Reasonably priced peer-to-peer LAN kit.
Written: Dec 06 '99 (Updated Dec 06 '99)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: All components necessary for a peer-to-peer 10BaseT LAN are included, sans computers. <g>
Cons: NICs are 10/100BaseT, but hub only supports 10mbps.
|
|
|
| elegiac's Full Review: NetGear SB104 Network Starter Kit Networking Hub |
Many of the currently available "network in a box" kits will exceed the needs of your average small/home office. Netgear's SB104 is a nice little 10BaseT kit from Bay Networks that won't break your budget into eensy-weensy pieces.
SB104 includes two 10/100BaseT PCI NICs, a four port RJ45 10mbps hub, two 25' lengths of CAT5 (nice, should you upgrade to 100BaseTX-- CAT5 supports 100BaseTX, while CAT3 and CAT4 are only good for 10BaseT.) and the appropriate drivers for your NICs. This kit is useable on MS Windows for Workgroups/95/98/NT (ver. 3.5 and higher), Novell NetWare Client for DOS/Windows, NetWare Client32 for DOS/Windows, SCO Unix, SCO OpenServer, and even Artisoft's LANtastic. (Side note: I don't care for Artisoft's LANtastic. The demo disabled my previously functioning NICs, and fought off all attempts at being removed from my computer.)
While a peer-to-peer 10BaseT may not be the fastest network you can set up, it is relatively cheap, and more than fast enough for everyday usage (2-10 computers sharing files). There is no reason to purchase a more expensive LAN kit if all you're really interested in doing is sharing your dial-up connection-- if you're using a 56kbps modem, is it really going to matter whether or not you can transfer files on your LAN at 10mbps or 100mbps? Either way, you're going to be waiting on the internet.
Setup should be a snap-- pop the NIC into an available PCI slot, install the appropriate drivers, and run the cables to the hub. That's all that would be involved if you bought the components piecemeal. The price of Netgear's SB104 is decent-- $56.99 at Egghead. Pretty hard to beat for two NICs, a hub, and two pieces of CAT5. If you really want to network two computers (and aren't concerned with having the fastest network connection possible), the SB104 is a wonderful little package.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
elegiac
|
|
Member: Gregory Chin
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 414 members
About Me:
My family operates a computer services business. Bit of hardware, bit of webstuff. Kooky, no?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.