DLink DHN920 Phoneline USB Network In A Box


DLink DHN920 Phoneline USB Network In A Box - Page 2

D-Link DHN-920 - 10Mb Phone Line USB Network In A Box
 
A Home Network For Dummies

By Dave Altavilla - September 11, 2000

 

Installation / Setup
Even a monkey could handle this.

 

As we noted earlier, life is simple while setting up the DHN-920 kit from D-Link.  A picture tells the story so we'll just show you the artwork.

 

 

 

That is all there is to it, to allow two or more computers in your house to communicate with the Microsoft Networking Client that is already resident in Win9X.

 

When we plugged the unit into an available USB port on our test systems, Windows 98 detected it immediately and we were prompted to insert the driver CD.  It all went without incident, perfectly.

 

 

We then setup TCP/IP connections under Windows Networking and before we knew it, we had a network.  The whole process took less than 20 minutes and again, no tools whatsoever were needed.

 

In action - click to view

 

 

What wasn't so breezy was the Internet Sharing Software that D-Link bundles in with the units.  D-Link bundles MidPoint Lite in with their product and it was not so trivial to set up Internet Sharing with this software.

 

Click for full view of MidPoint Lite Control Panels
 

   

 

 

We did finally get the client machine to access the internet via the server's cable modem connection after a lot of manual intervention that would baffle most novice users.  The software was fairly full featured, including the ability to share one set of email and news accounts.  However, it was very hard to set up and not all that reliable.   

 

Why D-Link didn't opt to use Network Address Translation (NAT) technology, which requires no additional setup on the other PCs in your network, is beyond us.  We used Sygate from Sybergen Networks for the remainder of testing.  It set up in less than 5 minutes.  We shared our resident cable modem connection with one other client machine in the H.H. Lab and we didn't even have to touch a DNS setting or the like.  This kit with Sygate software instead of this MidPoint stuff, would be MUCH better off.

 

Well then, let's look at the performance side of things here.

 

 

Reliability, Benchmarks and The Rating

 

 

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