USB hub vs USP PCMCIA card

[Guest]

Are there any differences in performance or any other issues?

in particular i am concerned how can a hub, which plugs into single usb port, extract enough power/bandwidth for 4 ports?? even with ac adapter, how can 4 times as much information be carried through the single usb port used by the hub??

similar question on pcmcia usb extensions - some models seem to need ac power but other do not. are there genuine differences or do the adds simply 'forget' to mention the power supply?

many thanks!

[mdarnton]

I'd been considering the same question as you, and then the USB connections on my T41 stopped working as USB2, and would only give USB1.1 (if you read the T board, you'll see this is a not uncommon problem). So I got a USB pc-card, hoping to dodge that problem, and use the old connections for my printer and mouse.

As a plan, it's worked great: I now have six connections, four of them USB2. And working with this, I think it's the better solution: six connections instead of five (the hub steals one on the computer for its own connection); nothing dangling off my computer (this is what kept me from getting a hub, before the problem); better access to the outlets because they're in front and not flopping around. The new card has a power jumper to bring more power over from one of the original USB connections, and that connection on the card will also take a standard AC adapter, if needed, so there's nothing lost there, either. I think, overall, its a better solution than an external hub. In my opinion, of course.

The possible downside is that I hear there are problems with NEC USB card chips working with some computers, and the card I got has an NEC chip (you won't know until you install it). Knowing that, I started by NOT loading the included software as the instructions demanded, just to see if the card would work well without it, and my system is working fine, so I continue to not load the card's software. I don't know if it's working because the reported problem is actually a software one, or because I'm lucky.