Airport Extream and USB Hub Question

[Star4Ever]

I plan on setting up a WiFi network with an iMAC. I figure on using a new Airport Extreme WiFi base station. It will be connected to my Cable Modem.

I would like to hang a SATA drive AND a Printer from the Airport Extreme.

In order to do this, it appears I will need to add a USB hub that is powered (not a simple splitter).

Does anyone have any reccomendataion as to which USB hub I should look into for this?

Also is this kind of arrangement going to give me any headaches?

The users of the printer and drive will be the iMAC and also a windows XP laptop (I understand that I have to install Bonjour on the XP laptop).

Thanks for Your Time and Assistance on this...

 

[spinnerlys]

I used a non-powered USB hub before with two or three powered USB HDDs and it worked okay. So if the HDD and the printer are powered externally, a passive hub will do. I also used a cheap one, 9€ or so.

 

[Star4Ever]

I used a non-powered USB hub before with two or three powered USB HDDs and it worked okay. So if the HDD and the printer are powered externally, a passive hub will do. I also used a cheap one, 9€ or so.

The disk I have is a Lacie which is powered by the USB cable alone so I do think I need a powered hub not just a splitter.

The printer is self powered however.

Come to think of it... (Being Green here) are there any USB external drives that go into "sleep" mode when they are not being used?? That feature would be beneficial as I really only would use the external drive once or twice a day...

 

[cderalow]

The disk I have is a Lacie which is powered by the USB cable alone so I do think I need a powered hub not just a splitter.

The printer is self powered however.

Come to think of it... (Being Green here) are there any USB external drives that go into "sleep" mode when they are not being used?? That feature would be beneficial as I really only would use the external drive once or twice a day...

most of the WD Passport and MyBook series go into a standby mode when not in use.

I use a belkin 7-port USB2 hub that can be bought from Apple.