Customer Reviews

IOGEAR 4-Port USB 2.0 and 3-Port FireWire Universal Hub GUH420

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Good:
* 4 USB 2.0 ports work well.
* Don't know whats wrong with these guys my firewire ports ARE POWERED. Both my iPod and iSight work as expected too. All connected to the GUH420. See the pic I uploaded using my plugged in iSight camera.

Bad:
* False advertising. IOGear claims 3 firewire ports. NOT TRUE. There are only really two. One port needs to be connected to the computer or in my case the back of my Apple Cinema Display.

Conclusion: 3 of 5 stars only because the 3 Firewire ports claim irritated me. Otherwise it looks good, works well and is very inexpensive.

Great hub IF you need both USB and Firewire all the time. The hub will not power on or work unless you connect both the USB and Firewire cables to your computer. Therefore you cannot just use usb, or firewire.

My daughter like it because it gave her more usb options to her pc but I miss understood when I purchase it. I was looking for what I thought was a adapter to be able to use both usb and firewire since my daughter's pc does not have firewire she had the option to use both. So I am right back to square one.

Don't bother with this hub; the firewire ports are unpowered. Your iPod will drain its battery power; your firewire hard drive will not work unless it has its own AC power source.

This hub works well on my iMac, no problems at all. I especially like the 2 available ports (1 firewire, 1 USB) on the front for easy access to plug in temporary devices such as a USB memory stick, firewire video camera, etc. As noted, you don't really get 3 firewire ports, since one of them is needed to connect the hub to your computer leaving only 2 firewire ports left on the hub. Definitely misleading advertising. My biggest complaint is the cheap soft rubber stand that this hub just sits in. It is very unstable and loose fitting, and the hub pops out of the stand very easily if knocked over. Hence the 3 star rating. Otherwise, it a nice hub for the money.

I really liked the design of this unit but it failed completely after about 90 days...just stopped working. Other types and brands of hubs connected to my iMac work just fine so I've no idea what happened to this one. Wish I could recommend it as I had high hopes, but I'd go with something else.

In it's capacity as a USB hub the GUH420 appears to work as advertised and has 4 useable USB ports. In it's capacity as a firewire hub, it lacks bus power and only has 2 usable ports for consumer devices. The absence of bus power means the iSight does not work at all when connected through the hub and an iPod works until it's battery runs flat.

I was hoping to gain (3) three Firewire ports,but to do so you have to use (1) of the (3) Firewire ports to use the other (2) two Firewire ports. But I made do,but if you need USB ports it it works for that. David L Sloan Jr.

I've been looking for a Firewire/USB combo hub to connect to my Mac Mini in our entertainment center, something to reduce the clutter. I needed a powered hub for some of my devices that I hook up to the Mini that require a powered hub. As soon as I got the IOGEAR 4-Port USB 2.0 and 3-Port FireWire Universal Hub (GUH420) I placed it in the entertainment center. I ran the power cable to the hub, but the adapter wouldn't fit, the adapter came with the hub and it doen't; no matter how hard I push, the adapter plug will not fit into the power port on the hub. There is a weird quirk with the FireWire port, when I plug my mac Mini into it 3 of the USB indicator lights light up. It looks really nice in my entertainment center. I can't believe this from Iogear, I've always been happy with thier products. This one is a disappointment.

I bought one of these to help me control the chaos of Firewire and USB wires on my desktop. I have had it about 4 months. It died. I am unable to return it to iogear since I no longer have the original packaging or receipt.

My home office started to smell like burning electronics. The unit had overheated. Luckily it did not take anything that was plugged in to it with it. I think I will not be buying an off-brand again to save a few pennies.

While it worked, it worked great (thus 2 stars vs 1).