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Belkin 10/100 5-Port Network Switch
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £12.39Average Customer Rating
(3.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
This is a switch not a router
(5 out of 5) by B. Gray on Jul 7, 2006 (Wiltshire UK)This is a switch, all they are supposed to do is to manage network connections. if you want to connect to the internet buy a router, not a switch. for the price this is a brilliant piece of kit, and, as with all belkin products, it comes with a lifetime warranty.
2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
ICS is poor
(3 out of 5) by Amazon Customer on May 25, 2004This device is great if you just want to network all your PC's together for file and print sharing but for internet sharing it falls short.
First of all it relies on Microsofts built-in ICS software to share the internet connection and from my experience this can be unstable at times and not supported if you have any PC's that don't have Win98 SE or later. You also have to make sure that the host PC that has the DSL connection to the internet has two NIC cards installed (an extra expense if like most, your PC only has one), this adds extra effort to install the NIC into an available PCI slot if you have one. If you don't have a spare slot then you would have to go down the USB NIC route and I don't recommend this.
Probably the biggest inconvenience is the fact that the host PC has to left on all the time to ensure that the other client PC's
has internet access.
The better product to buy for internet sharing would be the Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router BEFSR41.
First of all it relies on Microsofts built-in ICS software to share the internet connection and from my experience this can be unstable at times and not supported if you have any PC's that don't have Win98 SE or later. You also have to make sure that the host PC that has the DSL connection to the internet has two NIC cards installed (an extra expense if like most, your PC only has one), this adds extra effort to install the NIC into an available PCI slot if you have one. If you don't have a spare slot then you would have to go down the USB NIC route and I don't recommend this.
Probably the biggest inconvenience is the fact that the host PC has to left on all the time to ensure that the other client PC's
has internet access.
The better product to buy for internet sharing would be the Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router BEFSR41.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Nothing but trouble!!
(1 out of 5) by Pm Bagguley on Aug 3, 2006 (UK)I recently bought this product and have been fighting with it ever since.
Advertised as straight forward with excelent online resources. Nope, none of the above present my lord! It appears to work but then fails, then works, then fails a few times. Also nil resources that i could find on the belkin site. No wired assitance full stop infact!
I finally resulted in investing in a cable tester (which i do reccomend!!) in order to prove its rubbish. It is. Stick with netgear is my advice!
Advertised as straight forward with excelent online resources. Nope, none of the above present my lord! It appears to work but then fails, then works, then fails a few times. Also nil resources that i could find on the belkin site. No wired assitance full stop infact!
I finally resulted in investing in a cable tester (which i do reccomend!!) in order to prove its rubbish. It is. Stick with netgear is my advice!