USB and Firewire Hubs

Hi All and Happy New Year,
I am trying to connect all my peripherals to my G4 iMac.
I am uncertain which devices will need USB2.0 and those that can get by with USB 1.1.
I have questions that hopefully can be answered here. I have the following devices.
2 Epson Printers R200 and R2400
2 Scanners Minolta/Dimage 5400 film scanner and an Epson Perfect 1870 flatbed
2 External Hard drives Maxtor FW 300GB One-Touch and Lacie FW 250GB
This is what I am trying to use to connect everything.
Belkin 4 port 2.0 USB Hub
D-Link 4 port 1.1 USB Hub
ADS Dual Link 4 2.0 USB and 3 Firewire 400
Should I daisy chain the hard drives?
Can I plug the D-Link 4 port 1.1 USB Hub un-powered into the either of the other hubs?
This hub would be used for low power devices like card readers and whatever other ones that are suggested here.
Can I plug the Belkin 4 port 2.0 USB Hub un-powered into the powered ADS hub?
Which devices need to be connected to the native USB/FW ports on the iMac?
Sorry for so many questions but I went to 2 different Apple Stores and got completely different answers.
I appreciate the help and direction.
Thanks COVRC

I would configure as follows.
USB2.0 (Port 1) - (powered) Belkin USB2.0 Hub - (Port 1) R200, (Port 2) R2400, (Port 3) Epson Scanner, (Port 4) Card reader,
USB2.0 (Port 2) - Apple Keyboard and Mouse
USB2.0 (Port 3) - Minolta Scanner
Firewire (Port 1) - Lacie FW 250GB
Firewire (Port 2) - Maxtor FW 300GB
I feel like I'm missing the point as you don't seem to list enough devices to use more than one hub.
mrtotes

Similar Messages

Any recommendations on a good USB and FireWire Hub?

Just bought a MacBook Pro and I'm about to start experimenting with Final Cut Express. With ports needed for usb powered speakers, a mic, a mouse, a usb flash reader (for photos)... and firewire ports needed to upload video and to connect an external drive, I'm thinking I need a hub.
Belkin has one- http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=TE2 88LL/A
But apparently, some come with- as if we haven't heard enough of it- a high-pitched whine.
Anyone have any experience with the ones from-
Compaq
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001DZGX2/ref=pdcp_etitle/103-2708024-2112661?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=172282
D-Link
http://www.mac-pro.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1210/.f?sc=2&category=16
or Macally
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000086TJU/sr=8-1/qid=1153264913/ref=pdbbs1/103-2708024-2112661?ie=UTF8
MacBook Pro 15", 120 GB, 2.16Ghz, 2 GB ram

The problem with a Firewire hub is you are still limited to one Firewire bus. Fortunately Express/34 cards exist with Firewire to add a Firewire bus:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2119050
You may want to consider getting a 160 GB hard drive for your MacBook to have more storage for video and partitoning that drive to use part for just temporary scratch storage space which can be erased with Disk Utility.
As for USB hubs, always get ones that have their own external power supply from the computer, and don't use the bus power unless the devices you are hooking up have their own power. I have the MacAlly hub, yet even this great hub can't hook up an external Firewire hard disk and an EyeTV simultaneously.

Expanding USB and Firewire

Anyone have a good recommendation for expanding my USB and Firewire capability on my iMac 5gen (isight). I keep reading mixed reviews on belkin.
Thanks,
Jim

Oh dear, it is one thing after another for you, isn't it Jim!
+DLX-182 Dual Link Hub front view+
+4 FireWire ports on the front of the hub. Connect one to your computer and have 3 additional FireWire ports conveniently located on your desktop! Connecting FireWire cable included.+
It looks, once again, as if you have done everything correctly. Are you saying that the red power light on the hub isn't lighted? If that's the case, check the power cord and if it has a power brick, see if that's lighted. It sounds as if the hub itself is faulty (just what you needed to hear). You did connect the hub to the computer using the far right-hand port? Check your firewire cable and see if it's working properly. Also, try switching the ports on the hub that you have your 2 externals connected to. In addition, make sure that if you plug each of the externals directly into the computer, they show up.

20" Cinema display with USB and firewire ports not working

I have a new 20" display and was wondering why my USB and fire wire ports at the back are not working. I have an external drive that is powered hooked up to the fire wire port and a no powered piano keyboard to a usb port.
Any help please

Verify that the display’s USB and FireWire cables are firmly plugged in to the
computer. Do they show in your profiler?
Try different ports in the computer.
Verify that your computer ports are working with other known problem free device.

What is wrong with my 30" Cinema Display? The USB and FireWire ports still work, but the screen is pitch black. When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema Display.

When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema HD but the screen is pitch black.
For some reason, the USB and FireWire ports still work.

If you shine a really bright light directly into the screen can you then see a faint image on the screen? If so, that would indicate the backlight has died (hardware failure) and the unit needs repairing.

Hollywood Dazzle and Firewire Hub killed FCP

I made the mistake of running DV devices through a FW hub into the same port on my PowerPC G5 and now FCP 5 won't open at all.
I've unplugged everything and reinstalled FCP to no avail.
How can I fix my problem?
System Profiler says my FW ports are still active and DVD studio pro and other associated applications still work.
please help!

The Dazzle has anecdotal evidence of being very problematic and don't use a firewire hub in conjunction with any firewire devices and Final Cut Pro.
Do a forum search for the Guinness Solution, you may find the answers within the results. Also do a search for Dazzle and firewire hub and you'll find anecdotal evidence.

USB and Firewire Card for Mac Pro 3.0

I am running out of USB and Firewire Ports. Any suggestions on expansion cards for Firewire and USB??
Thanks
John

The Sonnet PCI USB Express cards have this problem too - for the record. Sonnet know about the MacPro not waking with it installed, as do Apple. I am sure Apple willl come up with something, I may even find a workaround, but it has always seemed that expansion cards with all my Macs [ waaaay too many] have produced unpredicatable problems.

(MacOSX Lion 10.7.4) The problem of connecting the audio interface (USB and FireWire), grained acoustic distortion!?

When you connect the audio interface to usb or firewire grained acoustic distortion, there is no loud noise in the acoustics! In the old "iMac24 Snow Leopard" was not like this!
Just bought the iMac21 lion, installed the new drivers and the two interfaces of different firms is presented, this acoustic problem.
I understand it comes from a usb and firewire!?
Help Me_____
Sorry for my english

Well, it's been a few days and with no response I thought I'd look for another solution. I've been trying this software called iVPN, apparently it's like a front-end to OS X's built-in VPN server. Anyway, I disabled the VPN Server from the Server app, turned on iVPN and was VPN-ing from my iPhone over 3G in notime. It's a great app, though it kinda ***** that the server can't do what it's built to do. Since VPN was the big reason I got Server in the first place, I'll probably uninstall it and stick with OS X's built-in file sharing and iVPN.

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computer on?

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on? I have a Mac G4 and a newly purchased IMac and I use one printer for both computers. Should I shut down the computers when I unplug the printer and connect to the other computer? How about when switching firewire drives.
Is there an easy way to have both computers connected to the same printer? I have an Epson 1280 printer.

Yes, you can unplug a printer without shutting down the computer, but if you are switching the printer to another computer then you should first turn off the printer, unplug it, re-connect to the other computer, then turn on the printer. This will assure that the printer will be properly recognized.
If you have your computers networked via Ethernet then you can leave the printer connected to one computer and share it with the other via the network connection. Printer sharing is turned on using the Sharing preference in System Preferences. You will need to Add the printer on both computers so you will need the appropriate printer driver installed on both computers.
See the following articles for more:
http://members.cox.net/18james/osxprintersharing.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58028
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/network/
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106658
Also select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search on "printer sharing."
Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on? I have a Mac G4 and a newly purchased IMac and I use one printer for both computers. Should I shut down the computers when I unplug the printer and connect to the other computer? How about when switching firewire drives.
Is there an easy way to have both computers connected to the same printer? I have an Epson 1280 printer.

USB/Firewire ports were designed to be "hot" plugged. You can safely plug and unplug devices without usually having to shut down the computer or the device. Some devices, such as external HDs, digital cameras and iPods need to be "ejected" first, so as not to damage their formatting or data.
You can network your Macs wirelessly or with an ethernet cable and then set the printer connected to one computer to be shared with the other computer.
Here are a couple of links;
Connecting two computers using Ethernet
Sharing your printers with other computers

I have an old iMac and am thinking about getting an iMac intel do I need a different kind of usb and firewire cord?

I have an old iMac and am thinking of getting an iMac intel. Do I need a different type of usb and firewire cords to work with the new one?

What type of Firewire cable do you have?
If our not sure then first look up your computer with the serial number here,
http://support.apple.com/specs/
Then take a look at the specs for the new iMac here and see if you have compatible cable,
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

Disconnecting all USB and firewire cables before upgrading OS X?

Hello,
I would like to confirm my understanding of some empirically effective advice provided in this previous Post about disconnecting USB and firewire cables before doing a Software Update and I presume also a Download update. What is gained by disconnecting the peripherals connected to the USB and firewire ports?
I'm getting ready to update from OSX 10.2.8 to 10.3.9 (using full Retail CDs, of course).
1. So it would NOT be a good idea to do the update in an external firewire drive? I had done this previously to leave my original OSX 10.1.5 in my internal drive alone while I tested the upgrade to 10.2.8 in a firewire drive. (I have since added a second internal drive.)
2. That I should disconnect my two printers from their USB ports.
3. If I'm doing a Download update vs. Software Update (from System Preferences), I guess I should also disconnect the cable to the modem?
4. Run Repair Permissions before and after each software update step?
Thanks in advance.
Raymon

Browsing through the Apple instructions on installing updates I do see in the section on Troubleshooting... to "Disconnect or remove anything that did not come with your computer" including removing any non-Apple RAM -- although this is recommended after an unsuccessful installation. Disconnecting the devices seems like an easy and prudent enough precaution.
I do wonder now about again doing an update on a volume in an external firewire drive. This did work for me twice before in upgrading from OS X 10.1.5 to 10.2.8 (which is markedly better than the former). I suppose I could try it again although this time in a Panther upgrade; if it fails I could upgrade in an internal drive.
Raymon

Testing speed of usb and firewire cables?

I have a bunch of usb and firewire cables that I would like to test somehow to determine if they are usb 1 or 2 and firewire 1 or 2. Some cables are labeled as high speed usb, some are not and some have no labels at all.
1. Is there a way to do this in Tiger?
2. For transfering data to an external drive, is Firewire 400 or usb 2 faster?
Thanks!

Hello kat.hayes,
Let's take your three questions in the same order:
Question #1: Technically, No, USB cables have the same termination ends. However, not all cables are made to the same standards and quality (shielding has a lot to do with how well they work/last). Quality cables are at a minimum double shielded but that does not stop mfg's from making claims about "high-speed". If there is a problem with the cable, you will know it in that the device connected will not work. Period.
The 2nd part of your question #1 regarding "bottleneck" is that if the USB2 port receives the slower USB protocol from a connected device, it will negotiate to the lower speed. Not a "bottleneck" exactly, as the external device you have connected will determine the speed. Not the USB cable.
I don't know why you are trying to figure out the speed of the USB cables.
It really comes down to what you want to do with your computer and what type of external device you need to connect. If you have a choice of which type of device to use, choose FW(See below #2 for a brief explaination).
Question #2: The issues and technical debate about which protocol is better(faster) really are meaningless as the final speed determinate is controlled by the chip/interperter that the manufacturer of your external device choose to use. If the device uses inferior chipset design, then no amount of "maximum rated transfer speed" for either FW or the USB-2 is going to make a bit of difference.
FW is usually faster. It comes down to the protocol used by the two designs. The one major diffence that benefits Firewire users is that it is isosynchronus. That means that if you have for example 3 devices, that all 3 would get 400mbps bandwidth to use, while USB2 is shared between devices. This is the ugly side of using USB2. If you a want an in depth technical explaination let me know.
Regarding your question #3:
Your Power Mac G5 has one FireWire 400 port on the front (rectangular shape with one pointed end), one FireWire 400 port on the back, a FireWire 800 port on the back(square,blocky shape), and four USB 2.0 ports—one on the front and three on the back. There are also two USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard. See this link:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PowerMacG5Late2005_TechBrief.pdf
If thats not clear, here is a card showing two FW800 ports (square) and one FW 400 port (rectangular w/pointed one end).
http://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=42&pf%5Fid=1225
Technically, FW400 is refered to as 1394a and FW800 as 1394b.
So, plug any USB2 into the computer only. USB1 devices can be plugged into either the computer or the keyboard.
And FW400 & FW 800 into the correct, differently shaped recepticals.
If you let us know what you intend to do with your external devices and I'm sure there will be a number of excellent suggestions, hopefully based on personal experience, on which protocol would best fit your situation.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Bill Gallagher

Recognising USB and Firewire works only on startup

A short while ago I noticed that none of my USB or FireWire devices were recognised if I plugged in the cable while the computer was on. The devices are listed in System Profiler but not mounted/usable.
If I plug devices in before powering up, everything works fine.
There have been some recent posts about similar problems with USB and FireWire, however, I haven't seen one with the exact same symptoms.

Reinstalling the 10.5.4 update fixed all of my problems. Apparently something had gone wrong the first time.

Connecting via USB and FireWire at the same time...

Hey all,
I have a 3rd Generation iPod (with the play/pause, menu, next track and previous track buttons between the screen and the touch wheel), and I just bought a new Nano.
Obviously, I want to keep them both synced with my MBP, but there's a problem. The 3G will sync via the Dock-to-USB cable, but it will only charge and sync with Dock-to-FireWire. The Nano, on the other hand, doesn't support FireWire.
So, in order to sync/charge them both, I have to use a different cable for each.
Or, do I? Apple sells a Dock-to-USB-AND-FireWire cable (one Dock Connector with two wires coming out). I'd love to plug both the USB and FireWire connectors to the MBP and then just plug the Dock connector into one iPod and then into the other. But, in the documentation for the cable, it says not to connect both the FireWire and USB ends to the computer at the same time, or it might result in "unexpected behavior."
Does anybody out there have any experience using this cable with both ends connected at the same time? Does it work? Have you noticed any "unexpected behavior?"
I wanted to check before I go defying Apple's instructions.
Thanks,
Chip
MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Bueller....?
Thanks,
Chip

USB and Firewire Hubs

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for