Customer Reviews

Belkin F1U400 4x4 USB Peripheral Switch (12 Mbps)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought the F1U400 as a KVM switch substitute, allowing me to use a USB mouse and USB keyboard between two computers (I can't use a KVM for my monitor, due to RF interference).

The switch *blinks*. When a USB component is plugged into it, the box indicates this by blinking an LED for that component. The blinking is very distracting, and the design of the LEDs (lots of curves) would make it difficult to cover them up. I've ended up hiding the switch behind my monitor.

The box has four buttons to swap USB components among hosts. Pressing a button once lights up the current host. You then need to press it again to start cycling through the list. The box waits for input for five seconds; only after those five seconds are complete does it reconnect the component. Any other button presses in that time cancel the change. This means that switching from one machine to another is far more laborious than with a normal KVM (particularly if you're switching a keyboard and a mouse separately).

Because I'm operating in a mixed Windows/Unix environment, I haven't installed the Windows switching software.

The F1U400 is probably a reasonable approach for components like printers, mass storage devices and scanners, which won't be moving from machine to machine with nearly the frequency of keyboards and mice. You'll have to hide the LEDs, though.

This switch worked great for me, i had two computers, my printer and scanner hooked up and it worked great.,,, no problems whatsoever

This product seemed like it was going to be an excellent tool. I have three computers that I use set up on my desk and have a keyboard and mouse set up on all three.

First major downfall was the crappy software that came with this device. It lags and glitches something terrible.
Second major downfall was the crappy buttons that are supposed to let you chose the computer your connected to. Mine never worked at all, everything just blinked stupidly.

Overall this product was a HUGE disappointment. Save the money and use a program like Input Director or Synergy.

Allows me to connect 2 computers to several devices.
However is not compatible with the MAC computer. Have to disconnect the PC from the switch for the MAC to
us the printer and ZIP drive.

I bought this hub because in our office we couldnt print while we are connected to the VPN. Since the printer wasnt on the same network anymore.

This Hub solved our problem. 4 users are able to connect via USB and print with no problems while connected to the VPN.

The only problem I would say is that we have to manually switch and control who gets to print. Basically only one user at a time could be connected to the printer and you can control that through a software included with the Hub.

But otherwise......a Quality product !

In our little computer room with 3 desktop machines & a couple of laptops, we need to share the new Canon printer that also had a scanner. The old USB switch that worked fine on a simple printer would not work at all with the multi-purpose printer. I had do go a number of "go arounds" with the Belkin and Canon tech support teams to figure out the problem with the old switch.

It turns out a POWERED USB switch is needed for this setup to work correctly. This switch is able to share the printer and 3 other USB devices among our computers. A quick and simple install was needed on each of the computers to work with the switch, plus the printer/scanner drivers.