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(More customer reviews)I was looking on Amazon for a USB switch to share a scanner (Epson Perfection V500 Photo) and printer (HP Photosmart 7960w) between two computers. Both computers were just recently built with Windows 7. Sure you can share the printer from one, but another solution is needed for the scanner. At first I was thinking of finding some 3rd party software for sharing the scanner from one computer, but way too expensive for its purpose and browser software to replace the scanner's software did not seem appealing. After searching the web, I came across the solution of using a USB switch. Problem solved. I was originally going to purchase the Cables-2-Go switch, which is only a 2-to-1 switch. To share the printer, I would also have to buy a USB hub and this would had to the cost. I was at Fry's looking at hubs and found this switch. It was only $34.99, which would be cheaper than buying a 2-to-1 switch and a hub. It also has a Windows 7 Ready sticker on it, which sold me on buying it.
Installation was fairly easy, but I did run into a problem with having my USB cables to long. This can be a problem with all USB switches. Basically I had the original 6' cables from the devices to the switch and 10' cables going to the PCs. Unfortunately for the first PC I plugged a 10' cable for the PC into the monitor's USB hub, which is basically another 6' cable to the PC. This dropped the USB switch's port to a 1.1 data rate. I used one of the 3' USB cables supplied with the switch and connected it straight to the PC and the switch was running again at 2.0. The second PC had no problems using a 10' USB cable from the switch to the PC.
I'm not into manually hitting the switch, so I installed the software. You can either use a hotkey or the round icon in the system tray, which my wife likes using. I was debating on giving this only 4 stars because I did run into a glitch yesterday. When I awoke both PCs from sleep, I could not switch the device from the first PC to the second PC. From the second PC the SWITCH text was grayed out when right clicking the icon and the hotkey did not work. Today when I came home from work the switch was fine and I was able to switch from one computer to another. I called technical support about this and nobody else has complained about this problem. So in the end I am just saying this is a one time glitch and only with her system. I also found out that the SWITCH text should never be grayed out. Since this is a one time instance so far, I decided to not remove a star and gave it five. The only other tid bit of information I can give and this is in their manual is that when switching I always have to click Yes for Enforce Switch. This is because the printer is always sending out signals, so the switch thinks the device is busy and the icon will always be red on the machine that is not using the switch. You will also have the red icon/device busy indicator when using external hard drives. Just make sure your device is not actually doing something before switching.
If you only need to share two USB devices and running Windows 7 on the PCs then this is the solution for you. This will take care of two USB devices and you can share them between four PCs. I have to admit that it is pretty nice that I don't have to be asked to scan some pictures for my wife now and with printing she can use her own resources and not mine. :D
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