46 out of 46 people found this review helpful.
Rent-a-Hub ***Updated July '09
Date of Review: Dec 9, 2006
The Bottom Line: A cost-effective choice if you need additional USB2 ports, but durability is a concern
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July 3, 2009 update: One of my units wore out last week. Only 1 channel is working. This is not the first time I've had a D-Link item wear out - my router did as well. I can still give a mild recommendation for this unit based on price, but D-Link's durability is an issue. I will likely not buy any more D-Link products.
The original epinion is shown below
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USB2 is a protocol that is used for peripherals to communicate with PCs. If you've seen USB or firewire, this is the same concept. USB2 is an update of the USB (formerly known as serial) protocol, done to provide communication speeds twice as fast as the earlier USB protocol.
While firewire is also used, USB2 seems the most common. It is the one available on my PC. My need for USB2 ports is expanding. As of now, I have 3 external hard drives, scanner, printer, external CD/DVD writer, interface for Palm Tungsten E, battery backup, interface for Canon digital camera, 7 in one card reader plus an MP3 player on the way. Fortunately, the USB2 protocol allows "daisy chaining". In other words, you can plug a hub into another hub to add ports.
Anyhow, my main hub was an Adaptec 7-port. A few months ago, a couple of the ports started working intermittently and one of them stopped working altogether.
So, I looked around for a reliable cost-effective USB2 hub. I saw that this unit, a D-Link DUB-H7 USB2 hub was available for $30 with a $10 rebate. That was a competitive price. I've used D-Link products successfully before, most recently their DI-624 wireless router. So, I went ahead and bought it.
Installation couldn't have been easier. I turned my PC off, unplugged the old unit from the pc, unplugged the devices from the old unit, plugged in the new unit, plugged in the devices into the new port and then turned the PC on. Windows detected the devices while I watched and in a couple of minutes I was back in business with everything functional.
One thing I did this time, which I should have done last time, is put a sticker on the unit that lists which device is in which port. The sticker was no problem since the unit is cool to the touch.
I can recommend this unit enthusiastically. It been working great for over a month and it was very cost effective after the rebate, which remains available.
Here are the specs:
*High-Speed USB 2.0 7-port hub
*backward compatible with USB 1.0 and 1.1. I
*single type "B" upstream port connects the DUB-H7 to the
host computer or another USB hub, enabling up to 127
devices to be connected by cascading multiple hubs. *configured directly by the operating system
*operates seamlessly with both Microsoft Windows and Apple
Macintosh Operating Systems.
*1-year warranty
*Dimensions - 1.01" Height x 3.92" Width x 2.34" Depth
*Data Transfer Rate 480Mbps USB 2.0
Thanks for reading. God bless!
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