Its always interesting to me to see how different companies approach the same issue. In video cards, sound cards, and most other hardware categories there is a greater difference in the components on the board itself. With network kits, they generally conform to a single standard that regulates their performance and inteconnectivity. Between varying levels of automation in the install process, to the software bundle, to even (very rarely) including additional hardware on the same board (such as a modem), each company tries to put out as distinct of a product as they can.

One of the things that this quest for differentiation does is make prices for the same product from different manufacturers vary rather significantly. You can't add software to a bundle, or have engineers spend 2 months developing custom installation software without it adding to your cost. So a barebones implementation can cost as little as half the price as a more full-featured, more automated solution.

3Com and Microsoft, two of the computer industry's heaviest hitters, have gotten together to bring out a series of network kits that are meant to be user friendly, and easy to set up. However neither of these manufacturers is quite known for producing bargain priced products, so it is one of the more expensive kits available. Does what it includes justify the price? Lets take a look and see.

Opening the Box

I have to say that 3Com had a nice idea, showing a simplified short example of the installation and setup of the network. For anyone who is a little scared setting up network components for the first time, this is comforting. The box contains the 2 network cards, 2 phonelines and the 3 CDs.

Installation

Installation was really easy, the HomeClick software leads you by the hands through the process. It would take a really special person or some other weird circumstance to have any trouble getting the network cards set up right. It leads you through all the aspects of normal network setup, naming your PC and choosing drives, folders and printers to share. The software is set up to help you make the decisions even if you are not sure what it is asking. Definitely nice for a first time networker.

Software

Beyond the installation software 3Com includes 2 additional CDROMs, a Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrades CD, and the Microsoft Games Sampler CD. The Windows 98 SE Upgrade is what allows Internet sharing. It was one of the features that didn't make it into the original Windows 98. One issue here is that this CD is useless if you don't already have Windows 98 installed. It is not a normal operating system upgrade disc, it will ONLY upgrade Windows 98.

I installed this upgrade, went into the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Setup, and added Internet Sharing. My Internet connection machine was NOT one of the ones that I installed the 3Com cards into, so I had to do this manually. The HomeClick software would normally walk you through this process. When you add Internet sharing, Windows 98 SE will prompt you through making a 1 file installation disk for all of the other computers on your network. Run that one file on any client PC, and you are all set.

The second CDROM is a Microsoft games sampler. It includes demo versions of Age Of Empires:Rise of Rome expansion, Monster Truck Madness II, Close Combat III:The Russian Front, Microsoft Golf 1999, and Microsoft Baseball 2000. Although these aren't necessarily the hottest games, you do have a few titles that are fun to play on a network. Microsoft did put a nice variety of game genres on the CD, so there is very likely going to be at least one that you will like. I think that playing games really shows you the value of having put your home PCs on a network. Sharing files and printers is nice, but there is nothing like a good strategy game with friends/family on a local network.

Performance

The 3Com network cards worked very well. At various times over the span of using them, my network included a D-Link 10Mbps card as well as one of Diamond's HomeFree 10Mbps cards. The file transfer rates worked out almost exactly the same whether using 2 of the 3Com cards, or mixed sets. It is good to see that they truly are interchangeable, as it is nice to be free to pick a different manufacturers product for any future additions to the network.

At 10Mbps, you are at a speed that is fast enough to install software across the network from a CD on another machine. Actually, it is just a bit short of being fast enough to play a DVD movie across the network from a DVD drive on another machine. Overall, I experienced less difficulties with ALL of the HomePNA 2.0 cards than I did with the original ones. With the first generation, occasionally I had random problems with one computer finding another on the network. Since I started using the HomePNA 2.0 cards (from all the different manufacturers) I have not had this happen.

About Home PNA

Home PNA (Phone Networking Alliance) is a group that formed to standardize the way that phone line based networking worked. One of the problems that faces each new generation of modems has been competing standards has made it difficult for modems from different manufacturers to communicate at maximum speeds. It has taken as long as a year for the competing standards to meet, which is no good for consumers. The HomePNA group came up with a standard for how signals get transmitted, and allows for future enhancements that the varius manufacturers have agreed to use. This means that any HomePNA network card will work with any other HomePNA network card, regardless of the manufacturer.

The reason that having a standard was so important was that it was critical for different phone line "applications" not to interfere with each other. In theory you could be having a conversation by voice, using an ADSL modem to connect to the internet, and a HomePNA network setup all over the same phone line at the same time, with no loss in quality or performance for any of the uses. Although the original HomePNA standard only managed to get 1Mbps throughput, the HomePNA 2.0 based cards (such as these from 3Com) allow for 10Mbps. If you would like to learn more about the HomePNA organization, their website is http://www.homepna.org.

Easiest of all kits for a novice to set up, 5 year warranty, Windows 98 SE adds additional features.

Most expensive of the HomePNA 2.0 kits, Internet sharing is only installable on Windows 98.

Final Thoughts: If you have more than one PC, you really should have them networked. The flexibility that you get with the HomePNA based cards is that your normal phone lines are used for data transmission, so there is no expensive additional wiring necessary. Just plug a cable from the network card into the phone jack, and you are networked. As time goes by, we know that the speeds of all computer components increase. The original HomePNA only allowed for 1Mbps, where the current generation allows for 10Mbps. This is the speed that is commonly referred to as regular Ethernet, which is what some of the largest corporations have been using for years. Although there is currently a 100Mbps Ethernet standard as well, not all companies have (or will) upgrade. Replacing network cabling in an office building is expensive, and it is no cheaper to have done in your home. With the current HomePNA 2.0 based cards allowing you to transfer a 50Mb file in less than 2 minutes, I think that is fast enough for any normal home use. So what did I think of 3Com's kit in particular? I would strongly recommend it for any Windows 98 user who is not technically inclined and is more concerned about how difficult it will be to set up than the price. The 3Com/Microsoft pairing definitely made this kit the easiest of all to install and configure. But the price may make it prohibitive to some, as it is almost twice the cost of some of the other choices. That to some extent you will have to judge for yourself, as how much could 2 or 3 or more hours of possible frustration and difficulties configuring your network be worth to you? The other major downside besides price is that you can't enable Internet sharing if all of the machines you currently have are using Windows 95, which I find pretty limiting. I think this is the only real flaw in the kit. If you aren't using Windows 98 on the machine that will be connecting to the Internet (and intend to share the connection), then this is not the kit to buy as you will still need to purchase other software to share the connection.