Not exactly the same as a modem or a router, this unit is solely there to allow PCs to talk to each other, mind you if a PC has internet connectivity then if you allow it other PCs can use it.
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This is a five port switch so up to five PC's or notebooks can be linked together using this product. It is a 10/100 unit and providing all the PC's have 10/100 cards - or in the case of a notebook a PCMCIA or built in offering they can all talk and transfer files. Of course printer sharing is also possible and in a small network environment it is more likely that the printers would be connected to a PC than be a 'network printer'.
The box makes things sound very easy and I have no doubt in an ideal world it would be as easy as described, however assuming everyone is using Windows it probably will not be. In all my tests the easiest has always been to talk to the Internet, and by far the hardest to get PC's to talk to each other.
This unit says step one 'insert a network cable from your PC to the switch' step two 'insert the supplied power adapter from a wall outlet to the switch' step three 'start networking!'. In theory providing other PC's have done step one also that should be all there is to it.
The problem I have always found is that Windows does not - quite rightly - want others to see your files. However even if you give others the rights to certain drives or folders Windows is not always that keen to allow it. In my time I often have to repeat steps just so that one PC sees another.
A lot of ISP's do not allow multiple connections and this sort of switch is one way of getting round that, only one PC is connected to the Internet, it just decides to share that connection with other users.
This switch is small at 12x13x3.5cm and weights less than 200grams, this of course will increase with network cables and power lead inserted.
The front edge has six LED's one for each of the ports and one to say power is going into the switch. The power LED is either off, blinking green, or in use solid green. The port LED's are either off, green when 10Base-T is connected or orange when 100Base-T is connected. Both colours flash when there is port activity. Apart from the power adapter and a small folded piece of paper that is the total contents of the box. Should you need a manual it can be downloaded.
A network setup guide is available at http://setup.belkin.com/guide.html and this could answer a number of questions for a novice. If you have an Internet connected PC and are happy to share this connection with others then this could be the way to go. However it does mean that that PC will always needs to be on if others are to be able to share it. If five ports are just not quite enough then Belkin do an 8 port model. Another solution could be a modem/router and that option I will be looking at shortly, however that will be more expensive. Price of this at www.dabs.com/uk is £19.08.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=151153
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