USB Hubs

[Mango1970]

Hey all,
Been going crazy the last few weeks. My father has his home office. He has his pc and connected to that he has a USB laser printer, a USB Scanner and a USB photo printer. All of these work well on his home pc. When he travels he uses his laptop. When he comes home he insists on using his laptop to print or scan and realizes that obviously his laptop is not connected to any of these devices (scanner, printer, photo printer). He then unplugs everything from the PC and tries to plug into the laptop and always messes everything up.

Is there any way or a device, or a USB hub where everything is plugged in and then he can have his home pC and his laptop connected to it and everyone is sharing? Am I asking for too much? It would be so much simpler if he could just use the laptop and turn the home office into a docking station instead of using 2 computers.

None of peripherals (photo printer, laser printer and scanner) are networkable.. ie they don't have an Ethernet port... that would be cool but not so.

What suggestions or ideas would you folks have before I lose the rest of my hair?

 

[tynopik]

some of the cheap (wireless) routers have usb ports that can be used as a print server so you can hang the devices off the network

a simpler solution would be to have all 3 devices -> 1 hub and then when he wants to switch over, he only has to move one cable (for the usb hub)

assuming that all devices work through a hub . . .

alternatively get a real network laser multifunction (like the MFC-7440N from newegg for $190), this should take care of most printing and scanning needs and then he would only occasionally have to move the photo printer over

 

[corkyg]

The easiest solution is top use an external HDD, such as a Seagate FreeAgent. Connect to the laptop, put the desired files on it, then move it to the printer PC and print.

Alternatively, you can link the laptop and the desktop via a crossover CAT5 cable and copy the files from the laptop to the desktop and print. Or - use removable flash memory as a "sneaker net."

 

[tynopik]

yeah wait a minute
i'm assuming you have a home network
if so, you can just share the printers at least over the network and print directly from the laptop

 

[Mango1970]

Yah not sure why I never thought of that. If he keeps his main PC on... I can actually share all the devices. Thus when he gets home and he is connected to the home network (wirelessly) he should "see" the devices as long as the bloody home pc is on right? I would need to install all the drivers on the laptop again maybe... not sure but that would at the very least solve that. What a mess. Thanks for the idea! Yah and he needs to have an external HD or even to learn to use the 4 bloody USB sticks I bought him for JUST this purpose which he insists he does not know how to use... go figure.

 

[JackMDS]

He needs to buy a network capable All In One.

Example, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16828113281

If there is an Internet Router that are used with the systems, it can be plugged to the Router (or use Wireless).

Otherwise, you get a switch and plug the Network AIO to the switch, as well as any computer that need to use it.

http://www.ezlan.net/prtserver.html

 

[tynopik]

Originally posted by: Mango1970
Thus when he gets home and he is connected to the home network (wirelessly) he should "see" the devices as long as the bloody home pc is on right?

exactly

Originally posted by: Mango1970
I would need to install all the drivers on the laptop again maybe...

hopefully not

Originally posted by: Mango1970
Yah and he needs to have an external HD or even to learn to use the 4 bloody USB sticks I bought him for JUST this purpose

if he's on the network, should just be able to share files over the network instead of messing with sneakernet

 

[nineball9]

What tynopik said. Your father doesn't need a new printer with an ethernet connector nor an external drive, though those will work. Just enable Printer Sharing on the system to which the printer(s) is attached.

 

[ihyagp]

Plug everything into a USB hub. Then get a USB switch.

Or just share them from the desktop machine over the network.

 

[VirtualLarry]

They do make USB sharing hubs, in which you can share multiple peripherals between two USB-connected PCs. I don't know how well they work, however, since I've never tried them.