Belkin Network Wireless USB Hub Review Discussion

The Belkin Network USB (NetUSB) Hub is a relatively new device, and one of the first of its kind. It finally promises to release us from the tangle of USB cables without needing to upgrade your PC to support WUSB (Wireless USB) by using your existing home WiFi network. Does it deliver?

Read the full content of this Article: Belkin Network Wireless USB Hub Review

 

Neat device.

 

Nice review Greg. A good job in detailing the shortcomings of this interesting device. I'm sure the tech will be improved upon. I will probably wait until a higher bandwidth is possible before upgrading my setup.

 

Thanks Greg. It's a cool device.

But I really can't wait for the REAL wireless USB hub Belkin promised over a year ago...the one that uses CableFree technology and can work without a router...

 

They have something like it, but I don't think the range is as good. But I think the compatibility will probably be better.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377793

 

I'm pretty sure the network is the bottleneck. Real world speeds for 802.11g are about 1-2 megabytes/sec. You're definitely not going to see 6 megabytes/sec.

 

802.11g is capable of 54Mbps (6.75MB/s), so 6MB might be unrealistic. But 4-5MB/s is not.

Plus, to verify the problem I connected the NetUSB hub directly to my PC. So even with a full 100Mbps connection, the device just couldn't perform better.

 

That's the one, Greg. And it's still "in-development"/"coming soon"

 

Sorry, but 802.11g is NOT capable of 54Mbps in real life. The 54Mbps is just some marketing mumbo jumbo.

Real world 802.11g throughput is closer to 20Mbps.

If you want something closer to 54mbps, you'll have to upgrade to 802.11n.

 

did the tv tuner work
?

 

I think your smoking something if you think you are going to get 4-5MB/s from 802.11G . The max I have ever been able to push from a G connection is ~3.4MB/s.

 

That's the point. No.

Nah...but I'm only getting 1.0...1 stinking MB/s at best here! Even with a 100Mbps direct connection the thing is too slow.

 

I just purchased and installed the Belkin Network USB Hub, and it's a good product for a printer/external harddrive/media share hub...well worth the price for wireless print and media sharing functions. Hooked up, installed the software and operational in two minutes.

 

And that is exactly what this product is for...so it is good to hear that someone else is satisfied with it in that regards.

 

Nice review.
For TV Tuner, if you connect a USB Hub with power adapter to the Belking Network USB hub it worked, also Network Interface must set to Auto:

 

If you don't mind my asking (I have since sold my TV tuner), how well does the video work? Is there a major problem with bandwidth or it is smooth? I'm concerned about the bandwidth mostly because I have never been able to push my hub above the rates quoted in my review.

 

It works kind of weired, at first you get full FPS and later on, it starts to lag terriblely, just like your review, the hub does not transmit full bandwidth, also if you set the network to 100 full the TV Tuner will not work.

As for the picture quality, it works just like you connect direct to your computer at full HD. not like Slingbox's streaming video.

 

Darn...and here I was thinking about buying a TV tuner again

 

Have you considered a Slingbox? It would let you watch TV on your network without having to snake wires and additionally you can watch cable on your laptop at any location at any time. I have one and use it to watch my parent's cable for free while I'm away at grad school =)

 

I actually went with a Pinnacle TV to Go device at one point. It allows for DVR functionality unlike the Slingbox.

But alas, my PCTV2GO device burned itself up within a week so I returned it. At this point, I have no plans to again set up TV on my PC.

Shame too, because I was going to review that product too...

 

Quick question, how is the picture quality of Pinnacle TV to go compare to ATSC TV Tuner?

 

ATSC TV Tuner was definitely better. There is some compression of the stream coming out of the PCTV2GO. It was fine for SDTV (I didn't have access to HD at the time), but it could have looked better.

I believe they were using MPEG2 compression for the video, but you did get wireless DVR and watching capabilities that did support multiple PCs watching the same IP stream.

 

I hope Belkin can fix the bandwidth problem so I can connect digital cable to the ATSC tuner, setup remote access on the router to watch HD cable TV anywhere I want.

 

Ken, Greg and Bruce, thanks to you all I have learned lots.
Now I have a question. Obviously all of these products has its own advandages, but how would all of these be compared to me just getting a Linksys $160 WRT600N with a data link(USB), and plug in a cheap $20 to it?
I never tried the WRT600N, but since Linksys made to be used for an NAS HDD, i would imagine that the bandwith should be at least half decent.

Once the USB from the WRT600N is split to 4, can't I then add a TV tunner,HD,Webcam and a printer?
Theoratically this would do all of what you guys said about those 3 products combined right?

Thanks for all the tips

 

The firmware for the WRT600N will treat an attached USB device as a NAS and will try to configure it as such. It is meant only for that purpose, and the USB transmission protocols for mass storage arrays is all that the device will probably know about.

My guess is that it would not work.

 

looks a great thing!!

 

Cant you have a firmware that are able to handdle all these drivers?
it doesnt need much CPU power.

Never played arround with DDWRT but with the amount of hacks ppl done for it i would be surpised if nobody tried to do what i described above.

 

When it comes to hacks for that kind of stuff, Google is your best friend. We do not really have a lot of firmware-modding people around here.

 

These will be on sale this week at BB for 79.99. I am thinking of picking one up. Mainly for the multi function printer, digital camera dock, and external hard drive. Anybody else get one that think it is still worth it? Thanks

 

For $80 it might be. The external hard drive is going to be slow though...