Review: Belkin Network USB Hub
Don Bradbury tries out a hub that lets you connect your USB 2.0 devices for sharing over a network
| Product | Belkin Network USB Hub |
|---|---|
| Company | Belkin Corp |
| Web | www.belkin.com |
| Price | £60 |
| We like | Easy networking; excellent device connectivity; good software facilities |
| We don't like | No Gigabit Ethernet capability |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements | Windows XP and Vista (32 & 64-bit), plus Mac OS X (10.3-10.4) |
Hubs for PCs let you add devices to a system that are not connected directly to the computer. They are typically used to add extra ports to a system, but with the 165mm x 165mm, x 18mm shiny black plastic Belkin Network USB Hub we have the facility for not only five USB 2.0 add-on ports, but all of them are made available, rather neatly, to your entire network. It sounds great; let's have a look.
Installation of the Network Hub is simple. Just load the Belkin software from the CD; it not only reports on the status of the devices you've added to the hub, but it manages which of your networked computers can have access to the connected devices. That's necessary because, clearly, you can't have two PC's outputting to a printer, say, at the same time. So 'Device Request' is one of the options in Control Center, and the current user of the device must agree to the request.
Hub setup is not necessary if your router uses DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and most do. Just plug in the power supply and the supplied Ethernet cable after installing the Control Center software and you're away.
First, we added four external USB drives to the hub and each reported for duty correctly. As you'd expect, all of them retained the drive letter assignments we had previously set up for them, and this did away with the potential nightmare of having to decide which device letters appropriate drives had been allocated by the OS.
All the King's Horses
We then added a wide range of other USB devices and each of those also reported correctly; all were ready for duty within a matter of seconds. These included a Samsung MP3 media player, an Epson PictureMate photo printer, a standard Epson inkjet, various USB memory sticks , our Panasonic digital camera, and even the BelkinTravelite Retractable USB Lamp - which doesn't install as such as it merely needs USB power for its LED.
Claiming to be 'possibly incompatible' in Control Center was our Hauppauge XFones headset. In fact these headphones worked fine, failing only to release the audio output back to the PC's speakers upon closing via the Hub's Control Center. The audio source had to be stopped and restarted to achieve that.
Add-on ports
We were pleased to note that the Network Hub also accommodated a standard USB 2.0 four-port hub in one of it's own ports, so the range of devices we could add for network use could be extended beyond the five native ports of the Network Hub itself, three of which were at the rear and the other two at the front. In fact up to fifteen devices in total can be accommodated in this manner, so that's useful for those who have lots of USB devices to add to their system. Bear in mind, though, that multi-function devices count as more than one device. A multi-function printer may involve four 'connections', for example.
We ran several devices out of this expansion hub and all worked well there, including our Microsoft Intellimouse. In the end, we had no USB devices at all running directly out of ports on the PC, and that could prove useful for laptop users, in particular, where it can quickly get to the point where the setup looks more like a porcupine than a computer! Effectively, we were then using the Network Hub as a docking station, so with a wired network we just had to disconnect the Ethernet cable from our laptop in the array and that was ready for the road. Upon return, there was just the Ethernet cable to attach and everything else was ready. Usefully, this stratagem also saves the wear and tear on the computer's ports that you get by constant attachment and detachment.
In terms of connectivity, then, 10/10 for us; it worked well. We're not suggesting that there may not be the odd USB device out there that will not work so co-operatively with the Belkin Network Hub as ours did, though we had no trouble at all. But the Hub will not fully support the iPod, for example, merely recognising its memory but not the rest of the facilities. Similarly, webcams, TV Tuners, some USB audio devices, and other items requiring high speed access can prove problematical. And since VPN filters the connection between the computer and other network devices, those using VPN may not find the Hub compatible with it and may have to disable VPN while using the Hub.
In terms of driver recognition success across a network - ie without all the computers having the installation repeated on each one - that depends on the device. A printer that is featured in the OS's device list should be OK, for example, but of course that wouldn't give access to any add-on software that comes with a product. It's best to install all usable devices on each machine in that case.
There's a power brick included with the Network Hub, so you have plenty of power for devices running out of the hub that don't need their own power supply. Any that do, of course, require that you have mains sockets available to power them separately, so you can accumulate quite an array of cables - USB and power - if you do need lots of devices running and available simultaneously. Few will, however, but the whole system worked well in terms of device accessibility. Usefully, the network Hub can be stacked with your Modem/Router because the Hub produces little heat. It's not a pretty stack, but you can usually hide the Network Hub under the router, and with this setup you can hide lots of cabling.
Data Transmission
A downside we experienced while using the Network Hub was data transmission rate. We installed a 500GB Freecom external USB hard disk via the Network Hub and ran a full system backup with Acronis TrueImage v11, to compare it with our usual procedure where the USB cable runs directly from the PC. Interposing the Network Hub in the link gave us a backup period that was around five times as long as we saw when running directly via the PC's USB 2.0 port.
The same factor applied to large-file data copying, and many will not want to tolerate such a hit on performance unless they intend to run backups while the computer is otherwise out of use. The solution, of course, is just to close the drive's connection down (conveniently done via the Hub's Control Center) and move the USB cable across to one of the PC's own USB ports to run the backup or any significant large file data transfers.
Connectivity used by the Network Hub involves its Ethernet port, and this is not of Gigabit capability, merely 'Fast' 10/100. The maximum bandwidth of USB 2.0 is 480Mbps, and that of the network with the Hub in service is 100Mbps, so the reduced speed we experienced was accounted for in this way. What the Belkin Network USB Hub really needs is Gigabit capability, and that's what the next model of the Hub is expected to have, according to Belkin.
In conclusion
The Belkin Network USB 2.0 Hub worked well for us in every respect except data transmission rate. It's was easy to set up and use, it displayed excellent connectivity, and was user expandable via standard USB 2.0 hubs. Networking with it greatly eased access to peripherals. At about £60, it's good value, but the anticipated Gigabit model might be worth waiting for if you anticipate large-file data movements through it.
