The inexpensive solution: Plug the printer’s USB cable into the computer where you have something to print. Repeat as needed.

The easier solution: Get the Plugable USB2-SWITCH2 for fast, one-touch switching of the printer–well, really any USB 1.1/2.0 device or hub–between two computers. One computer has access to the device at a time.

For anyone who’s been involved with information technology for a while, the practice of using a switch to share access between multiple computers and a device is not new. But the power of USB dramatically enhances the potential of what can be shared.

In the days before USB, you had to buy a specialized switch that was compatible with the connection cable used by the device to which you wanted to share access. For example, a keyboard-video-mouse switch–abbreviated as a KVM switch–provided switched access to just those three devices.

A USB switch enables two computers to access a single USB device, like a printer.

Now with a USB-based switch, you can set up switched access between two computers to any USB 1.1/2.0 device–no specialized switch boxes necessary for each device. And if you connect the switch to a USB hub, you’ll have switched access to all the devices connected to the hub. This can offer a lot of flexibility.

Attach a USB hub to a USB switch to enable two computers to access all the devices connected to the hub.

Here’s an example from our lab of the way you can maximize the USB2-SWITCH2’s potential:

• Connect a PC running Windows 7 and a Mac Mini running OS/X.
• Attach a Plugable USB2-HUB-AG7 powered seven-port hub to the switch.
• Plug the following devices into the hub:
• A Plugable USB-VGA-165 display adapter (set to mirror the main display)
• A Plugable USB2-E100 10/100 Ethernet adapter
• A USB-based keyboard and mouse

With a single button press, you can switch access to a mouse, a keyboard, a display, and a network connection between two computers running different operating systems. And you’ll still have three ports in the hub to spare for a printer, scanner, external hard drive, webcam, or any of the multitude of USB-based devices that exist. Watch the video below to see our configuration in action.

The switch requires no drivers. Just connect it to any two computers with USB 1.1/2.0 ports via the included five-foot USB A/B cables, attach a device or hub, and that’s it. Be aware that the attached device might require drivers to use it with your computer’s operating system. The first time you switch access to the device, you may either be asked to install drivers if you haven’t already or receive an error if your computer’s operating system can’t recognize the device. If you switch to a hub connected to multiple devices, you may have to go through driver installs for all those devices.

The USB2-SWITCH2 comes with two five-foot USB A/B cables.

The USB2-SWITCH2 is available at Amazon.com. We’d love to hear your stories about how you use this incredibly simple but highly effective device in your home or office. If you have any questions about its functionality or have trouble getting it set up, write us at support@plugable.com. We’re here to help.

Plugable USB 2.0 Switch for One-Button Swapping of USB Device/Hub Between Two Computers

Product Details

$14.99

Because of that, it’s nice to be able to throw a small USB hub in your bag for extra connectivity when you’re travelling. You want a durable hub without any parts sticking out that are easy to break. Where the hub is a single integrated unit, so nothing will get disconnected and lost. With ports that are in line with the cable, so cables aren’t running all directions on your desk when you’re using it. And a hub without so many ports that it needs its own power adapter anyway (which would be too bulky).

It’s for these kinds of needs that we’re targeting our simple new USB 2.0 2-Port Hub.

It features a clean, compact design. With a standard USB 2.0 High Speed hub controller inside (NEC/Renesas µPD720114 2-port), it enables two devices to share a single available USB port with full USB 2.0 compatibility and performance.

Because it’s bus powered, the 2 ports share the available 500 mA from the single upstream port. It’s a perfect match for use with low powered devices such as keyboards and mice or self powered devices like printers, powered hubs, and powered external hard drives. Note, though, that you won’t want to use an unpowered hub like this for charging.

Features

• Standard 2 Port USB 2.0 compliant USB hub controller chipset
• Compatible with all USB 2.0 and 1.1 devices
• Supports full data rates of 1.5/12/480 Mbps
• USB bus powered
• Compact, in-line design to minimize cable clutter

Have any questions? Email support@plugable.com anytime – we’ll be happy to help.

Where to Buy

Plugable USB 2.0 2 Port Hub

Product Details

$9.20

What is possible, however, is running a single DisplayLink adapter, or several with a Xinerama or multiseat configuration — just as long as you don’t expect to use your main GPU at the same time.

The single-display case is relatively easy to set up, and we’ll cover that here.

First, make sure you’re running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10 or later). For older kernel versions, you’ll need to update udlfb and run a modified fbdev X server (not covered in this post). On these kernel versions, when you plug in your DisplayLink-based USB graphics device, you should get a green screen. This means that at the driver built into the Linux kernel is happy, healthy, and talking to the device.

Second, if you are running Unity Desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 or later, you’ll need to switch back to Classic Mode so you’re running straight X. Here’s how on Ubuntu:

Click on the power button in the upper right corner (mine looks like a light switch) and choose the last option, System Settings. Search for Login Screen, Double-click to display, Choose Unlock and enter your password, Select Ubuntu Classic as default session.

Third, if you’re running kernel versions between 2.6.35 to 3.1, enable the fb_defio option of udlfb. To do this, create or edit a file like
/etc/modprobe.d/50-displaylink.conf

and add the single line

options udlfb fb_defio=1

And reboot (or run “sudo depmod -a” and unplug/replug your adapter). This will turn on defio (page fault change detection) support. This option is already enabled by default in kernels 3.2+.

Lastly, create an X config file called 60-plugable.conf (or similar) with the following contents and place it in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d (on recent distros; on older distros, make this your xorg.conf):

 
Section "Device" 
  Identifier "uga" 
  driver "fbdev" 
  Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0" 
EndSection 
 
Section "Monitor" 
  Identifier "monitor" 
EndSection 
 
Section "Screen" 
  Identifier "screen" 
  Device "uga" 
  Monitor "monitor" 
EndSection 
 
Section "ServerLayout" 
  Identifier "default" 
  Screen 0 "screen" 0 0 
EndSection

Note: if your main GPU creates a /dev/fb0 even when the USB display is not attached, then your USB display is probably getting assigned to /dev/fb1. In that case, change /dev/fb0 in the “Device” section above to /dev/fb1

Now, on reboot, you should (hopefully!) see your login come up on your DisplayLink USB attached display!

This kind of simple setup is useful for:

• Testing or playing with your USB graphics adatper on Linux.
• Embedded systems with USB but no GPU.
• As a backup method when the main GPU or its driver isn’t available or working.
• Systems where a USB graphics adapter enables higher modes (up to 2048×1152) than the main GPU screen.

Please comment if you have any trouble with this single display case. See our past posts for additional information about the DisplayLink Linux kernel driver and some more involved setups.

The instructed here work on all Plugable USB 2.0 graphics adapters and Plugable USB 2.0 docking stations and thin clients (and should also generally work on all DisplayLink based products).

For Plugable’s USB 2.0 products with DisplayLink chips, however, we’re still recommending earlier DisplayLink Windows driver version 5.6 M1 (5.6.31870.0), because of its proven stability. For now, Windows Update will still deliver 5.6 M1 automatically when you plug a Plugable device in.

Here’s a little background on why:

DisplayLink’s newest 6.x drivers work with all DisplayLink chips (USB 2.0 and the coming USB 3.0 generation), but the primary development focus of version 6.x has been on enabling the coming USB 3.0 generation of products. Perhaps as a result, there are some minor tradeoffs for USB 2.0 generation devices.

Here are the tradeoffs we’re following:

1) On a few systems, screens may go blank after returning from a reboot or power event. The cause appears to be changes in the way display configuration information is stored with the 6.0 and 6.1 drivers – Windows and the drivers can get confused, and that confusion will persist across unplugs, reboots, etc (going back to 5.6 M1 is the solution in these cases)
2) The uninstaller on version 6.1 fails to uninstall from Windows’ Programs and Features (as a workaround, you can use the DisplayLink “cleaner” utility).
3) 5.6 M1 is the last release where DisplayLink’s logs are readable. When we hit any strange problems on a customer’s system, our ability to analyze the logs to find the underlying problems (and solutions) is one of the ways we try to provide better support for Plugable brand devices.

All that said, we run the latest drivers on nearly all of our own systems (so we can stay up to date with the latest developments), and generally they’re great. So if there are any 6.x features or fixes that are relevant to you, feel free to download and install 6.1 M0 or later to give it a try. You can always download the latest DisplayLink driver here. And we expect that with one of the coming releases, we’ll push forward our recommendation to the latest version.

For those considering the latest versions, here’s the features and fixes DisplayLink has delivered since 5.6 M1 (as of version 6.1 M0). We’ve cut down the list to just those appear to be relevant to USB 2.0 devices.

New features since 5.6 M1 (as of 6.1 M0):

- Improved video smoothness for DL-1×0, DL-1×5 and DL-3×00 series
- Improved frame rate
- Reduced CPU utilization
- DisplayLink Tray applet enhancements

(Note these are generally subtle improvements)

New fixes since 5.6 M1 (as of 6.1 M0):

Sometimes the DisplayLink screen will remain blank when the device is
re-plugged after having been disconnected during power save. (11708)

Moving a mouse over full-screen video playback causes quality to drop. (12409)

Sometimes DisplayLink screen comes on in clone mode instead of extending when
connecting the device for the very first time. (10217)

Sometimes video may freeze on DisplayLink monitor. (11333)

Other miscellaneous fixes

First, download VIA’s USB 3 Firmware Upgrade Tool (Windows required).

When the package is finished downloading click on the .zip file to extract the contents and run Usb3HubFWUpgrade_Setup_VX.XX.exe (to match the version you downloaded). This will install the USB3.0 firmware upgrade tool.

Reboot your machine, and connect your hub to AC power and to a USB3.0 port directly on your computer. Now, run the Usb3HubFWUpgrade program from the start menu. You will see a screen like this:

When the upgrade tool reports 1 device found, click the “Start Upgrade” button. Once it has completed you will see:

Disconnect both the AC power and the USB cable from the hub to reset it, reconnect, and you’re done!

See VIA’s Release Notes (PDF) for the list of features and fixes in each firmware version.

We offer 2 models of Universal Docking Station, and often get questions about which one to buy. Here’s a side-by-side comparison. Let us know if you have any questions!

Both enable adding an extra monitor, speakers, and other devices to any brand of laptop (no more expensive proprietary docks!) with a single USB cable to dock and undock.

If you’re a user of Windows Multipoint Server or Userful Multiseat Linux, these same docks can also act as a low-cost USB terminal to enable many users to share one computer.

Where to buy

• It’s shocking to see a keyboard projected onto any table, and be able to type in thin air (that was also true of its predecessor, the Celluon LaserKey CL850)
• You can connect to any PC or mobile with either with USB or Bluetooth. It uses a battery in wireless mode. That battery charges via its included USB cable
• It now has a mouse mode with multi-touch support for Windows 7 (Doesn’t support Mac or iOS multitouch)

But the really important thing about the new Magic Cube is it’s now driverless: It uses the standard Bluetooth HID profile and standard USB HID class, so for whatever you connect it to, it just sees a standard USB keyboard or mouse (which have always used HID). No drivers, no fuss.

That makes the new Magic Cube work with nearly all devices out there that can use a standard Bluetooth or USB keyboard: iPad, iPod, iPhone, Windows, Mac, Linux, and lots of other mobiles and devices.

iOS devices, in particular, are well-matched because the built-in auto-correct is a great help for improving accuracy (which is the main remaining downside of a projection keyboard — it takes getting used to).

If you’ve never had the chance to try a laser keyboard, take a look at this video to see it in action.

Celluon Magic Cube Laser Projection Keyboard and Touchpad

Product Details

$169.99

It’s amazing how few people know about the possibilities of turning one computer into many with simple USB terminals. We’re hoping more stories like this will get the word out!

To Whom It May Concern:

I want to take a second and thank you for the support you have given me. It is not often I find such good people that take time out of their busy day to help! Thank you so much!

I voluntarily single handedly support a small non-profit K-12 school. A little IT history on that school was that as of early 2009, I started getting involved with the IT Infrastructure. In reviewing their systems, I noted that they were running a Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 to which was only used to serve IP address and keep some files in a fileshare. The server had been installed in 2000 to which had not been maintained since then except for the occasional reboot and update.

In 2009, Microsoft announced that they would discontinue the support of Microsoft Server 2000 in July. Knowing this, I began having meetings communicating to the staff of the impacts of running a server without having support for major things like updates. I helped them decide that we should upgrade the infrastructure to Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 as well as source a new server to run the software.

While the server was on order, we began updating the entire wiring infrastructure of the network cabling to consistently possess at least Cat 5 cable.

I installed the new server as well as setup the ability to use Microsoft Exchange Server, Sharepoint Server, and a file Server. Also, I made sure to install a raid system as well as a nightly backup system. For the first time, the staff had email addresses with the school name! The staff we all very excited to use the new system.

Noting that there were many old computers that were at least 7-10 yrs old, we sourced and installed Microsoft Server 2008 in a Hyper-V session in order to use Terminal Server, now called Remote Desktop Services. On that Terminal Server, I installed all of Microsoft Office 2010 as well as other pertinent programs needed for the school. This allowed a repurposing of all the older computers as well as combining the old computers with new flatscreen monitors. The speed of the Terminal Server made the staff feel like they all had brand new computers!

I had been using the Comcast Modem as a firewall and knew that the firewall needed to be upgraded. The school needed a way to track everyone on the internet as well as the capability to filter the internet. I sourced a smaller used HP DL380 server to run an all-encompassing web filter, spam filter, firewall, routing, etc., named Untangle. This also sped up the internet experience as Untangle has the ability to cache websites.

Next on the list was to revive a computer lab that had not been run in over 2 years. There were several questions to be answered in order to ascertain how the lab was going to be built with these criteria in mind:

· Cost Effective

· Ease of maintenance

· As Energy Efficient as Possible(green)

· Reliable

· Ease of use

With that in mind, we came up with a few options. The first option was to utilize the computers from the old lab with a Terminal Server session. Because the base software of the computers was Windows 2000, they would have to at least be upgraded to Windows XP for security and Microsoft support reasons. Because of the expense and support needed, we decided against doing that option. Specifically we did not meet the goals of:

· Ease of maintenance

· Reliable

· Ease of use

The next option was to utilize “nettop” computers, specifically the Foxconn NetBox-nT525 nt525-0H0W-B-A-NA-BOX that we could mount to the back of a monitor. We then sourced 10 refurbished Dell 19″ monitors. I purchase one of the mini computers for test. I installed both Linux Edubuntu as well as Windows 7. The problems with this route are that it did not meet our objectives because:

· Not as cost effective because of the need for 10 computers

· Increased maintenance need

· Having to learn Linux by the staff therefore not easy to use

· No ability to use Remote Desktop into the computers (would have had to install VNC)

The third option was to install a dumb terminal system. Two systems were looked at including Linux Userful and Microsoft Multipoint Server 2011.

I admit that I am not near as intelligent on Linux as I am Microsoft products. For Linux, I know just enough to get me into trouble I think. I can do almost anything I want with any Microsoft OS and almost all software. With Linux, I have to struggle and look up internet blogs to help me with basic functionality. This is the second main reason I chose Microsoft over Linux.

We ultimately chose Microsoft Multipoint Server 2011 and here is why: I guess I could really boil it down to be selfish. Because I need to be able to support the school, I want the capability to remotely connect to any user computer either interfaced with the user or totally without the user in order to solve issues. Also would like to remote to apply updates and normal/general server maintenance.

The server we purchased to run the environment was a Dell R210. It is a 2.93 ghz Xeon Hyperthreaded Quad Core with 16 gb 1333mhz ram. It should be able to do whatever we want in this situation, right? Wrong. I also sourced 5 DC-125 units from Plugable to test the server for the needs of the school.

I then installed Microsoft Multipoint onto the server as well as all the displaylink software required. I tried plugging in a DC-125 to which did not work as expected. I then began troubleshooting.

After 3 weeks of troubleshooting with Dell and Microsoft, I got nowhere near making the system run. I then began consulting with Plugable. They had absolutely phenomenal support. Very quickly we determined the situation was caused by the 1998 technology used by Dell for the video card.

I then sourced an ATI 2270 video card and placed it in the only open slot. It worked! Yeah! If it wasn’t for Plugable’s awesome support, I would have had a very expensive paperweight as well as the need to go out an purchase 10 computers with Operating Systems!

Let’s talk about GREEN! The lab is only running one computer instead of 11. The server is running an LED monitor which is 1/10th the power requirements of LCD. The ATI 2270 video card only uses max 17.5 watts of power. All combined, the lab requires very little power requirements than what would have been.

As for the rest of the criteria, it was all met.

So, this is where we stand in the school, an operating lab based on Microsoft Multipoint OS connected to Active Directory and the internet. Have tested the system with 2 workstations running full screen Hulu and one running full screen YouTube and the frame rates never dropped as well as sound/video never got out of sync. I am extremely happy with this setup!

About me, I am an “old” computer guy I guess. Sometimes I still prefer DOS over windows. My favorite computer language is Assembler. 95% of everything I have learned has been on my own eventhough I do have a degree in CIS. I don’t admit readily to others that I know anything but I normally get tasked to fix everyone’s computer. (I gotta stop doing that or at least charge.) In my home, I am running a full server with exchange, IIS (I can run Apache just fine), and other network technologies which is where I have learned the most and have been doing this for more than 10 yrs. My entire family, internal and extended, all syncs their phones to my exchange server for email, for free.

As you can see, I love computing platforms as well as the social aspect. I also love to be on the bleeding edge. Companies like Plugable really go the extra mile to help everyone, especially to support the needs of a non-profit school. I love Plugable and their DC-125!

Simply order any of our offered Plugable products on Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon will dispatch the product from their UK warehouse to your destination quickly, and with perks like FREE Super Saver Delivery on eligible items.

We’re really excited about this, as it allows a much wider audience access to great products like our USB graphics adapters for adding up to 6 monitors to a system, our USB gigabit ethernet adapters for upgrading wifi or 10/100 only laptops and tablets, and more.

Amazon.co.uk product sales, documentation, and support are English language only, and our ability to ship replacement units outside the UK is limited. See our EU FAQ for all the details.

And if we’re still not serving you — you’re outside the US, UK, and EU — please let us know what you’d like to see next. We’re constantly looking to expand our options.

Until then, please check out our Plugable products on Amazon.co.uk and the full line at Amazon.com.

Thanks for going out of your way for us!

If you plug one of our Plugable USB2-E1000 USB 2.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapters or others based on the ASIX 88178 chipset into an Mac Lion system, Apple will match it with the Apple Gigabit Ethernet driver that’s included in Lion.

Unfortunately, Apple limits compatibility to Apple brand adapters (even though they use the same ASIX chipset). And it fails on non-Apple adapters in a confusing way: it will show as “Connected” in the Network control panel, but connections out won’t work — you’ll notice it has a self-assigned IP address (169.*), no router, and no DNS server. It looks something like this:

Fortunately, ASIX has an updated driver which works on Lion (and older versions). Note that if you had done this before upgrading to Lion, your old driver may be 32-bit. Lion moves all systems to a 64-bit kernel, so in the case of a Lion upgrade, you may have to uninstall the old driver (uninstaller included in the driver package), and follow the steps below to get ASIX’s latest driver.

Download the Plugable USB2-E1000 (ASIX 88178 chipset) driver.

If you’re downlading with Safari, look for the Download folder the Lion has in your Dock by default. Click on that to bring up recent downloads, which looks like this:

Open that folder, then click on the “.dmg” to open the ASIX driver installer disk image.

The image then shows up on the left side of the window, below your other drives, called “DISK IMAGE”. Click on this to open the image, then click on the installer (the icon with the package opening).

You’re finally out of Lion’s folders and into the installer proper.

The ASIX 88178 driver isn’t big (254K)

You will be prompted to let the driver install.

A reboot is required for the newly installed driver to be active.

After the reboot, if you open the Network control panel, you should now see “Connected”, but now also with a properly assigned IP address, DNS, etc.

If that’s not the case (or something goes awry later), it’s common on Mac OS X to need a fresh interface for the adapter, which you can create via the network control panel (this creates a new, clean configuration for an adapter). See the ASIX Mac installation guide for details.

And once you have that automatically assigned IP address, you should be done – open Safari and enjoy!

And if you have a Plugable adapter and have any problems at all, we’re here to help. Visit support.plugable.com or email support@plugable.com anytime. Thanks!

Where to Buy