To All, CNET has a good revue of DIMD HomeFree,unbiased and truthful.
Diamond HomeFree Wireless Desktop Pac
Wireless networking kits back to intro
Snapshot
If you can overlook sluggish performance in favor of reliability, the HomeFree Wireless Desktop Pac solution boasts a nice price.
Review
Diamond Multimedia, best known for its graphics cards and modems, is venturing into new territory with the company's first wireless home-networking products. For a debut effort, the low-price $199 HomeFree Desktop Pac offers impressive data range capability and user documentation. But the kit needs some work in the performance department.
Stacks up well against the competition
In terms of range, HomeFree bests the WebGear Aviator, which also works with radio frequency (RF), but is just on a par with the Proxim solution. In RF-based kits, the range refers to how far away you can place your PCs and still transmit data between them. The HomeFree and Proxim solutions allow a range of up to 150 feet, whereas the Aviator kit transmits data between PCs as far as 125 feet apart. As for ease of use and reliability, we found the thoughtfully designed Symphony superior to both the WebGear and the Diamond.
Good instructions aid setup
Setting up a two-PC HomeFree network requires more effort than the other kits, but Diamond's excellent documentation covers the process very well. The package consists of one PCI card, one ISA card, and HomeFree's software. To simply share files between systems, you first need to install the software and one card in each system. The attached antennae on these cards jut out the back of your systems, acting as transmitters and receivers for the wireless data sent between them.
If you want to share Internet access, the process is a little more complicated. After installing the cards, you'll need to designate one system as the Internet gateway on which you'll also install a software router by using the included WinNAT software. If you have problems, the QuickStart poster and the getting-started guide are extremely helpful.
Cursed by sluggish speed
With so much going for it, it was unfortunate that the Diamond's overall speed was much slower than those of the Symphony, HomeRun, and PassPort. The only kit that the HomeFree managed to beat was the WebGear Aviator Wireless Networking Kit. Accessing the Internet via our secondary machine was sluggish and flaky, as well: downloading Web pages took several minutes.
The RF-based HomeFree networking kit has some growing up to do in terms of performance, but its price is excellent. Our advice: keep an eye out for the next version, which may be faster and even cheaper. But if you want a kit today and are willing to pay, take a look at the Proxim line.
computers.com
Very Good article,it says TUTS PNA home phone line system blows them all away. Well DIMD is using TUTS system for their desktop systems that are being installed in CPQ computers. DIMD needs to increase the speed and ease of use of HomeFree,then it will have a huge market for laptops. I wanna sit on my balcony.and surf the web from my laptop through my only ISP connection.
Well not a glowing revue for HomeFree, they have to catch Proxim in this department.
The Proxim Symphony is undeniably expensive. But it's also better designed than any other kit we reviewed. If you don't have the cash to spare but are desperate for a wireless solution, check out Diamond's HomeFree.
Second revue of TUTS, more impressive for DIMD.
Tut Systems HomeRun
Wireless networking kits back to intro
Snapshot
The fastest of the bunch, the HomeRun phone-line-based home-networking solution is too scarce for a recommendation.
Review
In our roundup, Tut Systems' HomeRun network ($199 for the network card version, $249 for the external adapter version) was the easiest kit to install. Plug its adapters into your telephone wall jack and computers, and voilà! Your network's up and running! Another HomeRun plus: this product was the only one that came close to delivering on its 1-mbps throughput promise (an Ethernet network can reach throughput of 10 mbps). All of the other solutions we tested promised the same speed, but none came close.
Slim availability
But there's a little catch. Tut Systems, the company that develops HomeRun, doesn't sell its solution through retail channels. You can call and order it directly from the company, but Tut hopes the technology will take off through third-party licensees. Diamond Multimedia just began shipping the $99 HomeFree Phoneline Desktop Pac based on HomeRun's phone line technology (we reviewed the HomeFree Desktop Pac that uses radio frequency). Best Data Products has also announced a networking solution based on HomeRun, called Home PC Link, that is supposed to be available at the beginning of February. Also, Compaq has announced plans for a new line of HomeRun-enabled PCs that will be available later this year.
Cinch to install
While the HomeRun kit's overall setup was carefree, we didn't enjoy the first step: opening the case of each of our test PCs to install an Ethernet network interface card (NIC). But it's smooth sailing from there: just connect an Ethernet cable from the NIC to the Tut adapter, and a phone line from the adapter to your telephone wall jack. The phone-line method does have one drawback: your PC needs to be relatively close to a telephone wall jack, which it probably already is if you're using a modem.
Bumpy Internet access
Once we installed the kit, it wasn't so easy to get the HomeRun network to handle shared Internet connections. Unlike the other kits we reviewed, the HomeRun adapters didn't come with a proxy server or router software. Per Tut's instructions, we tried to enable Internet sharing using the modem-sharing capability built into Windows 98, but we never did get it to work properly. Hopefully Tut's licensees will ship software appropriate to this task.
The Internet access snafu aside, we were extremely impressed with HomeRun's speed. If you've got to have that speed now, and you're willing to shell out a big chunk of cash for it, give Tut a call. But if $249 is not in your financial cards, you may want to check out Diamond's much cheaper version, or our Editors' Choice for this review, the Proxim Symphony Suite.
Hiram |
