The DS108 10/100 Mbps Dual Speed Hub can connect 8 PCs to share printers, files, Internet access, and e-mail communications. It enables the user to mix and match 10 and 100 Mbps... more
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A review by PhilSp on NETGEAR DS108 - hub - 8 ports September 24th, 2000
Author's product rating:
Speed
Average
Ease of Installation
Excellent - very quick and easy
Ease of use
Easy
Reliability
Average
Value For Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
quality of build
Disadvantages:
runs hot
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
and i mean that litterally!
Out of all the hubs have - I have to say that the Netgear stuff runs hot! I have to put a couple of 486 heatsinks on it! - it doesn't have vent slots like the FS108 - shame as it does got hot during the summer, and just nice and warm during the winter.
It has link lights for all ports (10/100) and the best of all, individual utilisation bar graphs for 10/100 and collision.
There are cheaper hubs, though they won't be made out of metal - like the netgear stuff - it'll be made out of cheap plastic.
Advantages: Solid. Diagnostics. Disadvantages: Popular with engineers - as in "can I just borrow this for 5 mins..."
...Being a Netgear product, it has a number of features that far too many manufacturers seem to leave out - for example, dual LED RJ45 jacks - one light for link/data on 100BaseT, the other for 10BaseT. The utilisation graphs for both 100Mbps and 10Mbps (and collision indicators for both segments) are extremely useful, and I've used them quite a bit for debugging. Also, as the case is steel rather than moulded plastic (cf Intel, for example), they are ... ...chip inside (intelligent, or so Netgear would have you believe). This is obviously neccessary (what happens if all of your 100Mbps traffic gets put onto 10Mbps? Oops), but it doesn't neccessarily pass on ICMP error messages, so tracking network stack errors can be a little more entertaining than I'd like.
Really, the thing just sits on my desk and works - what more could I ask of it?
It still doesn't make the tea, though - perhaps I should swap ...
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The DS108 10/100 Mbps Dual Speed Hub can connect 8 PCs to share printers, files, Internet access, and e-mail communications. It enables the user to mix and match 10 and 100 Mbps PCs, servers, and peripherals on the same network with ease and without the high cost and complexity of multiple hubs and bridges. The user can upgrade individual desktops from 10 to 100 Mbps on an as needed basis, maintaining backward compatibility with existing equipment while powershifting the network to 10x the speed. With this hub, every port automatically operates at the proper speed. The built-in self-learning bridge automatically discovers where each user is and filters or forwards packets between the 10 and 100 Mbps segments accordingly. Vista network ports with built-in LEDs provide clear and intuitive status. In addition, 2 LED bar graphs provide online status of network utilization and alert you to potential network overload.
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