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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great concept.. lousy application, horrible support, June 15, 2010
This review is from: Belkin Home Base - Device server - Ethernet, USB, Fast Ethernet - 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0) - external (Electronics)
I thought I would use this as an easy home print server... since I have a wireless network (using a belkin wireless router that was easy to set up and has worked flawlessly - hence my pre-disposition to their product) and several USB printers.. I consider myself fairly adept and computer savvy.. after reading several reviews this looked like a good way to set it up without too much trouble.
Note - one unit is a multifunction device, but I anticipated not being able to use the scanner capability wirelessly, so I Was not worried if it would not work.
Instructions are very succinct and straight forward (1 single sided sheet)... plug in the unit. plug in to network... install the software.. then connect the printers or drive.. VOILA!!!.. you have a print server and an easy connection for a hard drive to share on the network.
Plugged in a 24GB USB drive - both computers found it easy and connected to it with no problem. Excellent. so far, so good.
The home base found both printers, had some trouble with the drivers for one.. so I downloaded them and reinstalled.. no problem.. it found the driver and continued with installation.
Home Base found and connected to both printers, upon demand... Great, I thought... Went to try and use it... opened MS Word...Windows could not find the printers... they do not exist, as far as windows (and any apps) is concerned. It turns out their software is not talking to XP or Win 7...
Try help screen on Home Base.. not much help there...
Call up tech support... "heavy call volume.." blah, blah (the usual).. I knew it was not going to be an easy answer when it took them nearly 10 min to find the device / product and the support info in their system (after the automated directory supposedly sent me to a "Home Base Specialist"). Spent close to 3 hours on the phone with multiple people at technical support with typical useless suggestions (restart computer, unplug the unit, reset unit, reinstall software). Got to someone with some technical knowledge.. (he actually had me ping the IP address assigned to the printer by the network to determine if Windows knew it existed - it did) Finally.. "there is a problem with our software.. we have assigned a person here to further investigate and we will call you tomorrow with an answer." That was two days ago.. no call back to me.. When I called them.. it took 15 min to find my ticket number.. after telling me that it was an invalid ticket number 2x..
Their answer? "We don't know what is wrong... it must be your computer... It installed properly and it finds the printers.. so your computers must have the error.. we recommend you contact Microsoft."
In short... Don't expect help from Belkin technical support (in India) if the product does not work the first time... The vast majority of the people there are simply reading steps from a computer screen and don't really know what they are doing, speak barely understandable english, and can't answer if you ask them a technical question.. As a customer, I should not know more about their product than their technical experts (one of whom asked me to hit the RESET button, but did not know where it was located on the unit)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wireless + Mac OS X = Fail, April 28, 2010
This review is from: Belkin Home Base - Device server - Ethernet, USB, Fast Ethernet - 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0) - external (Electronics)
Mac OS X 10.6.3 & wireless mode do not work. Belkin tech support says drivers verified for 10.5. I'll update the review when/if this gets fixed, but this bodes poorly for Belkin's ability to support Mac OS X upgrades.
UPDATE: Follow up with Belkin confirms there are no plans to update drivers. So, if you buy something from Belkin, it may not work. If it does work, it may not work in the future and there may be no plan to make it work again. Not inspiring.
Kudos though to Belkin tech support, which has been refreshingly thorough and honest.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great print and network drive server, March 9, 2010
This review is from: Belkin Home Base - Device server - Ethernet, USB, Fast Ethernet - 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0) - external (Electronics)
This unit is very easy to install and to get working. Much easier than the units from Linksys. The hard drive becomes available to all network users as soon as it is plugged in and the printers can be used by any computer on the network, but only available to one computer at a time. The printers must be connected and disconnected through the supplied software, but this is not a problem and quite easy. I use this product with Two printers and a hard drive.(an Epson RX500 color, an HP 3200 laserjet, as well as a Lacie USB Hard Drive)
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