Included in the Package

I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much from a network starter kit, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I found in the box (No, it wasn't the password to CalBear's precious D drive. What does he have in there anyway?).

The first thing you notice about the DFE-904 hub is its size- you could literally hide it under a 3x5 card. There are 4 normal ports in the back along with an uplink port. Only 4 of the ports can be used at the same time, because the 4th port and the uplink port share the same internal connection. You can either connect up to 4 computers to the hub, or 3 computers and another hub.

Dual-Speed, sort of

The hub is capable of running at 10 or 100Mbps, but it can't do both at the same time. If one of the computers on the network only has a 10Mbps NIC and the rest have 10/100Mbps cards, you have the set the hub to 10Mbps or else the 10Mbps computer and the 10/100Mbps computers won't be able to communicate. You can set the speed with a small switch on the side of the hub. More expensive hubs like the D-Link DSH-5 allow 10Mbps and 100Mbps cards to communicate across the same LAN.

The DFE-904 lacks an on/off switch; you have to unplug it to turn it off. Someone might not be able to sleep with the hub's little fan humming away, but I can see how some people might find it soothing. Most people probably don't have networks setup in their bedrooms, so the lack of an on/off switch probably won't be an issue.

The DFE-530TX 10/100 PCI network cards are just like all the other 10/100Mbps NICs out there. PCI, Plug 'N Play, Full-duplex capable (although you'll want a switch in order to run full-duplex), and so on.

With two 20' lengths of RJ45, you probably won't have to worry about sticking the hub in the middle of the hallway if your network spans two rooms.