Recommendations for small, 4-port USB hub?

[superboyac]

Can anyone recommend a USB hub for me?  I don't know what to look for and want to make sure to get a good one.  This one from newegg seems to be good:
D-Link 4-port USB hub

Thanks!

[Deozaan]

I can't answer your question directly, but I can say that I purchased a D-Link router and a D-Link wireless network card and shortly thereafter when the two started causing BSODs and their support was anything but supporting, I decided to never buy another D-Link product again.

My experience with D-Link as a company and with their products has not been pleasant and at this time I would not recommend D-Link to anybody.

That's pretty much all I can contribute on the subject of USB hubs.

[40hz]

From my experience, any of the major brands seem to work equally well. I tend to buy Belkin, more out of habit than for any solid technical reasons. I'd recommend getting one with an AC adaptor, or purchasing one to go along with it. I quickly discovered you'll need it more often than not.

I use this puppy:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394008



I bought it primarily for the two vertical plugs, since I do a lot of things with my collection of flash memory keys.

The only complaint I have with it is that it is very light. If you have some quality cables plugged in and hanging off the back of your desk, it tends to be dragged around. A hunk of masking tape solved the problem.

Nowadays, I have a 4-port PCI card and 4 more USB connectors on my mobo, so anything that tends to stay plugged in gets one of those ports. I also keep a multi-plug USB cable permanently attached to one of the ports on the mobo for anything that doesn't like to be on a hub.

If I were buying a new hub today, I'd probably go with this:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394030

What I'd really like would be for someone to do this idea up as a 4-port USB + 2-port Firewire version; and include a multiple memory card reader socket. That would be too cool.

[superboyac]

That looks real nice.  I used to tutor Belkin's kid in math in Manhattan Beach, CA.  Their house was full of Belkin stuff.  I even got a free wifi router at the time.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[mouser]

i also have that belkin hub 40hz posted about and i agree with everything he said.  the one thing i can say is don't buy a hub that doesn't have it's own power supply.

[superboyac]

i also have that belkin hub 40hz posted about and i agree with everything he said.  the one thing i can say is don't buy a hub that doesn't have it's own power supply.

-mouser (December 15, 2008, 03:21 PM)

Noted.  Yes, I learned that lesson a while ago when I plugged a bunch of stuff into a hub and they didn't work.

[housetier]

I am very satisfied with my Networx USB Hub. Networx seems to be an Apple-related brand, but USB is still USB and this device has worked flawlessly in numerous setups: old laptops, new laptops, macbooks, eMacs, imacs, UBS 2.0 and 1.1, external hard disk, card readers, mobile phones, cameras, printers...

It's relatively tiny considering it has four USB ports, one "incoming" mini-USB socket and the power socket as well. You can use it without its external power supply if the devices are not so demanding.

[Nod5]

Dealextreme has a boatload of hubs (each crazier shaped than the other). I can't vouch for the quality of them but my experience is that almost any cheapo USB hub works just fine. So I'd recommend whatever hub in the lowest price range that you think looks best. (with USB 2.0 of course! Some of the really cheap ones have only USB 1 so look out for that)
http://www.dealextre...ucts.dx/category.306

these look ok, are small yet still have both top and side ports. Around 6$ each:
http://www.dealextre.../details.dx/sku.8892
http://www.dealextre...details.dx/sku.10768

[TomD101]

Hello all,

I bought two USB hubs recently and went for price (loooww) and design. So I spent around $ 4 on each. One has two vertical slots, one is shaped like a pen holder and changes color.
I recommend the following site just for the sheer variety they offer. It may serve as orientation, ordering from there (located in Germany) may be some overkill concerning postage and handling.

www.cxtreme.de

And no, after using quite a lot of different hubs, I did not notice any real difference concerning performance and quality, I had no BSODs or non-functional peripherals either. And using a hub with its own power supply may only be necessary for peripherals that require some more power. All usual external disks, scanner, printer etc. have its own supply anyway.

Have a nice holiday and a great new year

Thomas from Berlin

[housetier]

Thomas from Berlin

-TomD101 (December 23, 2008, 12:44 AM)

would you come to our DC gettogether: https://www.donation....msg143342#msg143342

[Tinman57]

  I just bought a Belkin 4 port USB 2.0 to replace my old Belkin USB 1.0, which I have used for more than 10 years without a problem.  The Belkin USB ports are Vista compatible, and has built in drivers even on my old XP machine.  I've been buying Belkin products for over 20 years now and have never had a failure, so I guess you know who I recommend.   

  Another interesting thing I noticed is Belkin uses some kind of technology (don't remember the name) that allows you to get faster throughput even with the older USB 1.0.  Something about it allocating separate channels for each port, or something like that.   

[tymrwt33]

I have a Linksys 4 port hub that has a provision for its own power supply. I did not buy the power supply since the hub is for my laptop only, and I only plug in memory sticks into it. Had it three years, no problem.

[J-Mac]

From my experience, any of the major brands seem to work equally well. I tend to buy Belkin, more out of habit than for any solid technical reasons. I'd recommend getting one with an AC adaptor, or purchasing one to go along with it. I quickly discovered you'll need it more often than not.

I use this puppy:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394008
 (see attachment in previous post)
I bought it primarily for the two vertical plugs, since I do a lot of things with my collection of flash memory keys.

The only complaint I have with it is that it is very light. If you have some quality cables plugged in and hanging off the back of your desk, it tends to be dragged around. A hunk of masking tape solved the problem.

Nowadays, I have a 4-port PCI card and 4 more USB connectors on my mobo, so anything that tends to stay plugged in gets one of those ports. I also keep a multi-plug USB cable permanently attached to one of the ports on the mobo for anything that doesn't like to be on a hub.

If I were buying a new hub today, I'd probably go with this:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394030

What I'd really like would be for someone to do this idea up as a 4-port USB + 2-port Firewire version; and include a multiple memory card reader socket. That would be too cool.

-40hz (December 15, 2008, 09:42 AM)

Be careful with these.

I had two of them and both failed, one taking out the USB port in which it was connected. If you check the Amazon.com ratings for it you'll see that many have had a heat problem with them. The two top ports are particularly vulnerable to the heat issue. For several months I had problems with the USB ports on my desktop PC. Since that PC has given me fits in a lot of areas I thought it was just another manifestation of my crappily built Mach V. Then I discovered just how hot these hubs could get - enough to literally burn my hand while picking it up!

Apparently the problems don’t affect all systems, but they do affect enough that Belkin established a hotline for them and eventually released a "revised" version that supposedly fixed the heat issue. But I've seen reports of the same problems with the newer ones also.

Jim

[J-Mac]

By the way, I replaced both Belkins (after getting warranty replacements from Belkin) with two of these Kensington 7-port hubs. These have been great, though I now see that the same kind of "delayed reaction" issues seem to be arising.   

THe Belkin got fantastic reviews for about six months, then the heat problems started "attacking". THe Kensington hubs also had great reviews but I just noticed when getting the link for this post that the reviews are all of a sudden reporting problems after about six or seven months of use. I have used two of these for about a year now - actually a bit more than a year - without a problem. But it looks like I need to keep a close eye on them now.

Damn, is this a problem that strikes all multi-port, powered USB hubs? Is it possible that having that many ports on a hub just can't be done without eventually failing?

Thanks!

Jim

[nebojsaf]

I recommend APACER PH150:
http://emea.apacer.c...ages/product/454.jpg

I have two of them and works with now problem with low price. It's 4-port device.
Innovative rotating USB port design, Plug-and-play, High-speed data transfer USB2, Over-current detection and protection
more info here:
http://emea.apacer.c...n/products/PH150.htm

[J-Mac]

I recommend APACER PH150:
http://emea.apacer.c...ages/product/454.jpg

I have two of them and works with now problem with low price. It's 4-port device.
Innovative rotating USB port design, Plug-and-play, High-speed data transfer USB2, Over-current detection and protection
more info here:
http://emea.apacer.c...n/products/PH150.htm

-nebojsaf (January 02, 2009, 05:34 AM)

Looks nice but I don’t believe that is externally powered, which means that you could only run small, non-power-intensive devices on it.

Jim

[4wd]

I recommend APACER PH150:
http://emea.apacer.c...ages/product/454.jpg

I have two of them and works with now problem with low price. It's 4-port device.
Innovative rotating USB port design, Plug-and-play, High-speed data transfer USB2, Over-current detection and protection
more info here:
http://emea.apacer.c...n/products/PH150.htm

-nebojsaf (January 02, 2009, 05:34 AM)

Looks nice but I don’t believe that is externally powered, which means that you could only run small, non-power-intensive devices on it.

-J-Mac (January 02, 2009, 01:35 PM)

From the specs on it:

Power source     Bus-powered mode (max. 500mA)
                        Self-powered mode

Self-powered means you can plug in an external 5VDC supply.

Also, listed under Accessories:

External power adapter(optional)
- Input: 100-240V~0.3A, MAX 50-60HZ
- Output: +5V - 1.2A

I use a cheap Sansai 4 port USB hub I bought at a local $2 shop, (contrarily it cost AU$11), it has the option to plug in an external 5VDC adapter, (I already have a couple), and it just works..............when/if it blows up, I'll buy another.

As can be seen from the posts above, a brand name product does not guarantee quality - they're probably all made in 3 factories in China, (nothing against Chinese made items, in fact I'm sure I more than contribute my fair share to their economy ).

[J-Mac]

Ah, I looked at the site but did not see any indication that it could be externally powered.

I see so many complaints from people who purchased the most compact hub they could find (which is, of course, understandable) and then can't understand why their printer or an external drive won't run off it.    I have a handful of very nice little, tiny non-powered hubs that are fine for, say, a notebook mouse, and several other lightly powered peripherals.

Thanks!

Jim