Do i need a Firewire Hub

My MacBook only has one firewire port and I want to import my video to my external hard drive because I don't have enough hard drive space on my MacBook. In order to do that I need to have the camera and MyBook external hard drive plugged in at the same time. Can anyone recommend a good firewire hub?
ThX!

Some Firewire device allow "daisychaining" which means if your external drive has two firewire ports, you might be able to connect the camera to one of them.
Otherwise, a hub should work fine.

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Recomend firewire hub?

I think I need a firewire hub. I have 4-5 firewire cables I am constantly switching out on the front port and either the cables or the port are failing.
What hubs are recommended?

This Firewire 400 hub is nice
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IOGEAR/GFH610/
As is this one for Firewire 800
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/BELKIN/F5U624APL/
Just stick with a known brand and you probably won't go wrong. As a rule of thumb cheaper is not always better.
The Firewire Depot is a good place to shop also
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php/cPath/150

Can anyone recommend a good firewire hub?

We have a 2009 imac with one firewire 800 port, also I will soon be buying a new 15 or 17" Macbook Pro. I have run into problems trying to connect several firewire devices up at the same time due to there only being the one firewire 800 port. For instance, I might have a firewire audio interface, a DV camcorder, and a firewire hard drive that I use together when editing music and video.
I reliable powered firewire hub would make life a lot easier.
Can anyone give me some recommendations?
Thanks.

something like this might work for you:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/431605-REG/KramerVS_81FW_VS_81FW_8_PortFireWire.html#features
+The VS-81FW 8 Port FireWire Switcher from Kramer is a simple yet versatile bi-directional switcher for 6-pin FireWire (IEEE 1394) data signals. This unit allows you to connect up to (8) devices and then enable a connection between any two ports as needed. Use this solution to save time, space, and money by connecting your varied devices under the management of a single switch. This switcher is ideal for small digital video editing systems and data switching systems.+
+It works with mechanical (passive) switching, so no power is required. Transfer rates will fall within the range of 100, 200, and 400Mbps. This unit's small footprint allows you to mount up to (2) units side by side in a 1U space in your rack with the optional RK-81 adapter.+

Firewire hubs recommendations please...

I have 2 x LaCie Mini 250G firewire drives which I have been using with my Mini G4 by daily chaining them. I occasionally get I/O errors when the drives are under high load. I then need to do a hard reset to get the machine responding again.
I have tested without the 2nd drive connected and the problem seems to have been resolved. It appears the LaCie drives do not work well if daily chained - problem with the firewire bus <?>.
I am thinking about getting a firewire hub which I am hoping will solve the I/O error problem.
Does anyone have an experience or recommendations on which type of firewire hub to purchase?
Thanks.
iBook Dual USB (600Mhz)/640MB, Mini 1.42/1GB Mac OS X (10.4.7) Airport Express, iPod G1, iPod Shuffle, 20' ACD, 2 x LaCie Mini 250G

Hello Hattori Hanzo,
Based on personal experience,and a lot of correspondance with others in the forums over the last couple of years, I would recommend a Belkin Mfg. hub. Others may work as well, but it seems that Belkin has a completely clean track record to date, of being compatable with Apple products.
Cory Cooper's suggestion seems like an elegant solution for a mini. If it were any other mfg. but Belkin, I would suggest that you stay away from combo USB/FW hubs as there have been reports of problems. But again, based on the above recommendation, and the product coming from Belkin, I'd say you've got your answer.
Respectfully,
Bill Gallagher

PCI Firewire / Hub Firewire or Daisy chain Which one will be a good idea

I'm starting to run outta room for firewire
so i decided to buy a PCI firewire card
so now i wanna know if its smart to plug my drives in there so as my isight or just stay with daisy chain or buy firewire hub ?
thanks in advance
any quick answers are appreciated
stash

The Firewire PCI card i got has like a power connection port on it
I was wondering if i needed to connect it to anything or it gets enough power from the motherboard
I mean they didn't supply the cable to connect it to the power supply
and the G5 doesn't have any extra cable lying inside there to connect to it
and so far all hard drives including the isight is running smooth
Just wanna know before something happen
stash

Is there an 800 to / from FireWire Hub ?

Apple in their wisdom(?????????) have provided only one 800 FireWire port in the iMac i purchase recently.
I had to buy a cable to connect my FW drives and devices that have 400 ports to the 800 port.
However there are issues/problems daisy chaining my FW drives and devices.
Is there a 800 to/from 400 FireWire hub ?

lakewoodlawnman wrote:
I use a 400 hub and the 400 firewire cable that goes from the hub to my iMac has an 800 adapter on the end. Works great. May not have the 800 speed but I have 2 HD and 2 Optical drives hooked up to the hub. I got my adapter at Micro Center for $14.99 US.
Technically it's a 6-pin to 9-pin FireWire Adapter.
Thanks.
This is how i picture your setup/hookup, as follows:
☑ you have the FireWire Adapter plugged into the 800 port of your iMac
then
☑ you cable the 400 powered HUB to the FireWired Adapter.
If this old goof has it right then great because then i can turn on the device i really need to work with.

External HD as Firewire Hub

I ordered a new Firewire external hard drive that has 2 Firewire 800 ports. Can I use those ports as a Firewire hub??

i expect you will need one of the ports to connect the HD to your Mac. you can use the 2nd to +daisy chain+ other firewire devices.
JGG

A question about Firewire Hubs.

I am going to be getting a 24in Intel iMac soon. I have a G4 500 and recently replaced my 17in studio display with an inexpensive 19in LCD. This cleared enough space on my desk for the iMac. Since a number of the apps I need only work /w OS9 I will be keeping the G4 & my new LCD will fit neatly behind the iMac until I need it.
My question is this,.. I recently saw a Fire Wire hub at Comp USA, and I was wondering if I can use this to connect some of my periferals to "both" computers. Items like external HD's and media card readers?
If this works it would eliminate the need for constant plugging & un-plugging of the devices back & forth between the 2 computers.
My idea is that if both computers are connected to the hub along with the HD & reader, then whichever computer is booted up 'n running would be able to access the device. (and as long as both comps. aren't "on" at the same time, there shouldn't be any issues?)
Is this right, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
TIA,
Craig

Hello Craig
Google: "firewire hubs" just for example the first one is Mac compatible with 4 usb and 3 firewire ports. But for that 24" iMac you'll want the second one just a firewire hub.
http://www.meritline.com/7-port-combo-hub-repeater-4-usb-3-firewire-1394.html
http://www.epinions.com/pr-BelkinFireWire_6-Port_Hub_F5U526-APL_NetworkingHub
Besure the one you are looking at say's mac comp. and the verson.
Dennis
17" iMac Intel Core Duo 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.8) Maxtor 300GB FireWire 2G Nano

Firewire hubs

Currently I have a Buslink Firewire H6FW hub that gives me 6 ports and a power adapter, but not much improvement of allowing me to act as though I had two Firewire buses. I have at least four Firewire devices I like to plug in regularly, two of which need uninterrupted access to the computer's power. One, an iSight, another a Firewire DVD burner (which while it has its own power interrupts burning if I try to iChat while it is burning), and another an EyeTV 200. Periodically I may hookup my Firewire hard drives for backup, and I don't want to have to hook and unhook Firewire into my 2 Firewire ports of my iMac G5. So it seems like I need a Firewire port with more power. What's the best kind of Firewire hub that people have used?

Hello a brody,
I can only share my experience w/firewire FWIW, but I'm not sure about what you want to accomplish.
You have an existing 6port FW hub(powered), but if I'm understanding the problem as stated, you cannot run the iSight at the same time as the other FW devices are running without iSight causing the data transfer to the other device(s) to be interrupted and fail.
If that's what your trying to do, I'm not too sure "power" is the issue, but rather a conflict with the iSight switching/interface locking priority over the other FW devices.
The official 1394 FW specifications designate voltage from 8 - 30 Volts @+/- 10percent. I've checked Apple's specifications and measured the two "powered" leads in the 6-wire ports on most of the current Mac, coming in nearly exactly at 25V. This is important if a hub vendors unit is not built to handle that voltage.
Be aware that some manufacturer's hubs are labeled as adhering to 1394 standards(technically true), but may not be compatible (powered) with the Mac and may be damaged or cause system problems; If unsure, the hub supplier's support should be able to confirm that their product will comply with 1394 and work with Apple products and tell you exactly what voltage they are running the twin power-leads at in their powered hubs.
One sorry example of this failure on the boards is a combo(usb+fw) hub from IOGear which actually "popped" it's internal capacitors.
I personally had success with a Macally Hub that ran about $ 80. and can be found here; http://www.macally.com/spec/firewire/connecting/hub_uf.html
and more recently for another family member, installed a Belkin F5U526-WHT 6 port hub(powered). Others reported as working include; Belkin Modelf5726slv and Belkin's 6-PortHub(F5U526APL.
So, if your problem is power, then you should check to see exactly what spec the Buslink hub is running your hub at, just to make sure it is not causing a problem. But as said above, this will probably not fix any conflict with timing priority on the iSight. I'd still suggest that you consider unplugging the iSight when your using any other FW device.
Respectfully,
Bill Gallagher

Firewire hub... How does it work?

Hi everyone,
I have an Intel iMac (summer 2006), and I want to invest in a new FW audio interface for my studio, plus the Focusrite Liquid Mix DSP card, which also connects through FW.
Plus, I work with two more FW external HD's, also FW, which makes four devices for two ports. So my question is, would a FW hub solve this problem?
From what I've read, it's better to leave one port for the audio interface, not to compromise its stream and take the most out of it, but I'm worried about connecting the other devices to the hub. What I want to understand is if the hub simply alows for more connections, or is it really like having more ports with the same stream "speed"? (sorry if this is not the correct term)
Thanks a lot for the help.

FireWire is designed to be daisy-chained, so if one of the two external drives has a daisy-chain (extra) port, you can connect one to the other and save on the need for one port.
Other types of FireWire-based devices usually do not have a daisy-chain port, so you probably still need a hub.
I have a combo USB/FireWire hub from TrendNet. It has 3 FireWire ports, but since one is the uplink, it is actually only a one-to-two increase. It works fine for my drives, but I'm sure there is some reduction in throughput if both drives are actively working at the same time. The next size up after 3-port seems to be 6-port. Make the one you get is self-powered (comes with a power adapter).
I think you are correct in connecting the audio interface directly to the iMac.

Does anyone know of a firewire hub that has both 400 and 800 ports?

Subject pretty much says it all...
Thanks

Hi Barbara
I have a couple of links stashed away
http://www.everythinghereplus.com/electronics/firewire-800-repeater-hubs
http://www.synchrotech.com/product-1394/firewire-hubs-repeaters_00.html
http://www.ioi1394.com/products/prodcat.aspx?CatID=107
http://www.networktechinc.com/hub-1394.html
http://www.firewirestuff.com/hubs.html
Heck' if you only need 1 or 2 ports it's cheaper to just buy a good Quad Interface External HD to use as a Hub and get the bonus HD for Storage and Backup.

My LaCie d2 Fix (Bad FireWire Hub) ..... Hopefully

Since doing all the "repairs" to my LaCie I have finally got the drive to appear on the desktop in a regular manner.
These are the "repairs" I performed:
• Reset the FireWire Ports.
• Completely erased the LaCie drive, and "re-zeroed" it.
• Ran DiscWarrior 2.1.1 for the LaCie.
• Ran Norton Disk Doctor for the LaCie.
• Reset the PRAM.
• Reinstalled 10.2.8 Combo update (replaced any Firmware problems).
• Used LaCie Firmware Update to make sure of latest Firmware.
• Repaired Apple "Permisions".
• Ran Apple "Repair" Utility for the LaCie, off Apple Installer CD.
After all these efforts, and un-pluging and re-pluging the LaCie drive to the mac, I finally saw the LaCie appear on start-up on a regular basis.
I then connected my Epson FireWire scanner, through a MacAlly Combo USB & FireWire Hub, and everything was working.
Unfortunately, when I shut down that last night of connecting all the FireWire devices back to the mac again, the next morning upon start-up the LaCie was not mounting to the desktop. Obviously I was, to say the least here .... upset!
Then I decided to disconnect the Epson Scanner from the MacAlly FireWire hub and the FireWire cable from the hub to the mac. On restarting, the LaCie d2 was again showing on the desktop as it should.
I can only asume that there is some problem related to the MacAlly combination USB & FireWire hub. I have been using this hub for three years now, but notice the FireWire hub "indicator" light is not "glowing" as strong as the other power light. This low light indicator may signal some sort of FireWire "power" problem .... or drain on the mac ports that causes the LaCie d2 to not mount when anything is connected to the MacAlly hub.
Either way, coming around from doing all those "repairs" to the LaCie, it seems the MacAlly combo hub may have been the problem all along.
Somehow it is malfunctioning now and causing an issue with the mac FireWire ports that I don't get when the FireWire hub is not hooked up.
Any insights to this "hub" issue would be appreciated.

The MacAlly Combo (FireWire/USB) Hub does have its own power supply. However, the information that was told to me, is that the MacAlly power is only for the USB ports on the hub and NOT for the FireWire ports.
I again, assume, that there is some issue with the FireWire ports, or the internal electronics at this point (in the hub), that is causing problems for my eMac FireWire ports or bus.
Since disconnecting my FireWire devices from the MacAlly Combo hub and connecting directly into the eMac FireWire ports, I have had absolutely no problems with any of the devices mounting or in being recognized by my eMac. Hooked up to the FireWire hub caused irregular mounting, delayed folder display, a just outright ingnoring my Epson Scanner connected to the hub.
So for now, it's time to look for a new FireWire hub/repeater and use the MacAlly for USB only (which I have no problems with.
Also, I always have had the LaCie d2 powered with the AC adapter, never relying on the port/bus power of the eMac. But like I said, the MacAlly FireWire hub needed the port/bus power of the FireWire from the eMac to operate ..... and the FireWire part of hub has since gone "bad" and caused some kind of "interference" to the whole FireWire set-up to or from the mac.

A good small (unpowered) firewire hub?

I need a small firewire hub to allow the simultaneous connection of one or two 2.5 in. portable HD's, plus my firewire card reader, to an ibook G3 500mhz with only one FW port. My OWC-to-Go drive has only one FW port on the back, so I cannot use it as hub.
I'd prefer that the hub not require a separate power supply. The road-warrior's life has enough hassles without even more cables and more things needing AC power.
Is this even possible? Maybe the single port on the ibook can't provide enough bus power for two drives and a reader?
Mini core solo, eMac 1.25Ghz, ibook G3 500mhz dual USB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Grrr. Not what I want to hear, but I suspect it's true. I seem to have made the mistake of buying a pocket drive that has FW and USB2. Fine in itself, but due to limited space on the back panel, there's only room for one 6-pin FW port. So I can't even daisy chain the reader from the drive, assuming the ibook port could power the two devices. The dear old ibook has only USB-1, the reader is FW only, and getting a USB reader for use with USB-1 would be agonizingly slow.
I use software (PhotoMechanic) that allows me to automatically dump the images on my CF cards onto two drives at once to provide redundancy. After editing the images, I use SuperDuper to update the back-up drive to an identical state to the main drive. Once a photographer gets used to this lever of convenient security, it's hard to give it up.
If I use a powered hub, could I support two pocket drives and the reader? The option of using the internal HD for image storage is poor, since it's so tiny: 10GB.
My existing single pocket drive can be AC-powered (if I buy the wall wart power supply).
What's the best, and least cable-cluttered way to do this?
Mini core solo, eMac 1.25Ghz, ibook G3 500mhz dual USB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Firewire hub? (imac)

hi, just installed FCP and am having issues connecting a cannon camera (firewire 400) and my firewire800 external hdd at the same time -- I need the scratch drives off the imac because I need the extra storage.
would I be better off with just using one firewire port on the imac and using a hub to connect drivers and cameras?
Thanks,
brad
verticalchallenge.org

The hub only provides you with additional ports and as you should be able to connect the drives/cams thro' each other (assuming they have enough ports) there's no need for a hub which won't provide you with an additional FireWire bus which could provide you with a solution to the perennial Canon-and- hard-drive-on-the-same-FireWire bus problem.
It's not the fact that daisychaining thro' the same FW port that's the issue - it's the same FW bus.
so adding ports via FW hub won't solve the problem.
As David S. says the limitations of an iMac for video editing are that you can't get round your particular problem by adding a second FW bus as you can with a G5 or MacPro tower (you can do this on these models by using a FW card or by using eSata drives, either internally or externally via eSata card) and therefore the only thing you can do is to try capture via a different (non-Canon camera or dedicated deck such as the Sony DSR-11, GV-D100 etc)

Firewire Hub + iPod + Ext. Hard Drive?

Ok, So I have a little bit of a problem. I have a 60gb ipod and the harddrive on my Mac is also 60GB. But, of course, the laptop's harddrive has, oh, other things like an OS and, oh, photos.
Say it with me: I need storage.
I have a Titanium Powerbook that has two USB 1.0 ports and one Firewire port. I would like to hook up a Firewire Hub to the Firewire port and plug an external harddrive as well as the iPod. i will have the iPod sync with music files stored on the external drive, not on the laptops drive.
Will this cause any kind of Synching issues since both things are on the same single Firewire port on the laptop?
Or does the synching work seamlessly through the hub?
gm.

There's no problems at all with this type of setup.
It should work just fine.

Do i need a Firewire Hub

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