"It seems very pretty," she said when she had
finished it, " but it's rather hard to understand!"
(You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself,
that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow
it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I
don't exactly know what they are!"
The Basic Hardware
Like Alice, sometimes we ourselves don't fully understand what the hardware that we get really does until we actually dig up the juice about it. Here's a breakdown of what you get "Out Of The Box" :
Package contents
- 2 DFE-540TX 10/100 Dual Speed Network Ethernet Adapters
- 1 DSH-5 10/100 Dual Speed Ethernet Hub
- 2 Network Cables, 20’, Category 5, UTP
- 1 External Power Supply for DSH-5 Hub (120v)
- 1 Driver Diskette for DFE-540TX Dual Speed Network Adapters
- 1 CD-ROM containing demo versions of Diablo and Warcraft2.
- 1 CD-ROM containing MidPoint Lite Intenet Sharing software
- 3 Manuals for DSH-5, DFE-540TX, and DFE-910 Quick Starter Guide
- 4 Rubber Feet for the DSH-5 hub
And here's the juice on the hardware :
Specifications/Features
DFE-540TX NIC
- Wake-On-LAN (WOL) capability
- PCI Bus Master Card, for high throughput and low CPU demand
- Plug and Play installation
- 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or 10Mbps Ethernet data transfer, selected via auto-negotiation
- Full-duplex or half-duplex operation
- Built-in FIFO buffers reduce overhead of memory transfers
- Two LED indicators: Link, Activity Software drivers for Microsoft Windows NT 3.51, Microsoft Windows NT4.0, Microsoft Windows for workgroups, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 95,95B,98 ,Microsoft LAN Manager, NOVELL Netware 3.12,4.1X,5.X ODI driver, NOVELL Netware Client 32 for DOS, IBM LAN Support Program, IBM Communication Manager, WIN/TCP PathWay Access for DOS, FTP PC/TCP, NDIS2 Driver, NCSA , Packet Driver
DSH-5 HUB
- Compatible with the IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T Ethernet and 802.3u 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet industry standards for interoperability with other Ethernet and Fast Ethernet network devices
- Ethernet connections support Category 3 or better twisted-pair cables.
- Fast Ethernet connections support both shielded twisted-pair and Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair cables up to a maximum distance of 100 meter from end-station to hub, and a total network diameter of 205 meters.
- Five 10/100Mbps Nway ports for connecting stations to the network
- Built-in switch function automatically transfer packets between 10Mbps Ethernet and 100Mbps Fast Ethernet connections, allowing communication between end nodes operating at different speeds.
- LED indicators for power, 10-Mbps collision, 100-Mbps collision, connection speed, port status, and expansion port full duplex status.
- Uplink port for easy linking of two hubs to further expand the network
- External AC power adapter
- Dimensions 171 x 100 x 28mm (L x W x H)
Incidentally, Hardware-one also reviewed the DFE-905 network kit not too long ago, which is not a very far cry from the DFE-910 kit.
For the DFE-910, 4-port 10/100Mbps hub of the DFE-905 has been replaced by a 5-port 10/100Mbps hub with Switch. The DFE-530TX NIC's found in the DFE-905 have been replaced by the latest DFE-540TX NIC's from D-Link. Other differences are the inclusion of 2 shareware games; Namely Diablo ,Warcraft2 and a commercial software called Midpoint Lite which allows for two or more computers to be on the net by sharing an Internet connection.
The installation of the hardware and software is pretty straightforward. Credit must be given to D-link for providing a comprehensive starter guide. A HTML version of the guide is also available on the CD provided for those of us who have renounced the use of anything that doesn't support a scrolling wheel. Alternatively, you can also refer to the DFE-905 review done by our our fellow reviewer, Yingzong, for installation directions.
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