NETGEAR SB104 - hub - 4 ports

...driver to be the best. Netgear have some FAQs on how to sort the problem out so its not serious. Anyone who runs Linux is probably able to sort it out so its not such a problem that I would mark down the network cards. They function perfectly fine. If the individual cards ever fail, replacements can be bought for around £10 so its no big deal. Although it would be for me as my internet connection is piped to me via ethernet so it would mean no ADSL ...
...I have seen kits by Netgear that are cheaper and better than what I paid for this. I think £35 is a lot more like what it is being sold for now.

Improvements
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Having a faster network would have been better as I use my ADSL firewall as a file server and its been annoying trying to copy 10 Gig at a time over the network. For what I require, a hub would not have been as desirable and a switch would have been ... more

This starter kit is ideal if you want an easy and cheap way of setting up a small network in your home or office.

Why would you want a network?
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You wont if you only have a computer! By joining computers together, it makes is so much easier so you dont have to put things onto floppy disk or CD and manually carry it over to the other computer. This is a brilliant time saver and theres a limit to what you can put on a disk if its a big file. You can share files, printers, scanners, and hard drives among the computers and this saves time and money as you will only need one printer and scanner etc.

Box Contents
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5-port 10Base-T Ethernet hub
2 x FA311 PCI 10/100Mbps PCI Ethernet cards.
Installation Guide.
2 x 10' Cat 5 Ethernet cables.
Warranty / registration card.

The hub id only 10Mbps so it means that the spending of files from one comptuter to another is slower than 100Mbps but realistically, most people will not gain by upgrading the hub at a later time unless they do move many Gigs of data at a time around the office/house. The cards auto-sense what the speed is of the hub so adjust themselves to work on 10Mbps.

Installation
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The network cards fit internally in the computers in the PCI slot. It is a really easy job to do. The card fits into the motherboard and is screwed in to the black panel. It can be a little hard to get them to go into a slot thats not been used before so give it a careful but firm push.
You'll need a different network card for a laptop so this isnt designed for that so bear that in mind. The card is way too big for that.
The software involves installing the network card's drivers. I do not recall it working straight off in Windows 98 so you need to install it . It is very simple and the instructions supplied are easy to follow.

Appearnace
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The hub is a blue campact design. I have currently got 4 computers plugged into my hub. Trouble with it being so small is that it is a lot of cable all coming together at one same place so theres cable so it can make it a bit untidy and make the hub not lie flat.
There are bright yellow LEDs on the front that flash with the data being sent and light up when a cable is plugged into the port. There is a light for each port.
There is an option to wall mount the hub but I havent done that. It comes with an external power supply.

Cables
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The hub can support more computers than the cables and network cards supplied. The cables arent long enough to go from one room to another so they are not ideal but great if two computers are side by side. My local B&Q sell cat5e cables anyway from half a metre and longer so it wasnt a problem getting more cable. As my hub sits on top of my PC, a 0.5m cable came in handy.

Supported Drivers
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Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95/98/2000, Windows NT 3.51/4.0
Novell netware Client for DOS/Windows/OS2, Client 32 for DOS/Win/Win95, Server 3.1x/3.2/4.x/5.x
Unix SCO OpenServer, Linux.
NIDS 2.0 for DOS for operating systems that require it.
Packet driver for operating systems that require it.

I guess really it works with any operating system as it is ethernet but as long as you have a PC with a spare a 3.3v or 5v PCI bus, then thats ok.

Linux
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There has been some driver issues with non-Windows operating systems for the network cards. The hub itself doesnt need drivers so thats will work on any computer network.. Theres loads of stuff on the net about fixing the problem with Linux. You can find some of the patches on Netgear.com and i found the National Semiconductor driver to be the best. Netgear have some FAQs on how to sort the problem out so its not serious. Anyone who runs Linux is probably able to sort it out so its not such a problem that I would mark down the network cards. They function perfectly fine. If the individual cards ever fail, replacements can be bought for around £10 so its no big deal. Although it would be for me as my internet connection is piped to me via ethernet so it would mean no ADSL :(

Networking computers together has made it possible for me to have more than one computer connected to the internet connection in this house. This makes life a lot easier! I havent put my printer on the network as I didnt want everyone using my printer over the network :D

Price
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I bought this from PC World about 2 years ago for £50. It was stupid as it was very overpriced and I have seen kits by Netgear that are cheaper and better than what I paid for this. I think £35 is a lot more like what it is being sold for now.

Improvements
===========
Having a faster network would have been better as I use my ADSL firewall as a file server and its been annoying trying to copy 10 Gig at a time over the network. For what I require, a hub would not have been as desirable and a switch would have been better. However, when I purchased it,, I only had one computer and no concept of networking so I can't be blamed for bad purchasing. Netgear do sell switch versions at 100Mbps of this kit and it would have been ideal for me.
Having said that, this is a starter kit for people who have no need to move masses of data all over the place and it might only be 170kb Word File every so often.
I would recommend this as the sort of thing to go for if you have 2 or 3 Windows computers and want to share the internet connection around the house/office. 

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