Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Hardware

Looking For Portable Ethernet Hubs? 20

Posted by Cliff from the do-we-need-a-magnifying-glass-to-find-'em? dept.
Lynk asks: "I often have to network a couple of machines (normally 2x laptops and a palmtop) together and sometimes into a client's network, too, so I've been looking for a suitable Ethernet Hub. Nice and small so I can carry it about in my laptop case but without a PSU twice as big as the hub. Four ports is fine. Preferably battery powered. I have used x-over cables a bit but they eliminate connecting to a client's network. Anyone have any ideas or have done this already?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Looking For Portable Ethernet Hubs? More

Looking For Portable Ethernet Hubs?

Comments Filter:

  • Re:D-Link (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've never dealt with a laptop that had that problem. I've used Thinkpads, All models of toshiba's, dell's and compaq's, and every single one of them still has a functioning keyboard and mouse with an external mouse plugged into the ps/2 port

  • Re:D-Link (Score:1)

    by pen ( 7191 )
    What I've seen (under Windows, at least) is that the built-in mouse is auto-dropped when an external mouse is plugged in. However, I'm pretty sure that this is handled on the OS level, not on the hardware level. If Windows doesn't recognize the hub as a mouse, then the built-in mouse probably won't be shut off. I don't know about Linux.

    But I've got a better idea... why not just build a hub with a built-in mouse? Or vice versa... <g>

    --

  • Personally I will never use Netgear hubs again, as I've had a 10/100 stop correctly passing traffic between 10 and 100 baseT hosts. The max packet size that it would correctly transfer was something like 872. I've had another Netgear hub actually explode, bringing down the NIC in a machine with it. Not great products. Cheap, but not reliable.

    - hal9k
  • ...at least the one I just bought (the NH105) is.

    It's a 5-port 10BaseT hub with an uplink port, and it measures about 6"x3"x1". The power supp;y is about a third of that size. Should be very nicely portable.

  • How so? Most laptops I see now (like the one I'm typing this messag on) have a PS/2 port.
  • I seem to have no problem with it. I've got a Y splitter plugged into the PS/2 port, and a keyboard and mouse plugged into the splitter. Just to prove that both keyboards work I'm typing this with one hand on the internal keyboard and the other on an external. In fact I can hold shift on the external, hit a letter on the internal, and it comes up capitalized. Doesn't seem to work the other way around for some reason... Must be something handled diferently with shift on the internal.
  • 3Com make a great 8 port that I can stick in my bag. Its about 8"x4"x1/2". Not too shabby. Of course I also love my little D-Link 5 port. It's so cute (It looks a lot cooler than the 3Com), weighs in at only a few ounces, and I can stick it in my pocket :)
  • Agreed. I highly recommend a tiny Netgear hub for this - the power supply is nice and small, the hub is nice and rugged, and they look cool too.

    I use a little Linksys 5 port hub (EW5HUB) for the same kind of thing, and it works well also, although it is not encased in steel like the Netgear ones are.

  • Similar (and fairly inexpensive, too) is the Trendnet hub I've got (TE500). Not a hugely well-known brand, but a 5-port cost me USD $30:

    • Uplink switch
    • 10Mbps full-duplex (oh well, can't have it all)
    • Dimensions 4x3x1"
    • PSU 2x2x3" (or optional keyboard passthru, or if you're brave you could probably rig it for battery power - it's a standard connector)
    • Nice row of two-colour status lights - one LED shows link/activity/error check for each line, with another LED for power/collision indicator

    Seems like this would fit the bill for something that would pack easily, and if you actually felt like rigging a battery pack you'd have the perfect item for those ever-essential in-flight/on-the-road UT games (or an instant LAN party at the local cawfee shop).

  • We use these at work actually all over the place (fully switched network to our cubicles, but in the engineering department we have a tendency to have a minimum of 3 computers, usually higher, in our cubes). The one I have for my laptop is called a Soho Basic Hub205. It's a little 5 port 10base hub that gets powered by a fairly standard, and small wall wart. I suggest just driving over to your local computer shop and seeing what they're aiming at the easy-to-use, computer equipment is scary market. The things are cheap enough that if it turns out that the model you picked does something stupid you can just buy a new one.
    ----------------------------

  • I'd like to agree. If that Palm can go wireless he is set, just put a PCMCIA ethernet card in one (linux) laptop, and let the laptop route to wireless when you need to connect to someone else's machine/network. Just get two cables, one crossover, one normal and your set.

    Many buisnesses nowadays have waveLan or similear installed (I think waveLan is biggest, but I'm not sure) which means with DHCP you can connect directly to their network as needed.

    Again, the palm might be a problem, but AFAIK you can't connect ethernet to that either, so you should be able to go wireless. If you don't go wireless you will kick yoruself the first time one of your ethernet cables breaks just before a presentation and you can't do what you want. (Although I suppose some cusomters may have so much wireless congestion or RF noise that this isn't perfect either)

  • That's kind of useless when he has laptops and a palmtop.

    --
  • It's a passthru port. You cannot plug it in without drawing current from the keyboard port, which will cause the internal keyboard to shut off. Instead of a bulky transformer power supply, now you get to carry around a full size keyboard. All the hubs I know that draw their power like this are keyboard passthru; I haven't heard of one that works with a mouse (although the power for a mouse and keyboard could be the same; I don't know). At any rate, it would still be the same problem; using the mouse port would disable the internal mouse, forcing you to carry a mouse around.

    --
  • aside from their very cool purple color, they have 2 big advantages:
    a) they have nice, durable, steel cases, just perfect for bumping around and surviving.
    b) they're made by nortel. very nice equipment.
    they do get a wee bit warm, but they've held up nicely over the years...
  • Why buy old technology that just works when you can spend a lot more for a wireless ethernet card in each machine and be totally cool ?

    One machine can have one of those obsolete non-wireless cards in it, so you can plug into your clients hopelessly out of date non-wireless network, and route through that machine.

    I'm actually saying this only half tongue-in-cheek. If you have the cash to be carting around multiple laptops and a palm, you can afford it. It depends on the business you are in, but the coolness factor of that might get you enough new business to pay for itself the first time out.

  • These things are almost generic items now. When I needed to hook up a bunch of nodes in my dorm room I just nosed around in the nearby CompUSA for a few minutes and came out with the second least-expensive 4-port hub I could find. The one I got is probably smaller than a zip-drive, and would fit in my laptop case just fine. The PSU isn't huge, either. Just make sure to get one with an uplink switch on one of the ports, so you don't have to use crossover cable.

    Oh, and don't get the absolute cheapest one, either. It generally comes in a white box and rattles when you shake it.

  • D-Link (Score:3)

    by cmaxx ( 7796 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @03:01PM (#1181679)
    D-Link do/did a 5-port portable hub that can take its power from a PS2 or DIN keyboard/mouse connector that was purpose designed for such arrangements.

  • Hmmm. (Score:3)

    by DaveHowe ( 51510 ) on Thursday March 23, 2000 @05:02AM (#1181680)
    Novell guy doing demo here last week had a double-thick PCMCIA card that had four RJ45 jacks, and was a 5-port hub. I have emailled him for product details (as I would like one too :+)
    --

Slashdot Top Deals

If a subordinate asks you a pertinent question, look at him as if he had lost his senses. When he looks down, paraphrase the question back at him.

Close