[X4U] firewire woes -> FW hubs

[Allan Hise]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, B. Kuestner wrote:

> Anyway, Linda has already clarified that there are FW-hubs. I wasn't aware 
> that they exist and somebody actually uses them.
>
> What is the general consensus on these things? Experiences with regards to 
> stability, transfer speed, latency (for drives or even audio equipment)?

I really like mine. It lets me connect all 3 FW drive, my FW card reader, 
my iPod & my wife's iPod without having to unplug anything. (6 devices => 
6 port hub, but one is connected to one port on my monitor, so I am 
actually using the 2nd port on the monitor for something). I could just 
daisy chain off the drives, but then I would have to swap around the 3 
devices that aren't daisy chainable (ipods & card reader). I feel like I 
am forgetting a device or two... Oh yeah, I also have a spare FW DVD 
burner and a FW digital photo storage thingy, but they are rarely 
connected.

It is fast, much faster than when I hook anything USB to my sytem. I have 
no data regarding transfer speed or latency other than I never notice it. 
As for stability, I have never had a firewire problem that I can trace 
back to the hub.  A week or so ago I used firewire networking across the 
hub to connect my iBook to my G5 to copy a very large file. It was much 
faster than 100 BT ethernet (and obviously 'non-extreme' airport that my 
iBook has).

It's nice to have a FW hub. I keep finding uses for more FW ports. Too bad 
it isn't the godzilla shaped one...