Silex SX-DS-4000U2 High Performance Gigabit USB Device Server

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Price: $172.47    

Product Feature

• Network_Standard - 10/100/1000Base-T
• Wi-fi - No
• Ethernet_Technology - Gigabit Ethernet
• Usb - Yes
• Number_Of_Network_rj-45_Ports - 1

Product Description

Silex High Performance Gigabit USB Device Server SX-DS-4000U2 Terminal & Device Servers

Silex SX-DS-4000U2 High Performance Gigabit USB Device Server Review

This is my second USB to Ethernet bridge, purchased to replace my trusty 'original' USB to Ethernet device, the Keyspan US-4A USB Server. Keyspan, once bought up by Tripp Lite, ceased all product and software development leaving us users pretty much high and dry for upgrade compatibility beyond Windows XP. As I upgraded the system to Windows 7 Professional x64, the Keyspan was no longer supported.

This device is stated as 1Gb ethernet with USB 2.0 HIgh Speed connectivity. The USB ports are powered, seemingly up to the standard 500mV per port to power host-powered devices. The device is smaller than the pictures imply but the curved back/bottom plate means only two strips of contact area for mounting on flat surfaces .

I use these USB bridges to enable wireless sharing of USB devices between laptops, in this case a standard scanner and a printer. The scanner, when plugged into the network, will try to grab a DHCP address making setup, if you took the time to preconfigure your network for its new little friend, quick and easy. Software installation on Windows 7 Pro x64 was seemless and quick and, most importantly, actually had full functionality with seemingly no conflicts with other drivers or software. The program stays running in the system tray and, if you configure it so, will automatically connect and disconnect your computer to a shared printer whenever a print job is run. As per the Keyspan, other devices such as scanners, disk drives, etc., must be manually connected and disconnected to allow usage - the control panel, accessed from the system tray shortcut, makes this quick and easy. The software even allows sending electronic requests to other client users who have not released a device sharing lock - if the other client responds, they can disconnect and unlock the device in order to allow you access again (every device can only be connected to one computer at a time).

So far the Silex is significantly faster on my USB device usage versus the Keyspan.; the USB-powered scanner plugged into the device no longer suffers from the start-stop data feed operation while the network 'catches up' and printer operation is significantly faster. I only quickly tested the unit with a disk drive attached - my personal recommendation, if you want to have shared network drives, is to either plug it into a computer or (better still) get a NAS as a USB to Ethernet bridge must handle device-level servicing of the drive which is much more bandwidth intensive than the SMB network-level sharing of computer-to-computer or computer-to-NAS.

So, pluses:

- small size
- powered USB ports
- stable, functional software and drivers with auto-connect printer abilities
- 800mHz processor leads to better throughput than other bridge devices
- Win7 x64 functionality tested

minuses:

- only 2 USB ports built-in; more ports will require USB hub
- no status lights for USB devices or complete network link status
- only status lights on ethernet port surround, not as easy as front mounted
- still not quick enough to truly recommend as drive device sharing for the impatient, but does work

Overall, if you know what a bridge device does, are knowledgeable about some of the network setup required and are aware of pluses and minuses of such a device, this is probably one of the best small SoHo devices out there that does this. Fast, small, not really expensive and works great!

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