Ozzie's mini review Silex SX-5000U2 4 Port USB2 Server

[Sir Skully]

That is a neat device, and one that I may try at a later date!

[Ozzie]

Hold on there folks...my testing was done on a 2000 install and have it working very well, however XP SP2 is not so kind.
I'm having troubles keeping the connection alive for the scanner.
I can print to both printers, but cannot install the scanner software.

There is info about it on this page - I'm working my way through it, but still no joy...

I cannot yet recommend this product for XP SP2 users - please don't purchase this on my initial report...

I'll let you know if I have better success.

[Ozzie]

Ok - all is well in paradise...

I worked through the firewall issues in XP, but then ran into what appeared to be driver issues with the scanner.
I was able to update the drivers and get everything working in XP now.
Everybody is happy and working just fine...

Their tech support did try to assist me, but thankfully these drivers seem to have sorted it out. It makes me feel for the manufacturer...and think of all the people they get ranting at them because it's always their fault...

Sorry for the alarm, but I had to be sure.

I'll post back if there are any other issues over the weekend.

[Ozzie]

Originally Posted by PCBruiser

With hard drives in external enclosures, I really have to go USB2, USB1 would just crawl.

Your right - transfers are nothing like plugging the USB drive into your rig...maybe if a person had a giga network it would be better.

For large transfers I would recommend bypassing the network and go direct anyway unless you had a lot of time..
It is fast enough to watch a movie from the hard drive, but accessing the drive at the same time from a different puter causes a stutter...more than it can bear. Again - giga lan may be better.

[PCBruiser]

I have a giga LAN, but isn't the Silex 10/100 base T anyway? So, having a giga LAN wouldn't help much IMHO.

[Ozzie]

You're right PCB...The network speed of the Silex is 10/100, so it would be the bottleneck in the giga lan. For those of us that are still on a 10/100 network, the speeds seem normal (slow transfers).
In either case, going with a unit that is USB1 would be unacceptable since it only does 12 Mbps and USB2 does 480 Mbps.
I guess what you would be looking for is this unit in the giga speed unless the convenience outweighs the speed for you...I don't believe one is made yet as this type of product is new in the marketplace.

Working off of a hub is much faster for files, but for the printer(s) and scanner it's really nice not to have the mother machine on to share.
I have yet tried to print at the same time from two different machines - I've read that this brought the USB1 unit to it's knees and it had to be reset.

The only user intervention this requires is for the scanner - the software doesn't maintain the connection, but does have the ability to associate a program with it, so you can use the program to make the connection, it starts the scanner, and then disconnects after it's done. The graphics for the program remain on the screen.
A little clunky, but it is software, so one hope improvements will be made.
The good thing is scanners are not used all that much, but this part of the software could be better.

[PCBruiser]

I think what I might do is look to see if they make a single port USB2 version of the unit, I assume they do. I could then use it just to network my single multifunction HP, and then just connect the external drives to my main system, or perhaps my file server (that might be smarter), and then use them networked that way. Kind of the best of both worlds that way, less expensive, and it would take advantage of the giga network speeds. Now if I needed more than 1 USB device networked that would be a different story, but I don't at this point.

[Ozzie]

That might make more sense for you Al.

Compatability with the multifunction device is something you'll have to look for.
Maybe for your needs the other unit I was looking at with USB1 would be sufficient. Check this thread for a couple other units.

[PCBruiser]

Thanks, Ozzie.

[Ozzie]

I have an update to the software that maintains the connection for the scanner.
After contacting the tech support about my dropped connections, they sent me another program. This one has been installed on two machines and hasn't lost the connection in several hours.
It looks like this one is a winner!

[erikbartlow]

I haven't had an easy time installing AT ALL!

Oh sure, the server gets recognized, and is available on my network. No matter what I do I can't get my PCs to connect to the printers. I have two hooked up to the device an HP Photosmart 7350 and a Dell A940. My OS is XP Sp2. Whenever I run the port wizard the resulting Port window never shows the newly created port. Any ideas?

[pianodirt]

I would think there would be more of a market for this type of device, few are made...

Any more updates on how this unit is working for those out there? It's hard to find many reviews about it. Is there any new fix/update to the xp sp2 issues?

[rocster0289]

Well, having a heck of a time connecting to the drives I have connected to this SX-5000U2 through VISTA

[Ozzie]

I was using Vista for a while and had no issues at all. It was seamless and I didn't need any drivers for the USB server. But then I do believe I mainly run my printers from it at the moment.