Hardware ReviewsDiamond HomeFree Wireless Network Combo Pac Few of the new home networking technologies seem as exciting as wireless. Imagine having computers anywhere in the house connected without wires and even moving a laptop around the house all the while staying connected to the network and a shared internet connection. That's the promise of Diamond's HomeFree Wireless Network kit and, after a bit of work on the installation (more on that later), the promise is indeed fulfilled. In the end, we had shared files and internet connection throughout the house and even from the laptop while the back porch. Unfortunately, the "extra" installation work was no piece of cake and we ran into other incompatibilities with the system. We even heard from others that they have not had a good experience with the kit. In fact, you can read one person's experience in the Comments from Others section. Nevertheless, if you truly want the freedom of no wires or want to use a laptop anywhere in the house (up to 150 feet away according to Diamond) and you use our installation guide below as a major help, this could be the home networking solution you're looking for. Expect to pay a premium though. We found the "Combo kit" we tested for $199 + shipping at NECx. Overview We reviewed the HomeFree Wireless Network Combo Pac that includes one ISA card for a desktop computer and one PC card for a laptop. Diamond also has a "Desktop Pac" that includes one ISA and one PCI card. The components can also be purchased separately and according to Diamond, up to 16 computers can be connected on the network. All the computers on the network need to be within a 150 foot diameter circle.
The kit also includes a quick start guide/poster, a 44-page manual (that frankly could have been a lot more comprehensive) and a CD-ROM that includes the install software, internet sharing software and some other important utilities that proved crucial to fix the problems we had with the kit. Missing, of course, were any wires or hubs that are not needed. The ISA and PC Card each have a small plastic protuberance that sends and receives the radio waves that transmit the network packets. We found the transmissions penetrated through walls, and even multiple walls, quite well but we did occasionally lose a connection if we moved two many rooms away even when we were still within the 150-foot circle.
Installation Unlike many other network kits and NICs we have reviewed, the Diamond HomeFree kit installed exactly as outlined in the manuals. The process was also incredibly automated, asking you simply yes/no questions and setting up your computer appropriately. This included setting up internet sharing on your system connected to a phone line and automatically setting up a shared folder on each machine called "Transfer." A very, very nice touch for the first time home PC networker as well as for anyone. Unfortunately, it didn't work. And the FAQs included in the short manual included with the kit weren't a great help either. But lurking on the CD-ROM readme file was the answer. A utility included with the kit provides a customized ping function. (For those who don't know, "ping" utilities allow you to troubleshoot connections by sending test data, or test packets, between machines on a TCP/IP network. In this case, the readme file pointed out the utility also had an slot to indicate the CoNetID number for the network. In other words, each machine must have the same CoNetID number or the system won't work. Sure enough, our systems had blanks in this CoNetID number and an error warning at the bottom of the dialog box indicated that the CoNetID number indicated (in this case, nothing) did not machine the one in the registry. A little digging in the registry and we found the CoNetID number. A lovely little number without about 30 digits. Once we copied this into the appropriate place in each machine's utility program and rebooted, we had an operating network. Keep in mind that after you manually insert the CoNetID number, the system requests a reboot. Do it, but then after the machine is back on line, turn it off and do a "cold" reboot by turning it back on again. Both these steps were necessary in our experience to get the system to work. Performance Diamond says the transmit speed is 1Mbps, but we found it to be about three times that slow. To test performance, we used a 4 megabyte file and copied back and forth from our advanced test machine and a new Compaq 7800 laptop (P2-266; 128 Megs DIMM; 4 gig HD). We copied the file from the laptop to the desktop (Reads) twice and the other way (Writes) twice and averaged the time. Here's the full chart.
Obviously, this is far from 10Mbps Ethernet speed and even far from the theoretical limit of 1Mbps for this wireless system. Still, file transfers of small files were not a problem and internet sharing, while seemingly not as fast as it was on the desktop machine connected to the phoneline was still fairly good in our tests. Bottom line: if you want speed, look elsewhere. But if you want the convenience wireless offers and can sacrifice some speed, the performance was pretty good in our tests. Summary The convenience or can we say "the freedom" afforded by a wireless network it is truly amazing. We were able to take our laptop from room to room and stay connected to the desktop machine and/or the internet. Very, very cool. Of course, as we noted above, performance was a bit of a problem, but you'll have to decide if the convenience outweighs the speed hit. The only true problem with this kit was the install snafu, but unfortunately we have to call that fairly major. True, the answer was included in a readme and how often have we all had to read those to find a problem, but we think that negates the whole idea behind an easy to use, easy to setup home network. In essence, this kit promises "the easiest way to connect your PCs" (right on the box) and our experience doesn't prove that out. Still, if our installation guidance is enough to help others through the setup problem, you could have a nifty network without wires. If you need it and can put up with some installation challenges, this could be a good choice. Grade = B- Details
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