Mike Lees wrote:
> Walt,
>
> 2 USB ports round the back is a bit cheap, but something like this at
> less than 6GBP, which will no doubt equate to 6USD, should do the trick.
>
> http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?product_uid=92026
>
>
Walters, Martin wrote:
> Walt:
> My Dells have around 6 USB ports (including those under the front panel). Buy
> yourself a USB hub, which will give you four or so easily accessible ports to
> plug things into.
>
I just bought a hub yesterday. A bit of research revealed a couple of
things to take care about.
First, you should get one with its own power supply. A lot of USB
peripherals draw operating power from the port and splitting what comes
out of one across four can lead to odd, hard to diagnose problems.
Second, there are still a lot of hubs out there that are labeled USB
2.0, but aren't labeled High Speed. Some are probably OK, but it's
better to be sure.
Third, many hubs, fewer now that before, but still, use generic chips
that have a little fault. If a USB 1.1 device is connected to the hub,
all ports slow down to that speed. Many also share the 12Mbps of 1.1
bandwidth between devices, rather than giving each its own full bandwidth.
I bought a Belkin because it clearly addressed all these issues on the
package and wasn't expensive anyway. It also claims to work for most
devices without the power supply, but I just hooked it up anyway. Why
risk plugging something in that needs the power after I've forgotten
about the issue, then spending time and energy figuring out why it's wonky?
A number of makers are now offering 7 port hubs.
Moose
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