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Item #: 20562S. Belkin's Home Base allows anyone on your network to wirelessly share external hard drives, printers, or other devices - wherever and whenever. Device Type: Device server
Enclosure Type: External
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, USB, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft 2.0)
Features: Flow control, full duplex capability, print server, Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
OS Required: Microsoft Windows Vista / XP, Apple MacOS X 10.4 - 10.5
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty
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Technical Details
- Data Link Protocol - Ethernet, USB, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n- Enclosure Type - External
- Microsoft Windows Vista / XP, Apple MacOS X 10.4 - 10.5
- Flow control, full duplex capability, print server, Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
- Belkin Home Base device server
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By G. Canterbury (Philadelphia, PA USA)
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)
By M. Mary (Mobile, AL)
I am am basically an amateur user, but I found that setup on my wireless network was easy: I just connected the ethernet cable to my router, powered the device on, then ran the setup program and disconnected the ethernet cable. I then powered the device off and on again, and restarted my computer. It was immediately able to locate my wireless network and connected with both my HD and flash drive. I've not had any problems yet: The Home Base seems to be working fine. I have a PC, and my OS is XP Professional. I have found that this is a nice little device.
By Marino K. Poletine (san diego, ca United States)
You know about a company when you need to call support.
First about the product.
Great idea terrible implementation. There is nowhere that it says that if you have an external hard drive externally powered, it will not be compatible to the hub. It only recognize HD that is powered through the USB port. So if you have a HD that has its own power supply, it will not work.
Then, if you happen to contact technical support, good luck. First you will be transferred to India. Then, because they have no idea of how to fix the problem, they will transfer you around, so, when your patience is gone, they promise to call you back and, off course, never do.
I do not recommend this product or any other Belkin products to anyone anymore.
By B. Glines (Folsom, CA USA)
I have 20 years in IT and extensive networking experience. I love the Homebase as I don't have to run a dedicated NAS setup or a file/print server. The this is a true passthrough (not limited to a compatible product list) server device with very easy setup. Sharing printers or external hard drives is better than any product I've seen. I would recommend this over the Apple Airport or any router touting print or file serving. Wireless with WPS just makes this an even better deal. Mapping data stores and printers in Windows couldn't be easier.
I own 2 Homebases, one for printers and one for my external drives.
for the basic user looking to have network access to printers and external data stores, this is the unit for you. I highly recommend putting the unit on an 802.11n network or even better hard wired ethernet.
CON:
Belkin markets this as DLNA compliant allowing you to access movies, music, pictures from any DLNA certified device. It doesn't work!! I've worked with Belkin product development, not the knowledgebase flunkies you get at tier one support. The product will not serve into a DLNA architecture. There is some form of bug in the firmware. Even Belkin admits this. They supposedly have a firmware upgrade but it isn't available to the publical and there is no ETA for release. Even tier one support agents could find it. Oddly enough, the Homebase will show my printers on the DLNA architecture. I switched my units around putting the harddrives on the "printer" unit. No success. If you're looking for DLNA, download TVersity and connect your drives directly to your machine.
As of 6/1, Belkin is supposed to have their R&D developers contact me directly They will follow through as I'm a HUGE Belkin fans and have been using their routers for years. I'll update here after R&D troubleshoots the problem.
By Steven Pennebaker
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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