will this work?

"rb" <rbig (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote

My wife's clunky old destop pc has only two USB ports, and both are in
use.

I want to plug a USB printer in to her pc, but have no port.

I intend to use one of those USB port "splitters" (hub, maybe?). It's
one of those gizmos where you plug it into one of your USB ports, and it
gives you access to 4 more.

Anyone see any problems doing this? Power consumption isn't an issue, as
my printer is AC powered, and only has datastreams in the USB cable.

It should be no problem. However, I would use a powered hub rather than not
to get the best possible signal, as non-powered hubs can often be flaky. You
might even consider purchasing a USB 2 pci card to install instead of a hub
to give you the additional option of upping your speeds for use of a thumb
drive or external hard drive to allow you to make backups (which I would
assume you are doing in the first place). Purchasing a short 18" to 20" USB
cable extension would allow the cable to be available to the front of the
computer where you could plug the USB thumb drive.

--
Jan Alter
bearpuf (AT) verizon (DOT) net
or
jalter (AT) phila (DOT) k12.pa.us

My wife's clunky old destop pc has only two USB ports, and both are in use.

I want to plug a USB printer in to her pc, but have no port.

I intend to use one of those USB port "splitters" (hub, maybe?). It's one
of those gizmos where you plug it into one of your USB ports, and it gives
you access to 4 more.

Anyone see any problems doing this? Power consumption isn't an issue, as my
printer is AC powered, and only has datastreams in the USB cable.

rb wrote:

My wife's clunky old destop pc has only two USB ports, and both are in use.

I want to plug a USB printer in to her pc, but have no port.

I intend to use one of those USB port "splitters" (hub, maybe?). It's one
of those gizmos where you plug it into one of your USB ports, and it gives
you access to 4 more.

Anyone see any problems doing this? Power consumption isn't an issue, as my
printer is AC powered, and only has datastreams in the USB cable.

Yea, those cheap unpowered hubs will work for the printer in most
cases. The powered ones would work better.

Al Bundy wrote:

rb wrote:
My wife's clunky old destop pc has only two USB ports, and both are in use.

I want to plug a USB printer in to her pc, but have no port.

I intend to use one of those USB port "splitters" (hub, maybe?). It's one
of those gizmos where you plug it into one of your USB ports, and it gives
you access to 4 more.

Anyone see any problems doing this? Power consumption isn't an issue, as my
printer is AC powered, and only has datastreams in the USB cable.

Yea, those cheap unpowered hubs will work for the printer in most
cases. The powered ones would work better.

Mmm. I asked this questioin of my PC supplier, and he said 'try it and

see. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't: We never got to the
bottom of it, we just try everything till it does work'


My final solution was to network the printer, keep the scanner on one
USB, put a games device on another, and set up a linux server for the
camera USB link :-)

"The Natural Philosopher" <a@b.c> wrote

Al Bundy wrote:
rb wrote:
My wife's clunky old destop pc has only two USB ports, and both are in
use.

I want to plug a USB printer in to her pc, but have no port.

I intend to use one of those USB port "splitters" (hub, maybe?). It's
one
of those gizmos where you plug it into one of your USB ports, and it
gives
you access to 4 more.

Anyone see any problems doing this? Power consumption isn't an issue,
as my
printer is AC powered, and only has datastreams in the USB cable.

Yea, those cheap unpowered hubs will work for the printer in most
cases. The powered ones would work better.

Mmm. I asked this questioin of my PC supplier, and he said 'try it and
see. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't: We never got to the bottom
of it, we just try everything till it does work'


My final solution was to network the printer, keep the scanner on one USB,
put a games device on another, and set up a linux server for the camera
USB link :-)

Two approaches - 1) use a hub as you described, but buy a powered one as
some peripherals work only with powered hubs and some without. There isn't
much of a price difference, if any. 2) If there is a spare slot on the
motherboard pick up a USB card to give you additional ports. I bought one
with four external and one internal USB ports for under $20. It is
"plug-and-play", so you don't have to do anything but open the case, put it
in the slot, close the case, and go to work. I've used peripherals,
including inkjet printers, on a hub and on an additional card and all worked
just fine. Scanner, card reader, MP3 player connection, printer, external
hard disk drive, camera connection, etc.

Thanks for the responses and info.