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	<title>Comments on: Belkin F5L009 5-Port Network USB Hub</title>
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	<description>USB Network Hub For Connecting Lots Of Computing Devices</description>
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		<title>By: David L. Christiansen</title>
		<link>http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/comment-page-1/#comment-17</link>
		<dc:creator>David L. Christiansen</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:38:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/#comment-17</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Review by David L. Christiansen&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Rating: &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/4.png&quot; &gt;&lt;/b&gt;
Let&#039;s get one thing out of the way right now.  I have no clue why Belkin put the word &quot;Wireless&quot; all over this.  Scrutinize the product&#039;s documentation [...], the diagrams on the outside of the box (I&#039;ll post an image when I get a chance), or pictures of the product itself, and you know there&#039;s no way this can be a wireless device.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;But none of this came as a surprise to me because I did all of that research prior to purchasing.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;---USE CASE---
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;There&#039;s a place in my house where all the portable electronics are stored.  It&#039;s conveniently near the door.  Most of these devices (like my PDA) should be synched frequently with a PC to retain their usefulness.  Unfortunately, the laptop is not nearby, so synchronizing becomes a manual, deliberate task requiring me to fetch the device away from its storage location and fiddle with it.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Instead, what I&#039;d rather do is have all those devices connect to a USB hub which can use my home network to plug them virtually into the laptop.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;---THE GOOD---
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;My use case seems to be EXACTLY what the Belkin was built for, because it works PERFECTLY for it.  I&#039;m serious.  This thing ROCKS for doing what I described above.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;1. Once installed, the Belkin forwards USB traffic to and from your PC.  Your PC genuinely believes that everything plugged into the Belkin is on a USB hub physically plugged into your PC.  I have yet to find fault with this implementation, and I don&#039;t expect to because it&#039;s pretty easy to do-- I don&#039;t know why we don&#039;t see more devices like this.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;2. The software the comes with the Belkin worked just fine on Vista.  When I plugged my PDA into the hub, my laptop noticed.  If my network drops, the Belkin doesn&#039;t seem to freak out about it, and it survives hibernates, suspends, fast-user-switching, and pulling the USB cable out of the device exactly the way you&#039;d expect a directly-connected hub to behave.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;3. The device claims to share intelligently between multiple machines.  I haven&#039;t tried this (I have no need of it), but it looks straightforward from what the manual says.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;d have given this device five stars, were it not for:
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;---THE BAD---
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;1. The inexplicable use of the word &quot;wireless&quot; all over the package, when the device clearly isn&#039;t.  Again though, this didn&#039;t mean anything to me.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;2. a flaw in the installation procedure.  This was annoying, but takes about two minutes to fix, so I only docked them one star.  Here are the details:
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;TECHNICAL OVERVIEW: When you plug the unit into an ethernet cable, it appears to choose a random IP address in the 10.x.x.x range.  If your home network doesn&#039;t use this range (for example, most NAT DHCP servers support the 192.168.x.x range), then the router has just made itself unreachable.  The setup applet can still locate it as part of the &quot;configure your router&quot; routine, but when you try to configure it, the connection will time out because the hub isn&#039;t in your home network&#039;s address range (your NAT will think the Belkin is somewhere outside your home when it&#039;s right friggin next to you).
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;If this makes no sense to you, just skip to the workaround.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;WORKAROUND: do this (in WindowsXP or Vista):
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;A. start, run &quot;cmd&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;B. in CMD, type: &quot;ipconfig&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;you&#039;ll see a bunch of lines.  Some of them will look like this:
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5
&lt;br /&gt;   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
&lt;br /&gt;   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;if you don&#039;t see lines like this, you have a different problem.  STOP.  Call Belkin instead.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Otherwise:
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;C. type &quot;route add 10.0.0.0 mask 255.0.0.0 192.168.0.5&quot; but replace &quot;192.168.0.5&quot; with whatever you saw on the &quot;IP Address&quot; line for ipconfig above.   This will tell your PC that the address range the Belkin is using is on your home network instead of out on the internet somewhere.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;D. Run setup again and it&#039;ll probably work now.  If it does, CONFIGURE THE BELKIN TO USE DHCP (or an address on your network).  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;3. the device could be a little smaller.  But I can live with it as big as it is.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;---LIMITATIONS/CAVEATS---
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;1. the device requires software support.  The software that comes with it ROCKS, but not all operating systems are supported.  Double-check unless you feel like writing the software yourself.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;2. The device has limited bandwidth, so bulk+realtime devices (webcams and DVD burners, for instance) will swamp it and don&#039;t work. 
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;m pretty sure that you&#039;ll have a sneaky suspicion that your device won&#039;t be compatible BEFORE you try it.  If you get that feeling, make sure you try this out within the Return/Exchange window.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Review by David L. Christiansen</i><br />
<b>Rating: <img src="http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/4.png" /></b><br />
Let&#8217;s get one thing out of the way right now.  I have no clue why Belkin put the word &#8220;Wireless&#8221; all over this.  Scrutinize the product&#8217;s documentation [...], the diagrams on the outside of the box (I&#8217;ll post an image when I get a chance), or pictures of the product itself, and you know there&#8217;s no way this can be a wireless device.</p>
<p>But none of this came as a surprise to me because I did all of that research prior to purchasing.  </p>
<p>&#8212;USE CASE&#8212;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a place in my house where all the portable electronics are stored.  It&#8217;s conveniently near the door.  Most of these devices (like my PDA) should be synched frequently with a PC to retain their usefulness.  Unfortunately, the laptop is not nearby, so synchronizing becomes a manual, deliberate task requiring me to fetch the device away from its storage location and fiddle with it.  </p>
<p>Instead, what I&#8217;d rather do is have all those devices connect to a USB hub which can use my home network to plug them virtually into the laptop.</p>
<p>&#8212;THE GOOD&#8212;</p>
<p>My use case seems to be EXACTLY what the Belkin was built for, because it works PERFECTLY for it.  I&#8217;m serious.  This thing ROCKS for doing what I described above.  </p>
<p>1. Once installed, the Belkin forwards USB traffic to and from your PC.  Your PC genuinely believes that everything plugged into the Belkin is on a USB hub physically plugged into your PC.  I have yet to find fault with this implementation, and I don&#8217;t expect to because it&#8217;s pretty easy to do&#8211; I don&#8217;t know why we don&#8217;t see more devices like this.</p>
<p>2. The software the comes with the Belkin worked just fine on Vista.  When I plugged my PDA into the hub, my laptop noticed.  If my network drops, the Belkin doesn&#8217;t seem to freak out about it, and it survives hibernates, suspends, fast-user-switching, and pulling the USB cable out of the device exactly the way you&#8217;d expect a directly-connected hub to behave.</p>
<p>3. The device claims to share intelligently between multiple machines.  I haven&#8217;t tried this (I have no need of it), but it looks straightforward from what the manual says.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d have given this device five stars, were it not for:</p>
<p>&#8212;THE BAD&#8212;</p>
<p>1. The inexplicable use of the word &#8220;wireless&#8221; all over the package, when the device clearly isn&#8217;t.  Again though, this didn&#8217;t mean anything to me.</p>
<p>2. a flaw in the installation procedure.  This was annoying, but takes about two minutes to fix, so I only docked them one star.  Here are the details:</p>
<p>TECHNICAL OVERVIEW: When you plug the unit into an ethernet cable, it appears to choose a random IP address in the 10.x.x.x range.  If your home network doesn&#8217;t use this range (for example, most NAT DHCP servers support the 192.168.x.x range), then the router has just made itself unreachable.  The setup applet can still locate it as part of the &#8220;configure your router&#8221; routine, but when you try to configure it, the connection will time out because the hub isn&#8217;t in your home network&#8217;s address range (your NAT will think the Belkin is somewhere outside your home when it&#8217;s right friggin next to you).</p>
<p>If this makes no sense to you, just skip to the workaround.</p>
<p>WORKAROUND: do this (in WindowsXP or Vista):</p>
<p>A. start, run &#8220;cmd&#8221;<br />
<br />B. in CMD, type: &#8220;ipconfig&#8221;<br />
<br />you&#8217;ll see a bunch of lines.  Some of them will look like this:</p>
<p>   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5<br />
<br />   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0<br />
<br />   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1</p>
<p>if you don&#8217;t see lines like this, you have a different problem.  STOP.  Call Belkin instead.</p>
<p>Otherwise:</p>
<p>C. type &#8220;route add 10.0.0.0 mask 255.0.0.0 192.168.0.5&#8243; but replace &#8220;192.168.0.5&#8243; with whatever you saw on the &#8220;IP Address&#8221; line for ipconfig above.   This will tell your PC that the address range the Belkin is using is on your home network instead of out on the internet somewhere.  </p>
<p>D. Run setup again and it&#8217;ll probably work now.  If it does, CONFIGURE THE BELKIN TO USE DHCP (or an address on your network).  </p>
<p>3. the device could be a little smaller.  But I can live with it as big as it is.</p>
<p>&#8212;LIMITATIONS/CAVEATS&#8212;</p>
<p>1. the device requires software support.  The software that comes with it ROCKS, but not all operating systems are supported.  Double-check unless you feel like writing the software yourself.</p>
<p>2. The device has limited bandwidth, so bulk+realtime devices (webcams and DVD burners, for instance) will swamp it and don&#8217;t work. </p>
<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure that you&#8217;ll have a sneaky suspicion that your device won&#8217;t be compatible BEFORE you try it.  If you get that feeling, make sure you try this out within the Return/Exchange window.</p>
<p></p>
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		<title>By: Robert Hernandez</title>
		<link>http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/comment-page-1/#comment-16</link>
		<dc:creator>Robert Hernandez</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:24:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/#comment-16</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Review by Robert Hernandez&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Rating: &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/1.png&quot; &gt;&lt;/b&gt;
When I read about this product back in May my first reaction was, &quot;Finally!&quot;  I&#039;ve been looking for a suitable device to replace my Wife&#039;s laptop as the &quot;network sharing hub.&quot;  Unfortunately, the Belkin 5-Port Wireless Network USB Hub is not the answer to my prayers.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Wireless&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Belkin makes many claims that this device doesn&#039;t truly live up to.  Just so you are clear, this IS NOT a wireless device.  You have to plug the USB hub into a wireless router in order for the &quot;Wireless&quot; functionality to be present.  Granted, Belkin discloses this limitation in the fine print but I still find it incredulous to even label this a wireless device when it clearly is not.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Device Sharing&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Belkin&#039;s idea of &quot;Device Sharing&quot; is absurd. Only one computer can be connected to a given device at a time.  This limitation includes Printers AND Hard Drives.  Forgive me for saying so but that IS NOT device sharing.     I can forgive Belkin for forcing this limitation on Hard Drives but not for Printers.  User&#039;s won&#039;t want to deal with the added step of REQUESTING access to the printer before sending a print job.  How the Belkin engineers/product managers overlooked this fact is mind boggling.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Drive Compatibility&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;ve also found the Belkin Hub&#039;s compatibility with USB powered drives to be hit and miss.  For example, my Western Digital 60GB Passport external drive is detected by the Belkin management software, however, the instant I try to access the Passport drive the Belkin device chokes on a fur ball and claims the Passport is &quot;requesting too much power.&quot;  Sorry, but I&#039;m just not buying that.  USB Flash Drives, on the other hand, seem to work for the most part.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Data Transfer&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Transfering Data is also hit or miss.  I wouldn&#039;t recommend transferring large files to a Belkin managed drive if you are connected wirelessly.  Not only are you subject to signal strength conditions but I have found that any communication failures WILL disconnect ALL of the Belkin managed devices.  Transferring data between two Belkin managed drives seems to work reasonably well however, with transfer speeds only a bit slower than what a PC is capable of.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Setup&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Setup of the Belkin device is probably the only aspect that I am able to positively comment on (hence the 1 star rating).  Assuming you have a home network up and running, setup is simply a matter of connecting the Belkin Hub to the network and installing the Belkin Control Center software on a PC.  After that, any devices you connect to the Belkin Hub will automatically connect to your PC just like a standard USB device does.  Of course, this assumes that another user on your network doesn&#039;t already have control.  Also, there is a caveat with regards to Printers.  According to the manual, you must have the printer drivers installed on your PC before the printer will work via the Belkin hub.  I&#039;m not sure what would happen otherwise.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Conclusion&quot;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Belkin may be able to turn things around by providing functionality improvements via the software update feature that comes included in the Control Center application.  However, I don&#039;t have much faith in such a possibility since Belkin doesn&#039;t have a track record of providing such updates.  One can only hope that the open source community will be able to come up with a suitable firmware/software alternative.  As such, I can&#039;t bring myself to recommend this Belkin device to anyone unless it was 1/3 the price and you didn&#039;t plan on sharing any of the devices on your network.   
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Sorry Belkin.  I really wanted to like this product.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Review by Robert Hernandez</i><br />
<b>Rating: <img src="http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/1.png" /></b><br />
When I read about this product back in May my first reaction was, &#8220;Finally!&#8221;  I&#8217;ve been looking for a suitable device to replace my Wife&#8217;s laptop as the &#8220;network sharing hub.&#8221;  Unfortunately, the Belkin 5-Port Wireless Network USB Hub is not the answer to my prayers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Wireless&#8221;</p>
<p>Belkin makes many claims that this device doesn&#8217;t truly live up to.  Just so you are clear, this IS NOT a wireless device.  You have to plug the USB hub into a wireless router in order for the &#8220;Wireless&#8221; functionality to be present.  Granted, Belkin discloses this limitation in the fine print but I still find it incredulous to even label this a wireless device when it clearly is not.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Device Sharing&#8221;</p>
<p>Belkin&#8217;s idea of &#8220;Device Sharing&#8221; is absurd. Only one computer can be connected to a given device at a time.  This limitation includes Printers AND Hard Drives.  Forgive me for saying so but that IS NOT device sharing.     I can forgive Belkin for forcing this limitation on Hard Drives but not for Printers.  User&#8217;s won&#8217;t want to deal with the added step of REQUESTING access to the printer before sending a print job.  How the Belkin engineers/product managers overlooked this fact is mind boggling.</p>
<p>&#8220;Drive Compatibility&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve also found the Belkin Hub&#8217;s compatibility with USB powered drives to be hit and miss.  For example, my Western Digital 60GB Passport external drive is detected by the Belkin management software, however, the instant I try to access the Passport drive the Belkin device chokes on a fur ball and claims the Passport is &#8220;requesting too much power.&#8221;  Sorry, but I&#8217;m just not buying that.  USB Flash Drives, on the other hand, seem to work for the most part.</p>
<p>&#8220;Data Transfer&#8221;</p>
<p>Transfering Data is also hit or miss.  I wouldn&#8217;t recommend transferring large files to a Belkin managed drive if you are connected wirelessly.  Not only are you subject to signal strength conditions but I have found that any communication failures WILL disconnect ALL of the Belkin managed devices.  Transferring data between two Belkin managed drives seems to work reasonably well however, with transfer speeds only a bit slower than what a PC is capable of.</p>
<p>&#8220;Setup&#8221;</p>
<p>Setup of the Belkin device is probably the only aspect that I am able to positively comment on (hence the 1 star rating).  Assuming you have a home network up and running, setup is simply a matter of connecting the Belkin Hub to the network and installing the Belkin Control Center software on a PC.  After that, any devices you connect to the Belkin Hub will automatically connect to your PC just like a standard USB device does.  Of course, this assumes that another user on your network doesn&#8217;t already have control.  Also, there is a caveat with regards to Printers.  According to the manual, you must have the printer drivers installed on your PC before the printer will work via the Belkin hub.  I&#8217;m not sure what would happen otherwise.</p>
<p>&#8220;Conclusion&#8221;</p>
<p>Belkin may be able to turn things around by providing functionality improvements via the software update feature that comes included in the Control Center application.  However, I don&#8217;t have much faith in such a possibility since Belkin doesn&#8217;t have a track record of providing such updates.  One can only hope that the open source community will be able to come up with a suitable firmware/software alternative.  As such, I can&#8217;t bring myself to recommend this Belkin device to anyone unless it was 1/3 the price and you didn&#8217;t plan on sharing any of the devices on your network.   </p>
<p>Sorry Belkin.  I really wanted to like this product.  </p>
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		<title>By: T. Vo</title>
		<link>http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/comment-page-1/#comment-15</link>
		<dc:creator>T. Vo</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:15:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/#comment-15</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Review by T. Vo&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Rating: &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/5.png&quot; &gt;&lt;/b&gt;
I&#039;m giving this item 5 stars since, honestly, it&#039;s one of a few if not the only one of its kind and works farely well.  Also, the reason I want to give it 5 stars is because I want to balance of otherwise low ratings that stem from the poor description of the item and not from the products actual performance and how much easier it has made my life. I have a USB ext HDD, two printers, USB card reader and scanner connected to it.  It&#039;s connected to my wireless router on one of the ethernet ports and I share all of these devices easily between my desktop and two laptops.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;The software does take some time to setup, since you have to install it on every single PC that will be sharing the devices.  Which also includes installation of the specific device software/drivers on each PC.  However, once installed, peformance has been flawless and I have able to use all devices on all PCs with little trouble.  I&#039;ve been waiting for a device like this for some time and Belkin has done an extremely good job of delivering it.  
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;As far as peripherals go, I wouldn&#039;t trust any other brand.  Regarding the description... I actually bought the item in a store, so once you see the box, it&#039;s obvious how it interacts with your home devices and what is required to make it work.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Don&#039;t dog the product on it&#039;s description which I agree, is misleading, but it is a good product.

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Review by T. Vo</i><br />
<b>Rating: <img src="http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/5.png" /></b><br />
I&#8217;m giving this item 5 stars since, honestly, it&#8217;s one of a few if not the only one of its kind and works farely well.  Also, the reason I want to give it 5 stars is because I want to balance of otherwise low ratings that stem from the poor description of the item and not from the products actual performance and how much easier it has made my life. I have a USB ext HDD, two printers, USB card reader and scanner connected to it.  It&#8217;s connected to my wireless router on one of the ethernet ports and I share all of these devices easily between my desktop and two laptops.  </p>
<p>The software does take some time to setup, since you have to install it on every single PC that will be sharing the devices.  Which also includes installation of the specific device software/drivers on each PC.  However, once installed, peformance has been flawless and I have able to use all devices on all PCs with little trouble.  I&#8217;ve been waiting for a device like this for some time and Belkin has done an extremely good job of delivering it.  </p>
<p>As far as peripherals go, I wouldn&#8217;t trust any other brand.  Regarding the description&#8230; I actually bought the item in a store, so once you see the box, it&#8217;s obvious how it interacts with your home devices and what is required to make it work.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t dog the product on it&#8217;s description which I agree, is misleading, but it is a good product.</p>
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		<title>By: bhamy</title>
		<link>http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/comment-page-1/#comment-14</link>
		<dc:creator>bhamy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:49:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/#comment-14</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Review by bhamy&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Rating: &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/5.png&quot; &gt;&lt;/b&gt;
While apparently not very good for sharing hard drives, as I&#039;ve read here, I&#039;ve had excellent performance as a print server. 
&lt;br /&gt;     After wrestling with an actual Print Server from another company for 6 or 7 hours, only to find out my printer isn&#039;t compatible, I was desperate to avoid a repeat.  Lots of research led me to question most of the other print server choices and their compatibility with my Samsung ML-1450 Laser Printer.  
&lt;br /&gt;     The Belkin Network USB Hub box said &quot;Industry&#039;s 1st reliable print server&quot;.   The Best Buy computer guy said that it was so new he hadn&#039;t heard any feedback about it.  I decided to take the plunge and I&#039;m so happy I did.  It&#039;s a little more expensive than other print servers, but what&#039;s a Saturday of frustration worth to you?
&lt;br /&gt;     The &quot;secret&quot; of this thing that separates it from the others is that you don&#039;t need to mess with a bunch of IP addresses.  It comes with a small resident program that you install on each computer that convinces it that the printer is actually plugged in directly.  As a matter of fact your XP will pop up with the Discovered New Printer message, even while wireless through the router.
&lt;br /&gt;     All you do is plug the Hub into your wireless or wired router, then into your USB printer.  You then install the Control Center (takes just a couple of seconds).  When you run the program you can already see the printer there on the list.  Since a printer can only be &quot;Connected&quot; to one computer at a time, you simply direct the computer, through the Control Center, to connect, print, then disconnect when finished.  The last step is to go to your printer icon through the Control Panel and through Properties, and click on the &quot;Virtual USB Printer Port&quot; in the Ports section.  That&#039;s it!  It was so easy.  The Control Center automatically told the XP firewall that it needed access.  There are also very detailed, easy to follow instructions (pictures) on how to set other common firewalls made by the big companies.
&lt;br /&gt;     It&#039;s also great that since it connects directly through my existing wireless DSL router, I don&#039;t even have to program it for WEP or WPA-PSK codes.  The computers do all the &quot;talking&quot; and they&#039;re already coded.
&lt;br /&gt;     I don&#039;t think you&#039;ll regret getting this for a Print Server.  I guess you can connect lots of other things through it...  Worst comes to worst, it&#039;ll take only a fraction of the time to find out it doesn&#039;t work for you than other brands!  How&#039;s that for an endorsement!

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Review by bhamy</i><br />
<b>Rating: <img src="http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/5.png" /></b><br />
While apparently not very good for sharing hard drives, as I&#8217;ve read here, I&#8217;ve had excellent performance as a print server.<br />
<br />     After wrestling with an actual Print Server from another company for 6 or 7 hours, only to find out my printer isn&#8217;t compatible, I was desperate to avoid a repeat.  Lots of research led me to question most of the other print server choices and their compatibility with my Samsung ML-1450 Laser Printer.<br />
<br />     The Belkin Network USB Hub box said &#8220;Industry&#8217;s 1st reliable print server&#8221;.   The Best Buy computer guy said that it was so new he hadn&#8217;t heard any feedback about it.  I decided to take the plunge and I&#8217;m so happy I did.  It&#8217;s a little more expensive than other print servers, but what&#8217;s a Saturday of frustration worth to you?<br />
<br />     The &#8220;secret&#8221; of this thing that separates it from the others is that you don&#8217;t need to mess with a bunch of IP addresses.  It comes with a small resident program that you install on each computer that convinces it that the printer is actually plugged in directly.  As a matter of fact your XP will pop up with the Discovered New Printer message, even while wireless through the router.<br />
<br />     All you do is plug the Hub into your wireless or wired router, then into your USB printer.  You then install the Control Center (takes just a couple of seconds).  When you run the program you can already see the printer there on the list.  Since a printer can only be &#8220;Connected&#8221; to one computer at a time, you simply direct the computer, through the Control Center, to connect, print, then disconnect when finished.  The last step is to go to your printer icon through the Control Panel and through Properties, and click on the &#8220;Virtual USB Printer Port&#8221; in the Ports section.  That&#8217;s it!  It was so easy.  The Control Center automatically told the XP firewall that it needed access.  There are also very detailed, easy to follow instructions (pictures) on how to set other common firewalls made by the big companies.<br />
<br />     It&#8217;s also great that since it connects directly through my existing wireless DSL router, I don&#8217;t even have to program it for WEP or WPA-PSK codes.  The computers do all the &#8220;talking&#8221; and they&#8217;re already coded.<br />
<br />     I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll regret getting this for a Print Server.  I guess you can connect lots of other things through it&#8230;  Worst comes to worst, it&#8217;ll take only a fraction of the time to find out it doesn&#8217;t work for you than other brands!  How&#8217;s that for an endorsement!</p>
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		<title>By: Duncan Mowatt</title>
		<link>http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/comment-page-1/#comment-13</link>
		<dc:creator>Duncan Mowatt</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:14:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/belkin-f5l009-5-port-network-usb-hub/#comment-13</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Review by Duncan Mowatt&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Rating: &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/4.png&quot; &gt;&lt;/b&gt;
The posts that are complaining about sharing devices, connection issues, etc. need to understand that the problem is with the USB protocol and not the device. USB devices are not designed, or even able, to run on multiple devices at once. Have you ever plugged an external drive into two computer at the same time? Why would this be any different?  If you need to access a hard drive from multiple computers at the same time, get a NAS drive. The device also is not designed to power external drives, like the usb powered western digital drives noted in a review. I actually have gotten one to work with no problem, but after talking to a few Belkin guys they don&#039;t really know what will or won&#039;t work with the device. Any drive that has its own power supply should work with no problems.
&lt;br /&gt;Also, you can share between computer easily. If you have to do something with a different computer, you can either request the devices (sort of like IMing) or just click on the disconnect button. Simple, like ejecting a device. 
&lt;br /&gt;If you understand what this, its awesome and works like a charm. I&#039;ve gotten all sorts of cool stuff, from midi devices, DVD Burners, Printers, Scanners,cameras,etc. to work with it. The only reason I&#039;m giving it a 4 star is because I accidently plugged in the wrong power cable (12v not the 5v) and blew out the power supply. It should have a buffer, but Belkin replaced it for the cost of shipping, so I can&#039;t be to upset about. I actually found myself missing it within a few days of messing with wires!
&lt;br /&gt;Also, MAC drivers ( doesn&#039;t work with Leopard yet) are available here:
&lt;br /&gt;http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&amp;pid=F5L009&amp;aid=8547&amp;scid=0
&lt;br /&gt;Works great on my Powerbook G4!

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Review by Duncan Mowatt</i><br />
<b>Rating: <img src="http://www.usbnetworkhub.net/wp-content/plugins/WPRobot3/images/4.png" /></b><br />
The posts that are complaining about sharing devices, connection issues, etc. need to understand that the problem is with the USB protocol and not the device. USB devices are not designed, or even able, to run on multiple devices at once. Have you ever plugged an external drive into two computer at the same time? Why would this be any different?  If you need to access a hard drive from multiple computers at the same time, get a NAS drive. The device also is not designed to power external drives, like the usb powered western digital drives noted in a review. I actually have gotten one to work with no problem, but after talking to a few Belkin guys they don&#8217;t really know what will or won&#8217;t work with the device. Any drive that has its own power supply should work with no problems.<br />
<br />Also, you can share between computer easily. If you have to do something with a different computer, you can either request the devices (sort of like IMing) or just click on the disconnect button. Simple, like ejecting a device.<br />
<br />If you understand what this, its awesome and works like a charm. I&#8217;ve gotten all sorts of cool stuff, from midi devices, DVD Burners, Printers, Scanners,cameras,etc. to work with it. The only reason I&#8217;m giving it a 4 star is because I accidently plugged in the wrong power cable (12v not the 5v) and blew out the power supply. It should have a buffer, but Belkin replaced it for the cost of shipping, so I can&#8217;t be to upset about. I actually found myself missing it within a few days of messing with wires!<br />
<br />Also, MAC drivers ( doesn&#8217;t work with Leopard yet) are available here:<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&#038;pid=F5L009&#038;aid=8547&#038;scid=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&#038;pid=F5L009&#038;aid=8547&#038;scid=0</a><br />
<br />Works great on my Powerbook G4!</p>
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