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Installation
D-Link
deserves major kudos by providing the best assortment of manuals I've ever
come across. Count 'em - there are three
manuals in the box. Normally this would allocate it in the same area as
all the useless manuals that accompany a TV or VCR purchase. Remember, we
are talking networking here. Even with networking products in so many homes
and offices I don't consider their installation to be second nature for
the average person. Yes, I review the manual with a new stereo or video
component and I certainly look through them with networking components.
The first manual is a simple installation
guide that covers seven languages. Next up is the MidPoint Lite software
manual. We'll go further in depth with this software in just a minute. The
last manual is the thickest and probably the most informative. The Quick
Starter Guide once again covers the wiring connections that were discussed
in the first manual and goes into a nice explanation of the protocol setup.
MidPoint Lite allows the user to share the internet connection of one computer.
This allows you to share your dialup and highspeed DSL or Cable connection.
MidPoint Lite only needs to be installed on the computer with the internet
connection and not every computer on the network. This optimizes the usefulness
of PNA networking since there is a seamless connection to the internet for
all the users on the network. Keep in mind that using a 56K dialup connection
this way with several users could lead to some impressively slow connections
at peak use.
Not
interested in using MidPoint or wanting to interface the PNA network to
your existing ethernet setup? The DHN 1000 Ethernet to HomPNA Bridge plugs
right into that situation. One port is dedicated for the connection to the
existing ethernet network and the other port is plugged into the PNA network.
It is backwards compatible with the older HomePNA 1.0 standard for those
of you who already have 1 MBps PNA adapters.
As mentioned earlier D-Link includes
all the necesary cables and software to make their PNA solution work in
either situation. I tried both installations and had trouble with neither.
I preferred the installation with the DHN 1000 Ethernet Bridge since it
interfaced more cleanly into my existing 100 MBps network and I didn't have
to install the MidPoint software. MidPoint works surprisingly well but it
creates one more possible area to troubleshoot if a problem should ever
arise.
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D-Link
deserves major kudos by providing the best assortment of manuals I've ever
come across. Count 'em - there are three
manuals in the box. Normally this would allocate it in the same area as
all the useless manuals that accompany a TV or VCR purchase. Remember, we
are talking networking here. Even with networking products in so many homes
and offices I don't consider their installation to be second nature for
the average person. Yes, I review the manual with a new stereo or video
component and I certainly look through them with networking components.
Not
interested in using MidPoint or wanting to interface the PNA network to
your existing ethernet setup? The DHN 1000 Ethernet to HomPNA Bridge plugs
right into that situation. One port is dedicated for the connection to the
existing ethernet network and the other port is plugged into the PNA network.
It is backwards compatible with the older HomePNA 1.0 standard for those
of you who already have 1 MBps PNA adapters.
