The network kit’s prime flaw seems to lie within the installation. Unfortunately while many people were able to setup the DFE-910 without any problems, we were not so lucky. With both our computers, we popped the network cards into the PCI slots and booted up Windows98. Once Win98 detected both cards, we installed the drivers via the supplied driver disk and inserted the Win98 CD when prompted to. After we connected the cables from each computer to the switch, we added all the necessary protocols and configurations. For most people, at this point, you would be done. However, we ran into some problems. Network Neighborhood was not detecting the other computer. After a quick answer from D-Link’s excellent tech support team, we figured out that the network card was conflicting with other IRQs. Switching a couple of the PCI cards around and the network problem was soon fixed. Network newbies might want to read a book on networking before getting into the real deal.

After going through the installation, we were expecting worse from the network. Fortunately we were wrong. After several intensive tests, we were amazed at the performance. Transferring the 11 MB WWII Recon mod for Myth II took less than 5 seconds! Afterwards, we did some more file transferring and results were always high. A 120 Megs folder took roughly a minute to complete.

Ping times and performance for games were excellent. We hosted the network games on our faster computer (PenIII 450, RivaTNT2, 128 PC100 RAM) and let the slower computer (K6 266MHz, 64 SD RAM, Voodoo2) connect to it.  We tested Quake3 Test v1.08, which uses TCP/IP for its network games. Quake 3 Test ping times were around 15-25ms. The result was a very playable experience across all three test maps. Next, we did more intensive game tests of Starcraft, Myth II and Rainbow Six. Although there were no ping indicators in any of these games, I can tell you that the performance was just great. Never did we once encounter any lag or delays.

D-Link included the Internet sharing program, MidPoint Lite. The program acts as a proxy server which allows your networked use the Internet through the gateway machine (the computer directly connected to the Internet). Documentation is provided on CD and is easy to setup since it uses a step-by-step guide. Since we only have a 56K connection, we were limited to sharing the Internet and e-mail. Overall, MidPoint Lite will suit you just fine. However, if you plan on heavy Internet usage on the second computer, I would recommend a higher quality (notice that the “Lite” in MidPoint) Internet sharing program such as Win98 SE's built-in one or SyGate.

If you ever run into any trouble with D-Link products like we did, you can always depend on them for life. That’s right, lifetime free technical support. That’s not even the best part. D-Link also includes a lifetime warranty on the network kit. Some network companies think one or two years is enough, but D-Link really gives you the extra insurance.

D-Link has a winner with its budget priced, fast performance network kit. Not to say the network kit is not complete without flaws, but with a suggested retail price of $119, the DFE-910 is a real bargain. I definitely recommend the DFE-910 to anyone since gives you everything you need to get started on a network.