hubs

I bought this hub to connect the computers in my home so they could share a cable modem. I looked at a lot of 10Base-T hubs, and found this one to be among the least expensive with the best satisfaction ratings. I am especially impressed with the hub's small size and metal case -- other hubs are larger and have plastic cases.

To me, the best recommendation for a piece of network hardware is that you never have to think about it, it just works. This hub gives me that in spades.

The Netgear EN104TP is one of the best products that I ever bought. It does just about everything that more expensive 10/100 Ethernet hubs do at a fraction of the cost. If all you're doing is adding additional computers to your network, then the EN104TP is all you need. I use it at my job, which is a company that sells greeting cards wholesale.
I decided to get the EN104TP after determining that our Macintosh needed access to the (PC-dominated) network so we could transfer and print TIFF and EPS files of artwork the company intends to sell. Because of a lack of Ethernet outlets in our printing department, I decided the best and cheapest way to do that was by adding an Ethernet hub. At first, I was a little skeptical about getting a 10 Base-T hub, but after finding the EN104TP on sale (...), I decided to take a chance, and it was worth it. It transfers files easily, it facilitates network printing (allowing us to maximize resources) and, for the computers connected to the hub, uninhibited access to the Internet.
Although this product is almost perfect, I encountered a couple of minor flaws. Recently, due to a windstorm that blacked out most of Memphis, we had to move the printing operations to another location. In doing so, I took the EN104TP in the hopes that it would function as a stand-alone Ethernet hub. Although it worked the first day, it didn't seem to function any day after that. Granted, I am not sure if it was the EN104TP's fault or the quirkiness of our computers which uses different Windows OS's (ME and XP). However, we were able to piggyback on the network of the building we were working out of and everything was fine. The other flaw is an obvious one: download speed. I found that files downloaded through the hub took longer to finish than ones downloaded directly from our main 10/100 hub.
In summary, I must say that the EN104TP is a great product and a great value for people who want to expand their network without having to spend a fortune to do it.

For this price, you can not expect more: compact size, the easiness to install, and the very clever design making it a perfect home network product. If you've already had NIC installed, you network can be up and running in less than five minutes. It's that simple.

Keep in mind that this hub is 10 based, if the speed is important to you, then you should consider the 100 based hubs. If you're trying to connect Windows 9x and Windows 2000, make sure to load the NetBUEI protocol into you Win 2000 machine. In general, NetBUEI is one of the default protocols on Win 9x, but not on Win 2000.