D-Link DUB-H7 High Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub
by DLite Press
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of D-Link DUB-H7 High Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub
Customer Review: Newer Review of fixed Issues - Works Great and best of top selections
Summary: 5 Stars
Several of these reviews rate this hub low for reasons that I have not experienced in any of the multiple hubs of this type I use. I then noticed that they are old reviews. I believe many of the issues described are from old machines and equipment as well as operating system issues etc from this being a new product. Now, in 2010, I have used 6 of these hubs most for more than two years. The only issue I have ever had is one that did not work out of the box, defective is all.
Here is a quick breakdown of what I have experienced. This is self powered, it will handle several powered devices both self and usb powered. My MP3 players, usb powered WD passport drives take up one entire hub and all work fine, transfering at top speed from one drive to another on the hub or even on another hub or over the network.
This device starts up and self installs without any work from the user in XP, Vista & Win 7 with no issues. I can hook several of these devices together daisy chained or on seperate USB ports with no issues, conflicts or surprises. I am sure their support stinks as most tech companies do nowadays, even the quality product companies have poor CS and outsourcing now. So, not something I care about if I do not ever have to contact customer support.
I can hook mice, keyboards (both of these wired and wireless), speakers, headphones, external drives (Again wired and wireless), Blue Ray burner (That's right and it burns flawless), PDA, Cell Phones, Blue Tooth Devices, Phone and bluetooth chargers and more to these hubs and have not ever had a single issue related to the hub other than the one defective device I got.
I buy these for friends and will buy more, they are on all of my systems and laptops and they also work well off my monitors USB plugs and on high quality USB extenhsion cords. I run some of these together off one USB 25' extension cord with no real noticeble loss of speed or issues.
In short, look for more recent reviews as I believe that the most part of the issues listed here or now obsolete or have been resolved. The power pack I do not believe is any longer worldwide but I know of no other review here that has any issue I have experienced.
Customer Review: Experiences on a MacBook Pro
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a pair of these D-Link DUB-H7 USB hubs to go with my early 2009 MacBook Pro. With only 3 USB plugs on the MacBook Pro, that was far too few for my needs. So with a pair of these dubs, I went from 3 USB ports to 15.
SETUP
These are powered USB hubs. Setup is normal: plug in transformer, run the included USB cable back to the MacBook Pro, plug your external hardware in and you're up and going.
I currently have 4 external disk drives on one hub. On the other, I have an external Blu-Ray burner, the antenna for my wireless keyboard/mouse, and, on occasion, my WWAN modem for one of the telcos when my normal ISP links goes down.
I kept one USB port "native" for my iPhone. I keep it plugged in through that port plus do all my upgrades with it so connected. See the CONS section below for more details.
PROS
I have used these two hubs now for close to 2 years on my MacBook Pro. They have given me zero problems during that time. I don't know what else you could ask of a product such as this.
I was somewhat reluctant to purchase these for my Mac. Some of the reviews indicated that they caused problems on a Mac. However, I work in IT and have used D-Link products for many, many years with really good success. I do not know what the issues were with the other Mac users: perhaps older hardware or inexperience. I just know that, for me, these hubs have worked perfectly.
I have had connected 4 to 6 disk drives, external CD/DVD/Blu-Ray burners, wireless keyboard/mouse, WWAN modems, and a high-end scanner. These all have worked without a hitch.
CONS
I found through experience that I could not reliably upgrade my iPhone's firmware. I would get all kinds of weird errors that Apple said they had never seen before and didn't know how to handle or what to do. Connecting the iPhone directly to one of the USB ports remedied this problem. The issue has to do with USB signal retiming which really messes up timing sensitive microcode burning within the iPhone.
RECOMMENDATION
If you are looking for a decent USB hub for your Mac, this would be a good choice.
Customer Review: Heat is not the D-link Hub's friend.
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought my D-Link DUB-H7 High Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub, and the ONLY mistake I made was not buying though Amazon. Unlike all the reviews I have read here, I was playing with two 16GB Flash drive Cruzers, and three 8GB Cruzers. Things worked great for 3 months. I was worried about the heat that the hub was putting out and it only happen when the computer was on. I am not taking about frying eggs, I am just talking about hot coco type of heat that you can drink, on a cold day. Well one day, I could not get my computer to reboot, the only way I could reboot was to unplug the D-Link Hub. I was really worried about some how I had fried my computer; turns out it was the D-Link not playing nice. I called where I bought it, they could not help, nor would they replace it.
Again my mistake was not buying it though Amazon.
As to buying another hub: The one problem with this type of hub has to do with the heat and the way the manufacture stack or crams the USB connecters together. Yes, we all want smaller gizmos on our desk. The problem with shoving 7 USB connecter together in such a small packages you have to make sure the heat has some where to go, and the hub shuts down any over aggressive current hogs (I thought that was part of the USB 2 specification). I agree that current hungry USB devices could make a hub over heat or fail, but you would think the manufacture would find a way of working this out. My tech that help with this problem warned me that when a Hub dies, it can send raw power from the power supply (the black box) to all the devices the USB HUB is hooked up to, but also back into your computer. The way the D-link Hub acted, you would think the flash drive Crusers - with no moving parts- were a current hogs, or I was making runny eggs.
My second non-D-Link hub also makes some heat, but not as much as the D-link did. All the USB plugs are spread out, unlike the D-link USB pug-in stack. With this second hub the USB connections don't get as hot.
Again, watch out for heat. I just had one of my backup Flash Drives die on me. Not sure as to why, but I am suspect that it has to do to with heat again.
Customer Review: Couldn't get two devices to work. Gave up on it!
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a device you either love or hate. You love it if you plug it in and everything works fine. You hate it if your devices won't work with it.
I'm in the latter category. I decided to replace my old 4-port hub with this 7-port device even though I haven't (yet) added more USB devices. I had my printer, scanner, card reader and PDA cradle plugged into my old HUB and everything was working smoothly. I succumbed to the temptation of getting a high-speed HUB since my newer devices are high-speed and I got tired of the "this device can perform faster" message from windows.
I installed this Hub and the printer and scanner both registered and installed perfectly. I plugged in my card reader and the computer wouldn't recognize it. I unplugged it and reinstalled the software. Still couldn't get it to recognize it. I plugged it directly into my computer and it ran fine.
Same thing happened with my mobile device.
After working for several hours to get everything to work, including reinstalling the software, I set everything up on my old hub and again everything ran fine.
I've been working with computers since the old CPM days (including DOS!) and I'm not such a rookie that I can't plug in a new USB Hub. I'm returning this unit for a refund.
A few other frustrating things I encountered:
1) The hard plastic packaging was extremely hard to get into. I ended up practically tearing it to shreds.
2) There is minimal documentation. An insert says to refer to the owners manual on the enclosed CD -- but there IS NO CD!
3) The Quick Installation Guide says nothing about needing to reinstall device software. Only when you go on the D-Link support website do you read this information.
4) As others have noted, if you are using even a single USB 1.1 device, there is a chance that ALL devices connected to the hub (even high speed ones) will work at USB 1.1 speed. So much for "backwards compatible."
Customer Review: Simply Ideal
Summary: 5 Stars
A usb hub is a simple appliance, right? It either works or it doesn't. Well, there are a few differences among hubs, and I'll point them out. The H7 incorporates the preferred feature in the descriptions below.
1) Externally-powered beats usb-powered most of the time. Usb-powered units divide the available power across all the ports that are in use, so the more plugged in, the less power for each. I have a 4-port usb-powered hub that is only good for products that do not need much power. Things that work well in it are powered external hard drives (or other powered devices), a mouse, or a solid state memory device. High capacity/fast portable hard drives without their own power supply don't work well. They need a lot of juice.
2) Vertical slots almost always beat horizontal ones.
For example:
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With the slots positioned vertically, I can use all 7 slots without a problem. If they were horizontal, and close together, some of the wider cables would not fit side-by-side. This is especually true with memory card devices. My sd card adapter is so wide, it would prevent another input on either side of it if they were horizontally oriented. I also like that all the slots are on one side of the unit. It's easier to organize cables when they are all plugged into the same area, rather than into several sides of the unit.
3) Smaller and lighter is better. This unit is small and light, but not flimsy. It's the smallest 7-port device I have seen. It can be tucked into any number of spaces, so it fits well into your work space. One feature that would be nice would be a couple mounting slots so I could anchor it to a desk or wall using screws. The only downside of its weight is it can move around the desk, especially if there are several cables plugged in to it. On the plus side, the device is easy to pack and bring on trips.
Overall, I can't think of a 7-port powered usb hub that offers more for less money than the H7.