Sharing Peripherals on a Small Network.

[Gene K]

I presently operate two computers but only one at a time. Eventually I will
add a third. I prresently connect to the internet via a 4-port router hooked
to a cable modem. My problem concern peripherals. Each time I shut down one
computer and open the next one; I have to disconnect a printer, separate
scanner, external drives, etc. from one and hook to the other. Very, very
irritating!!!. I solved the monitor, keyboard, and mouse problem with a KVM
switch which works well. At least one more user [maybe two] will start when
school is out so I plan to establish a true network which will share that
internet connection plus, I hope, the peripherial equipment so therein is
where I need help in choosing hardware. I have looked at various USB
switches and print servers till my eyes are red but I am unable, so far, to
select any. I would like to have a device which would share any USB device
plugged in to it. I realize that this requires printer and scanner software
to be installed on each computer and, in some cases, the same for some
external hard drives but so be it.
I would appreciate comments and help plus hardware recomendations.
Gene K
NOTE: this will be posted to both the XP net_work web and XP Hardware
newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Sharing.html

Might be of help. Never used any of these so can't comment on their
performance.

Basically, I'd imagine they'd be much like paralllel printer-switches, in
that they do the job but are a rather clunky solution.

I think if you keep switching a USB HD between computers, sooner or later
you're going to lose data when there's a moment of negligence and it gets
switched whilst writing.

The proper way to share resources (including disk storage) is to have a
network and a fileserver, though for three computers that might be a bit of
an overkill. A network is still a good option though.

You cannot share small personal scanners over a network (or USB) though some
large office models work this way. It's not all that much of an advantage -
you need to physically walk to the scanner anyway, so remote access doesn't
help much. But, if you have a network, you can easily retrieve the scans
from a share on the scanning computer.