CrunchGear

any release date on this? I’d read back in april this was supposed to be out june 15th….. but obviously that didn’t happen.

I’ve had my Belkin Network USB Hub for a week now, bought it at Fry’s for $119. It was easy to set up, but I had an issue printing. By the time I actually talked to a tech at Belkin, the issue resolved itself - ain’t that the way it always goes?
It’s nice to finally use our scanner between each of our 2 computers, read from a multi-media card reader and get rid of our old printer server and consolidate it into this unit.
I’ll say this much though, it is NOT the first wireless USB hub. SILEX has had their own out for awhile now:

http://www.silexamerica.com/us/products/network/usb/sx2000wg.html

I’ve tried their SX-5000U2, but it didn’t read the card reader all that well, though scanning and printing worked fine. I returned it and found that Belkin was offering a unit, so I just waited (less than a month) for it.

For availability, try Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s, etc.

@Nick - If you get a chance, could you email me your printer name to jamiee [at] belkin.com? I would like to understand why you had any issues with your printer. Do you have your hub on a wireless network? What’s your network strength like?

We have spent months testing this darned thing, so I’d like to get rid of any “quirks” if users find them.

Thanks,
Jamie
Belkin

Jamie, you were looking for quirks. I’ve got one for you. I followed all of the instructions, several times, even read here and carefully followed the procedures outline above, and still get a print error from my hp psc 750. If I connect directly to my printer, I have no problems, but if I go through the hub connected to my wireless router, I get the error. It’s a Test Page, Error - printing error. I get the same results if I try to print anything through the hub and wireless Linksys router. I’m hoping I get the same results at least that Nick did and it starts mysteriously working. It’d be nice anyway although I would rather know what’s wrong so I can fix it. Otherwise, I’m taking this thing back. I’m running Vista btw.

I have the same problem and the support phone line was no help. Did you ever get this issue fixed? if so can you share with us how?

I have same problem with my HP PSC 750 printer. Did you fixed the problem of returned the Belkin Network USB hub?

Hi Jamie,
I know this isn’t the place to address this, but you are probably the one I talked to yesterday on the phone around 4:15pm PST. You had me do some basic troubleshooting and it seemed like everything was working just fine.

In what sense is this a “wireless” USB hub? Does it not need to by physically attached to a router?

Went crazy trying to get a normal print server to work, 7 hours on my day off, turned out it wasn’t compatible with my printer… In an effort to avoid a repeat, I gave the hub a try and it works like a champ. So easy, no IP addresses, no WEP/WAP-PSK codes to mess with since the wireless router and laptops are already coded and the Hub plugs directly into the router. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to share a printer or other USB device over multiple computers. So easy I think I could talk my mom through the process over the phone.

Does the control panel have to be running in the system tray to access devices , can you access the devices without running the control panel is what I’m asking?

can you connect an external usb tvtunner to this network usb hub? I have a laptop, and I cant wach TV only if my laptop is on my desk, I hate that. please email me at rus_alex_syx@yahoo.com if somebodye knows, thanks

I currently have a desktop PC the sole function of which is to provide networked access to four USB hard drives. I would like to use this device to provide that function so I can turn off (or get rid of) the PC.

From the perspective of a networked laptop accessing the networked hard drive, what differences in function will exist? Can I map drives as normal? If one laptop is using a networked hard drive, what happens if another tries to access it? Is there somewhere which summarizes these kind of issues?

Is this the best solution to replace the PC which is essentially serving files? Other solutions I’ve seen require you to reformat hard drives which seems a non-starter.

Thanks,
Michael

“Devices can be connected to one computer at a time and there is a button to request the use of a device if it is connected to someone else’s machine.”

Print server question: I have two laptops on a wireless network. My router has a printserver port that has ceased to function, so I’m looking at this as an alternative. My concern and question has to do with the statement quoted above. Does the hub work like a true print server in that either laptop can send copy to the printer without having to ask the other laptop for permission? If not, that sounds like a major drawback.

@Tom: There is a function on the Network USB Hub that allows it to only connect to the printer for print jobs and then disconnect. This function serves to address the issue you mentioned above. It takes a little bit of digging though.

Belkin Network USB Hub is the Silex SX-5000U2 - see Belkin driver file description.

Jamie: is this ONLY for wireless routers? i am interested in having this product on a wired & wireless network - will it work for both (some computers are wireless and some are not)? Also, will the USB Network Hub slow down transfer rates from a USB 2.0 Connected Harddrive to a wired lan connect computer?

Just got one today. The software that they use is really incredible. You can even add a second hub onto this hub and the devices on it will work. It will also take a keyboard or a mouse. As stated, one computer at a time uses the device. You can set the printer, however, to only be used by the computer upon request. The software will both find the device on the LAN and find the peripherals as they are plugged in. I plan to soon test my Audigy 2NX on this unit. According to Belkin, you can run audio through the device and, given that it treats each attachment as if it was local, I don’t see why Audigy wouldn’t work over it. You probably want to have a very solid connection, though, if you plan to do anything that requires a very consistent connection. So far, this device has worked impressively well over our mediocre D-Link (Wireless G) router.

@Mike: The Network USB Hub works on all networks - wired or wireless. Sorry for the slow response. I hadn’t been following this thread.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know how much power is provided for each USB port? I have several external laptop hard disk drives that get their power and data from the same USB2.0 port and it would be great if I could create a pseudo-NAS solution with this hub!

(I have read comments elsewhere that the hub isn’t too happy with power-hungry USB devices…)

Thanks all.

Unfortunately I purchased the Belkin “Wireless” router totally misunderstanding what wireless meanth. I thought this was a TRULY wireless device that worked without wires and did not have to be hardwired into my router because, I don’t have a port next to my printer or external backup drive. My home is completely wireless, even the print server I’m currently using so I don’t have any ports available and my router is not by any of the peripherals that I was hoping to use with the hub.

This is terribly dissapointing. I’m glad I understand now, I’ve ben pulling my hair trying to figure out how to get the “wireless” hub connected onto my real wireless network. I thought it was odd that it didn’t provide any WEP settings, but everything I read said that it was wireless.

Sorry for ranting, but now I’m stuck. I was so excited and now I have to figure out how I’m going to connect it to my wireless network since it isn’t wireless.

I have an Ext. HD that works perfectly on it, but I can’t get my printer to work at all on it. Everything with printer is fine, if I plug it directly to my laptop it prints fine, if I connect it to the USB hub, the hub recognizes it, shows it’s connected, but I get an error message if I try to print. Any ideas? The printer is a old HP PSC 750xi USB printer. And I just have one computer (laptop) that I’m using so the sharing isn’t even the issue. I just don’t get it.

Thanks

Any client drivers for a linux box? Fedora in my case?

Might the control panel work under wine?

I was wondering the same thing on this one. I have to find out which version of Linux put on but I need it for my PC. Right now, my laptop which is Windows XP is connected to a wireless number pad and my Epson all in one through the hub. I was hoping to attach my PC so I don’t have to connect/disconnect the printer all the time between laptop and PC.

Does anyone know where to get the drivers for MACs?

There is a driver available for MACs.
http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&pid=F5L009&aid=8547&scid=1

They currently do not support Leopard. The MAC driver supports up to Tiger 10.4.

Nope, I’ve been too busy. I’m using it for my other usb devices. Its just the printer that doesn’t work on it. I’ll get around to figuring it out soon.

What about connecting 2 or more printers? Seems I read somewhere that it supports only 1 printer. What if you have more than 1 connected but only use 1 at a time would that work?

Bought this and have had nothing but trouble with the damn thing!! it keeps dropping connections to the maxtor one touch 3 i have connected and the software keeps losing connection to the hard drive. i have a belkin wireless N router that i bought with it as its supposed to stack on top of it, but when i stack them they over heat and crash. have had nothing but trouble with the wireless craping out too, really wish i had bought netgear or someone else as this is my 2nd belkin router and both of them dropped connections and had to power off and back on to get the clients to reconnect to the wireless. anyone else have problems with the software dropping connection? i have added the ports into my firewall tcp/udp 19540.
Thanks, im at the point of throwing out all my belkin stuff.

Bought it a couple of weeks ago,everything works fine but my question is why tranfer speed is only limited to 1.5MB/sec and does take advantage of the full wireless router bandwidth?I’ve connected an external Seagate HD and it takes quite a long with this speed to transfer big files.
Does anybody know if Belkin is going to have a firmware update to remedy this?

I bought this last night at best buy. I installed everything on one of my pcs. But I am unable to get my external harddrive to connect to this hub. Am I doing something wrong? I see it on my wirless network but when I click on the device it shows the hd but says not connected. What dod I need to do to connect to the hard drive?

can i run a webcam off it? my kids like dancing to music and seeing themselves on screen, i have the microsoft lifecam vx-1000

I purchased the F5L009 Network USB Hub last weekend. No problem at all getting my Canon 8400F scanner to work but I cannot get my HP Photosmart 7550 to print.

The control center recognizes the printer. If I pause the print queue and then print a document from wordpad, it shows up in the queue. When I resume print the port column in the que is briefly populated with the port name for the printer, DOT4_001.

Then, everything clears as though it printed … but no output shows up in the printer

Can anyone here help me out?

Help, bought the F5L009 last night. Hooked it up to my Belkin Pre-N router and ran the intallation software on my HP labtop. I’m trying to run my Epson R220 printer. The printer runs great directly plugged in the Labtop, but the hub nor the printer device shows up in the USB hub control center. I looked up the XP device manager and it is not listed. Odd thing is iI think it shows up in my local network under “My Network Places” listing “Network USB Hub (BK11CD0A)”, or is that my router?

I had a choice of staying with Belkin or purchasing a Linksys’s printer hub. Same price. Did I make a mistake?

DT

Hi,

I ran across your web page as I was searching for a way to print from my laptop without being connected to a printer. I have done this for the past three years via a wireless home network (printer connected to my desktop - laptop talked to desktop via wireless home computer network).

However, I have just installed a wireless (WRT54G) router for Internet access. It has effectively shut down my home wireless network - in other words I can no longer get the two computers to talk to each other but only to the new internet wireless router.

I called Linksys, but they said the problem is not related to the new router - directly. They told me to contact Microsoft. In other words - it sounds like a run-around.

So I decided to do a bit of searching on my own. In so doing, I ran across your review of the 5 port USB hub. Being someone computer illiterate (I only know enough to make me dangerous without good helpers), I must admit this sounds like it might be the answer to my problem. However, I am not sure.

If this could work, I would like to hook up two printers and an external hard drive to this USB hub. If I understand correctly, I would then be able to print (via wireless) to the printers which are connected and send / retrieve information from my external hard drive. Is this correct?

If so, I have one more challenge to overcome. I have an older (but excellent) Laser printer which has the old style plug in (not a USB). Do they make an adapter so I can plug this printer into a USB port? If so, would this hub handle this?

I REALLY appreciate your help on this. Obviously I am a bit puzzled. But, I need to overcome this unexpected problem so I can get on with business.

THANK YOU!

Lerrina

I have just got,a belkin wireless usb hub 4-port and have two problems (1) webcam and headset wont work as any one got any ideas how to fix this problem
thanks MITCH

Hey I bought the belkin wireless usb hub for connecting my external hdd. Installed software no problems. Added it to live one cares exceptions list, so no firewalls in the way. Running vista btw. I hooked up my hdd it appeared in the little window, but would not connect. Only assistance provided by help was possible firewall blockage. Lame and weak support really needs improvement. Any other solutions. Don’t tell me to disable firewalls, because it is not that. It’s also not the hdd I have tried other usb devices same problem. Even thing as simple as a thumb drive. Any help would be appriciated.

@bob I would just return this thing. I tried and tried to get it to work with my printer and it just would not work. save yourself the hasle and just return it.

actually i have returned it but it is also the only and “best” one the market so im going to go buy another one and hopefully i can get it to work. i would really like any solutions.