You've been looking for it, we've been looking for it -- heck, displaced Martians have been looking for it. We're talking about that mythical, magical box that adds all sorts of connectivity to any networked PC, and rather than making consumers purchase separate devices to
add NAS capabilities and
wireless print sharing to one's home,
Belkin's Home Base does it all. This sleek little box includes four USB 2.0 sockets and an Ethernet jack, and when connected to one's home router, a printer and at least one external hard drive, any machine on the network instantly gains wireless printing abilities as well as network access to your USB HDD(s). Furthermore, Home Base can wirelessly backup your connected PCs behind your back, and with the automatic sharing feature, your most intimate photos can be whisked away to Flickr-land without you having to know. Are you as giddy as we are? Pull out $130 and get to shoppin' -- it should be available today.
Update: This thing is sicker than we thought. It actually has a wireless module
built-in, so even if your hard drives and printer(s) are in a different room than the one your WLAN router is in, you can simply connect it to the peripherals and let it communicate with the router (and thus, your computers) from another location.
posted September 15th 2009 2:54PM
How long until the price is more reasonable?
Just came out today, be patient.
I was thinking the same!
Look the fonera! 49€ for the file sharing on WiFi... maybe tere is not the print server... but 49€ vs 130$ it's quite huge difference!
Does it allow USB Hubs to be connected if i need more that the 4 ports?
Hubs only work for stuff like mice or printers (low bandwidth devices) Try and plug a few hard disks into a hub then copy files between !!
It's all a bandwidth thing, if it has 4 ports then it can only handle 4 high bandwidth devices (Hard disks, scanners, USB sticks, USB WiFi)
I have 6 USB drives on a hub on my laptop, and I still get 10-15MB/s of transfer rate between them. Now, its not the 25-30 that I normally get, but its enough for me.
So I guess my question still stands. If I plug in that hub into the device, will all my hard drives work with it?
Get a PogoPlug. No printer but the NAS is so killer.
Dunno if a USB hub would work with this device, but they CAN work... You can plug a USB hub into an Airport Extreme, allowing you to connect multiple printers and hard drives for wireless sharing / Time Machine backup / etc. Works great.
the linked press release: useless.
uh, how's the software? or do i have to use mac os x and/or windows to figure it out? how does it play with windows 7 and snow leopard? screenshots?
I didn't read the article or do any type of research, but I'll take a guess.
It's probably running Linux and uses Samba/CIFS to share the devices. If that's the case, then it will be compatible with just about any modern OS. (Windows 7, XP, 2003, 2000, OS X anything, Solaris, Linux, BSD, etc).
That's all well and good but I want my Zune HD review. ;)
Agreed.
What?! No Centronics parallel port?! 8^)
That is just a sexy looking little box. Nice curves, design and the light blue LEDs just makes me want to grow robotic body parts and make sweet love to it.
I wouldn't mind to pick up one of these... sounds like a wonderful idea and hopefully it works as described.
monoprice.com has had a very similar product available for a mere $33 for some time now.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10521&cs_id=1052103&p_id=5344&seq=1&format=2
...and it looks as though a new version is in the works already.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10521&cs_id=1052103&p_id=6041&seq=1&format=2
That... is awesome. I've been looking for something like that for quite awhile now! And it's not expensive like the shiny Belkin. I'll be gettin' me one of those right quick! I'm pretty sure the company I work for would be able to find a few uses for them as well.
Ahh.... The shininess I could have bathed in with you Belkin~ But you would get dusty and die on me prematurely! Alas, our love was not meant to be... ::dramatic pose::
ok, so I was wrong...the monoprice one isn't really a NAS. It is just a USB -> network bridge. Lets you connect to USB devices over the network. It only allows a single connection per device, and only really supports windows. Pretty cool device, but not directly comparable.
I'm confused. I've had an airport extreme that's done all this for two years.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
And several other brands of router for years before Apple.
This thing is special because it's just a share box not a router although a very expensive one.
Took the text right off my keyboard....
Similarly, my NSLU-2 (Slug) has been doing this plus a whole lot more for years, whilst my AirPort Express has the functionality, but is in use just as a media extender with iPhone remote.
this sounds kind of like a windows version of an Airport Extreme/Airport Express. very cool indeed.
NO Routers (which are neither Windows or Mac but run on linux/unix) have had these abilities for years (my old Netgear router had 2 USB ports 4 years ago)
Nothing to do with Windows you sad iDiot
Sounds like it could really help some people out, for about 3 weeks before it breaks.
Belkin = Lifetime warranty
More trouble than it's worth, imo. Every Belkin product I've interacted with malfunctioned in one way or another, down to something as simple as an audio cable. I'd rather spend a little more money and get something that I won't need a lifetime warranty for.
sadly, i must agree...
My ReadyNAS does all of this...
AND it is a NAS.....
AND it is not Belkin's famous crap quality.
So - why, sir, why???
Which ReadyNAS have you got? How much did it cost? Can it use all the features of a multifunction printer?
Yeah, really trying to figure out what this does that my Airport Express doesn't, except have a couple more USB ports. I don't mind more products in the space - the Express has been extremely useful over the years - but I don't quite see why it's seen as notable.
Why do you think your airport invented this tech ? Routers from Buffalo, Netgear, Belkin, Cisco, etc. have had these abilities for years, long before Apple decided to add it to Airport, this box from Belkin isn't a router it's just a share box to plug into a router.
@major4play: I am sure he didn't say apple invented it. I think I remember him saying he owned an airport express. You can read up above if I happen to be wrong.
Does anyone know if this works with Time Machine (HFS+)? I'll definitely buy this if it does!
This is something I have been looking for!
For those who say this can be done already, please enlighten me. I'm looking for the following:
* WIreless access of existing USB printers & hard drives (and not via a USB hub)
* For those proposing an Airport, I don't want to keep my printer with my router (which is in my living room so it can hook up to my 360). Anyways I think I need to keep my FIOS router.
OK I have my mfp connected to my airport extreme (as well as some external drives) and everything but scanning works perfectly.
How can I scan wirelessly?
If you use a Netgear ReadyNAS with built-in USB-printserver, you can place it with an ethernet-cable or powerline adapter anywhere in your home. Scanning through an MFP will not work (not on any printserver I reckon), but sharing USB printers and USB-media is no problem. I find this, combined with TimeMachine support, remote access, AFP/NFS/CIFS, the ideal homeserver. Costs about $250 empty, so $300 with a drive. If you add that all up, it is a far better investment than this Belkin joke.
Comin' straight outta Compton! (Belkin's press release, that is).
On a more serious note...I bought a Belkin N+ router w/USB connector a while back, hoping that I could hook my WD external hard drive to it and stream to my classic XBox running XBMC, but playing my DVD ISO files resulted in nonstop stuttering. I'm still curious if they ever fixed that via a firmware update (I returned mine within 30 days to Best Buy).
Their website claims that this is good for storing media files for streaming to an XBox 360 or PS3, so it sounds like they may have fixed whatever networking issue I was having with this box.
Will this work with multifunctions?
this looks pretty cool.
But no need for me...since I have a wifi printer, and a NAS.
I think a lot of you guys are missing a key thing...This can be physically independent from your router. If you have your everything in one room you can use many available routers with USB ports today. But, if you keep your printer in another room from your router (maybe not too common, but definite cases out there, think multiple home offices, basement, etc) and don't want to run cabling or powerline networking, this is a welcome product.
Even the products on Monoprice do not offer this.
My Airport Extreme isnt connected to my modem/router/phoneline. It's just another device on my existing wireless network, its got no cables on it except the USB and power. That allows me wireless access to my printer and a hard drive for backups. I can't remember how I set it up, but something called WDS springs to mind.
Yeah, Apple's router is amazing, however most wireless routers do not have the ability to connect to other routers without a bit of help. I think Apple's AirPort extreme can expand coverage to their other routers - like their AirPort Express through like you said WDS.
Here at the house I have three routers going on after spending two days understanding the open source firmware DD-WRT. Two Linksys WRT54g/s and one WRT110. Only the WRT110 is connected to the cable modem and the other two extend the signal to my XBox 360 (no pricey wireless adapter for me) and to the office.
If this Belkin product does work, that's terrific.... but I've found others that do the trick will - but like others said - it does need to be connected a wired port on your router. For me? I'd much rather do that - I'd buy a refurb Airport Extreme Router before I bought this, has much more capabilities for $10 more.
I still think you can find wireless print servers on NewEgg for roughly $70, I think this product is for people that really don't want to mess with something all that long. Again, I just hope that it works.
I am sure as time goes by the prices will go down some.
http://www.ecityvalue.com
I bought one of these (as a mac lover and network professional), and am sadly disappointed. As sort of the "last straw", you can't even register it as a purchased product on their site or when requesting support, because it's not listed as an option :P
The "control center" software installs and seems to run - but has a real problem keeping the printer listed as being connected via USB - and has apparent problems with allowing configuration of printers connected to it. With a lack of any real technical documentation (and no, the sheet with pictures of how to hook things up doesn't count), and support being apparently non-existant for this device from Belkin - I'll be returning it, and finding something else.
Oh well, could have been cool - still needs work, and is definitely not worth the price right now.