease. We have to mark off against the kit, however, because we feel Diamond is asking a little too much for the typical home PC user to get through these issues. Nevertheless, we were able to set the kit up quickly and the actual file and internet sharing worked very well. Performance was not up to par with Ethernet speeds, but if you have computers across the house or on different floors AND really don't want to run Ethernet cables in the walls, the speed hit is probably a trade off you'll accept. We also are unable at this point to compare the phoneline speed to other kits. We expect, however, to have several other phoneline kits reviewed in the next few weeks and may revisit this Diamond kit review to put it in context with those other kits. So stay tuned. In the meantime, if you have computers in rooms across the house and feel you can deal with a few minor installation hiccups, we think this Diamond kit would make a very good choice. For now, it's the home phoneline network kit to beat at homePCnetwork.com. Grade = A- Details
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