AirPort Extreme Base Station with Belkin USB/Firewire Hub for Mac Mini [Archive]

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j3tang

Nov 25, 2007, 12:33 AM

MacBlackBook22

Nov 25, 2007, 12:38 AM

Sorry for the long title :)

I've been thinking of getting the belkin usb hub for mini to stack with the airport extreme base station. Does anyone have this setup? Can anyone offer any advice?

Good idea? Bad idea?
Any experiences are much appreciated!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21ADhL5fMCL._AA280_.jpg http://images.belkin.com/F5U507/STD1_F5U507.jpg

I had that set-up in the beginning but found that i needed to use a usb that was powered seperatly for the usb hard drives to work consistently. The printers seemed to be fine and didn't drop connection but the hard drives sure did. I had great hopes it would have worked out cause they sure do look great together

RaceTripper

Nov 25, 2007, 12:41 AM

You shouldn't need a powered hub if your USB drives are externally powered.

dborja

Nov 25, 2007, 02:30 AM

I have exactly that setup with no power to the Belkin hub and have no problems. I have a printer and two external drives connected to the hub and a network printer to the AEBS. It worked with my Mini and it still works with the iMac that replaced the Mini...

j3tang

Nov 25, 2007, 09:52 PM

thanks everyone for the input!
so it looks like one thing to look out for is the sort of stuff i plug into the hub ..
that said, I've got 2 external drives in my possession .. 1 is a 3.5" enclosure I've put together and since that's got an external power supply, I should be fine. The other external I've got is a WD passport which is USB powered. I'm guessing that this'll probably be a problem using it with the hub.

I guess other occasional things I may plug-in are a 1st gen shuffle or my iphone .. both of which i don't see happening, but certainly may be a possibility. Any problems with those things?

I guess getting the Belkin hub that's got 4 USB and 2 Firewire ports would be useless since the AEBS doesn't have a firewire port to plug into :)

What's the best deal out there for one of the USB-only hubs shipped to Toronto, Canada?

I've seen people stack the AEBS on top of the Mini, but since the AEBS gets soooo warm, it's not such a good idea. I don't see stacking the AEBS on a USB hub to be much of a problem, however, if there is any other advice or things I should be aware about, I would love to know :)

Thanks again!