New toy: Belkin Network USB Hub
by Volker Weber
Look what the mailman brought today: A Belkin Network USB Hub. It lets you connect remote USB devices over the network to computers running Windows or Mac OS X. Since I don't have a TV cable where my computer is I always wanted to connect the Equinux TubeStick over the network:
This works well with the TubeStick Mini but not with the old TubeStick. It is recognized but unable to get a sufficient data rate. I am not sure why, but only the Mini works:
I can't get it to recognize my Edirol UA-1X sound device. It powers up, green LED is on, but it won't show up in the control center.
Update: This isn't really working, at least not with Mac OS X 10.5.6. Belkin obviously uses a Sylex SXVirtualLink platform. They have newer drivers than Belkin provides, and those only work up to 10.5.5. From current experience, I would stay away from the device. The hub is losing data somewhere on the data connection. A nuisance with a TV stick, but a disaster with files.
Neat idea, but fails in practice.
Comments
I bought and returned that about 6 moths ago. While you can add multiple USB devices, you cannot access them at the same time with multiple computers. You actually have to disconnect one PC from the unit and connect an other to get at the drives. Not exactly networkable.
Well, it's a remote hub, not a server.
Maybe the Lantronix UBoxes suit your purpose - don't know.
