Here at Absolute Gadget, we like being green, it gives us such an enormous sense of smugness, being at one with nature and nothing whatsoever with us being in effect a bunch of tightwads who'd rather put on an extra jumper rather than turn the thermostat up a notch now that costs a bit more in heating bills. Anyhoo, D-Link has announced a range of new home networking products that could quite possibly save the planet but will most certainly save some pennies on the leccy bill.

Its new range of energy-saving Green Ethernet desktop switches are aimed at home users and small businesses. The switches are claimed by the company to bring energy savings of up to 44 per cent of the power typically used by a 5-port Gigabit switch.

The Green Ethernet switches measure when computers connected to them are turned off and will power down into standby mode, saving up to 44 per cent of the power used by each switch. Also, while most desktop switches use the maximum power necessary to support cable lengths of up to 100m, D-Link research shows that the average home uses only 5-10m of network cable. With this is mind, D-Link's Green Ethernet solutions uniquely feature the ability to analyse cable lengths, and can adjust power usage for different cable lengths accordingly. (Ain't that clever!)

"D-Link's Green Ethernet solutions are important, for the environment and for our customers," said Osbert Ong, D-Link's European Product Manager. "At the same time, larger businesses need to consider their environmental responsibilities. Adopting D-Link's Green Ethernet solutions will enable them to reduce their carbon footprint, and ensure that D-Link secures a technological and environmental head-start with this market."

The new switches will begin shipping later this year for small business and home use. Next year will see eco-friendly enterprise stuff coming out on D-Link's xStack range. Now back to the mung bean casserole and the dream catcher.