THE D-LINK DFE-910 10/100
NETWORK IN A BOX
Last updated: 6/4/00
INSTALLATION. The network installation
on two Windows 98 computers was about as easy as it gets. The network
adapter installation was smooth and without incident: shut-down, turn-off,
and unplug the computer; remove the cover; install the board; plug-in and
turn-on computer; insert then floppy and the Windows CD when Windows asks
for them; click when prompted to reboot after the files are installed. The
rest of the network configuration and hardware installation was made quite
simple by D-Link's excellent documentation. MidPoint Installed without
to much effort even though the process involved more manual steps than Windows
98 SE Internet Connection Sharing and SyGate, and
was more complicated because MidPoint is a proxy server which requires
more information, such as E-mail and news server information (no big deal,
however), than a Network Address Translator (NAT).
Installation of the network on an NT 4.0 with
Service Pack 6 was quite easy, but installing MidPoint on my server was a
time consuming and frustrating exercise. MidPoint uses the Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to assign IP addresses to client
computers on the network. It does not allow static IP's on the workstations. I
had a heck of time getting it to work with my network which has two web
servers with static IP addresses running on Microsoft's Internet Information
Server (IIS). It insisted on assigning the IP addresses used by the
web servers to clients on the network, causing IP address conflicts. MidPoint
finally worked (with no thanks to the hard copy or online documentation)
after deleting the static IPs used by the network from the list of possible
DHCP addresses found in the dhcp.ini file in the MidPoint directory. Once
working, browsing from client workstations via an SB2100D
Cable MODEM networked to the server seemed quite snappy, but problems
were soon apparent with Microsoft's Outlook 2000 E-Mail and FrontPage 2000. At
that point the MidPoint installation had eaten-up all of the time allocated
to test it in an NT/cable MODEM environment and it was removed from the server.
OPERATION. The switch was
tested with two pairs of computers transferring the Windows cab files to
each other at the same time. While one pair was transferring the windows
98 cabs (about 105 MBytes) the other pair was timed while transferring the
original Windows 95 cabs (about 33 MBytes). The time was about 15 seconds
through the switch. The time to transfer the Win 95 files without the
other two computers transferring data was, as expected, still about
15 seconds. The time to transfer the files through a 100 Mhz hub with
two pairs of computers transferring data was again about 15 seconds (so much
for all of those educating words on the differences between a hub and switch).
The small fan in the switch is a bit noisy,
but I have heard just as much noise from hubs and thinwire Ethernet repeaters
made by other manufacturers. The noise tends to blend into the background
of power supply noise, etc. when the switch is placed on top of my NT server.
A 56K dial-up MODEM was used to test MidPoint
on a Windows 98 host. The MODEM connected to the ISP at 49,333 KBS. The
host downloaded data at about 3.7 KBytes/sec. as the client simultaneously
downloaded at about 2 Kbytes/sec. Performance was acceptable for Internet
sharing by two computers. However, the host appeared to excessively
hog Internet resources when downloading. This noticeably slowed down
the browsing performance on the client.
BOTTOM LINE. The DFE-910 retails
for about $119.00. This is considerably less than the sum of the $149.00
and 2 X $59.00 MSRPs for the switch and adapters, respectively, when sold
separately. However, the street price of a pair of adapters, a hub,
and cables is about the same as the kit. If you just need to network
just two computers, the price of two adapters, a crossover cable, and Internet
sharing software is considerably less than the kit. The kit includes
excellent documentation, MidPoint Lite, and a lifetime warrantee and support
from a major manufacturer. But, MidPoint Lite is certainly not as good
as some other Internet sharing products and is not supported directly by
MidCore (the network adapter manufacturer--D-Link--is supposed to support
the product). It appears to be a product designed to induce the buyer
into upgrading to a full-featured, higher-performance product from MidCore--a
popular means of selling software lately. The Installation even includes
an offer of a 25% discount on MidCore products for owners of MidPoint Lite. The
cheapest MidCore Internet sharing product is the 2-user Companion product. At
$119.00, or $89.25 with the discount, it is considerably more expensive than
the $39.95 for a 3-user license of SyGate which
is presently running on my network.
If you don't mind running cable, opening computers
to install network adapters, and you are planning to expand your network,
then the DFE-910 makes for very fast, easy to install starter kit at a reasonable
price.
Note. The 20 foot stranded-core
Ethernet cables exceed the three meter (about 10 feet) maximum length specified
in the Ethernet Specification, but work ok.
Larry
Specifications.
Reference: Cisco
Systems, Fast Ethernet Hub or Ethernet Switch?
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