Customer Reviews
oy, BSOD nightmare 
2008-10-03
I really, really want this thing to work, because it would solve a particualr problem. If it worked, it would be great.
a) manual is atrocious - first sentence is "install s/w first", then they tell you to do a bunch of stuff, and on the next page they tell you to install the s/w. wtf ? the disk is labeled differently than what they call it in the manual, so you are stuck trying to figure out if you are missing a disk. Just needless confusion.
b) why on earth do they call this a wireless product ??? Yes, if you connect it to an ice cream maker, it would be an ice cream hub, but wtf ???
c) did OK with my printer from multiple PCs, and although the scanner was seen, trying to connect would result in BSOD.
d) Tech Support was not helpful. Took four calls to get someone I could understand. Phone personnel have to be understood on the phone. Seems obvious, apparently not.
Product Good - Poor Customer Service 
2008-09-17
Finally, product works well to print upstairs while using my wireless laptop downstairs.
Unfortunately it was an ordeal. I use a firewall software not directly addressed in the limited online documentation. I spent hours in trial-and-error efforts to get the laptop to print through the firewall to no avail. Since Belkin doesn't consider this to be a network devise you get the B-team support. Their verdict - Turn off your firewall to print. Obviously this was wrong. An on-line help request got no response.
If you buy this devise, copy the configuration advice that is flashed up while installing. I never found it again on-line and had to re-run the installation software again to get the critical hints.
Good product 
2008-09-15
This device was very easy to set up. I plugged both of my printers in to it and loaded the software in my laptops and it started working very well. However, I wish that both laptops that I have connected via the network could be connected to both my printers (via the network) at the same time. But it is working well nonetheless.
Decent Value 2008-09-11
As long as you get a really good price, which I did through Amazon, then this is a good purchase, but only for certain situations.
It connects easily enough. The software installed on both XP and Vista without any problems.
The main problem with it is that only one user can access a printer or hard drive connected to it at a time. I've been connecting print servers for years and this is a new limitation to me. Of course, this isn't really meant to be a print server and it does have a connect and disconnect while printing option.
Belkin's solution is to allow the users to send a request to the machine that has the equipment you want to use tied up and ask them to get to disconnect using the Belkin interface, which is also very easy to use, by the way.
In my situation this is OK because most of the user's are on laptops, log on sporadically, and always disconnect when finished.
Desktop workstations present a problem though because a user can log on, attach to the printer or hard drive, and then walk off, rendering the requests for them to detach worthless. There isn't a forced disconnect.
In a large network or one where users are not required to log off when leaving their workstation this characteristic of the Belkin F5L009 5 Port Hub can be a major headache.
Other than that, it has worked flawlessly and set up was a breeze.
I also like the look and size of it. With our change to VM servers and Wi-Fi we have greatly reduced our hardware footprint and this little piece of equipment fits right in.
Since my users are mostly laptops that log in for short bursts and rarely print, attaching a large hard drive and a couple of printers was an inexpensive alternative to a NAS and print servers (maybe not better, but cheaper). Multiple users do tie up the hard drive and throughput seems a little slow and can hang on large files movements.
I decided on this configuration because the hub was $70 and I found 500G Western Digital hard drives for under $100 (The price of larger drives is dropping also). Pretty cheap versus just the cost of WI-FI print servers or converting to WI-FI enabled printers- and that doesn't address the cost of the storage. Of course, this storage area is just used for user and temporary files and doesn't replace the server files and adequate back-up. (There are a lot of music and video files that aren't allowed on the server and don't get backed up.)
So, to ramble on, my point is that while this is certainly not appropriate for an enterprise situation or even one where the printer/hard drive to workstation ratio is too great, I think anyone in a small or home network could consider this hub as a viable solution. If for nothing else, the lack of user training and maintenance required as well as the minimal amount of time it takes to get everything up and running are big bonuses.
Summary: This piece of equipment works well, but the type of environment where it can be productively and efficiently used is limited.
This works if you are lucky to have compatible hardware 2008-09-09
I have to say that I thought this product was just what I needed. I connected my HP scanner, Canon printer, and 2 Maxtor One Touch II hard drives to it. The scanner and printer work beautifully. The hard drives, not so beautifully. Both hard drives are recognized and Windows can read and write to them. The issue that I have been experiencing is that after transferring some data (could be as little as 20 megs or as much as 20 gigs) the drive will simply stop responding. When this happens Windows Explorer freezes up waiting on the hard drive. The only way to get it to recover is to end task the Connect.exe application or reboot the system. This product is far from ready for the market and I would definitely consider it a lemon. After trying it on 2 different laptops and exchanging what I thought was a bad unit I have given up on trying to make this work. Tech support was totally useless in resolving this issue. After updating the driver and disabling Windows Firewall I still see the same issue. I would not recommend purchasing this for anything other than sharing a printer or scanner and maybe a low-usage USB drive. If you want to actually transfer data to a USB drive, this product is not for you.
Works well here 
2008-08-30
Share multi-function printers, access media readers, digital cameras and scanners with everyone on your network. Share USB Hard Drives. Play music from an MP3 player connected to a USB dock using USB speakers. Access Web Cams: eliminates the USB cable to the laptop.
Exceeded my expectations 2008-08-15
All in all, I'm pleased. It's not perfect, but it works much more smoothly than I expected. However, I knew before purchasing that it is not wireless, and is not really a print server.
I have it connected to:
Samsung 1430 printer
Iomega 33748 desktop hard drive
Canon BJC-2100
Dell 1600n multi-function printer/scanner/copier/fax (this is supposed to be a network MFP, but the network scanning is a joke)
So far I've only tested it with 2 computers at once, one XP, the other Vista.
Setup was pretty easy. There is no setup to do on the appliance at all; just plug it in to power, your network, and some USB devices. It gets an IP address from DHCP and detects what devices are connected to it. Every computer that wants to use it, though, has to have the "Hub Control Center" installed. It's a simple install that also installs whatever shim it is that convinces Windows you have equipment connected to a USB port when it's really on the network.
On the computer that uses the Windows built-in firewall, after the setup program ran, I was in business. I did have to manually set up a rule on one computer's BitDefender firewall to allow incoming traffic from the hub. The manual was pretty clear on what needed to be done, with step-by-step instructions for the most popular firewalls (although not for BitDefender).
I bought this thing in order to share the above devices, so I set the printers up to connect only when needed. That option is only for printers, and only seems to work for printing. The external hard drive I set to manually connect. I set the 1600n MFP to connect only when needed, which works for the printing function, but I have to manually connect to scan.
Compatibility with my hardware:
Samsung 1430
It works just fine with one problem: if I turn off the printer, then later turn it back on, the hub doesn't detect that it's back, and says the printer is "unavailable." If I unplug, then replug the USB cable, it comes right back up. Annoying, but not a big issue.
Canon BJC-2100
It works fine, connecting and disconnecting automatically. There is one very odd behavior. With some files, the print job completes, but for some reason the job remains in the queue. The most peculiar thing is that if you send other print jobs, they will go through, ignoring the leftover job ahead of them. So everything works fine, but if you open up the print queue, you see this long queue of phantom jobs, which sit there until deleted.
Dell 1600n
The print part works fine, but since the 1600n comes with a print server, it's not all that useful. It is very useful for scanning. I have to manually connect to the 1600n in order for the scan to work, but that only requires three clicks. And if you weren't going to share the 1600n scanner, you could just set your computer to stay connected all the time.
Iomega 33748
Again I have to connect manually when I want to use it, but I could choose to always be connected if I weren't sharing it. Otherwise it seems to work fine.
I did a little speed testing, and while small files (10 MB or less) copy in 30 seconds or so, which is acceptable, when I copied a 1.3 GB file, it took about 20 minutes. During that time, my computer was much less responsive, though I couldn't find any reason for it (CPU and HD usage stayed below 25%). The same file took only 1 minute when the drive was plugged directly into my computer.
Sharing resources:
I haven't done much testing of this, but when I print simultaneously to the Samsung ML-1430, the hub handles the contention nicely, automatically connecting the first computer, and on the second computer showing that the device is connected to another computer, then disconnecting the first computer when that print job is done, and automatically connecting the second computer and completing the print job.
If one user is connected to the external HD, I can see that in the Hub Control Center, and can "Request Use" of the hardware. A little text message pops up on the connected computer, and then if the connected computer disconnects, the requesting computer can manually connect.
One of the weirdest things about it is that they tout its wireless ability (the box has the word "wireless" on it at least 11 times), but it has only a 10/100BaseTX port, so in order to get wireless access, you have to connect it to a wireless access point or router, not included (which is clear if you read the whole box).
The box also touts it as "the industry's 1st reliable print server" even though it isn't a print server. It does seem to be a reliable way to share printers, though, so it does the same job as a print server. The difference is that the print queues are maintained on the desktops and contend for the printer, instead of going into a central queue on the print server.
Freezes Windows-based computers as well, can't share hard drives, not wireless...what more do you need to know? 
2008-07-30
Belkin, I understand you tried to solve a big problem with this product. Problem is...well...it doesn't work! Why this product is still on the market is amazing to me, because I have yet to meet anyone who loves this, or read a completely positive review of the Belkin Networked USB Hub. It's not truly wireless (false advertising, IMHO), and freezes up your computer when you connect an external hard drive to it to use over a wireless network. That's right, Mac users, it's not just your systems. Us PC'ers are feeling the pain, too. Conclusion: please save your money, and wait it out for a product that can actually do what this product claims!
Not suitable for NAS use 2008-07-24
I thought this device was going to be something along the lines of Linksys' NSLU2 storage link for providing network access to USB drives. Despite the blurb on the box, this device is not suitable for use in setting up a NAS (network attached storage(. There is Belkin software that is required to be installed on any computer that needs to access an attached USB drive. Unfortunately, that means that non-computer devices like media streamers, or even Linux computers, have no means of access.
Locks up Mac OS 2008-07-23
The Belkin software locks up my MacBook Pro just about every time I try to use it. The Belkin application is always "busy" when the computer isn't locked up which makes it almost impossible to configure the settings for any devices that are attached. I bought this device to allow all of our computers to utilize time machine in the background with usb drives... when it works it is awesome but it makes my OS very unstable and just isn't worth it.
