Frequently Asked Questions

There is no simple answer to such questions.

Two possible sources of problems exist.

First, Fast Ethernet supports 100Mbit/s raw data transfer rate. The NetUSB-400i supports USB 2.0 High speed with 480Mbit/s on each USB port. For small amounts of data this does not impose a real problem, however hard disks on USB will significantly slow down their operation.

Second, the network adds a significant delay to the communication. This can cause irritation or general slowdown of driver operation. Further the NetUSB-400i supports the isochronous transfer mode on USB. The delays of the network will have some impact here. It may happen some devices/drivers can not handle this situation, so the operation will fail.

This sounds like a lot of problems, but in practical applications it does not happen that often. For a particular device no guarantee is given, you have to test this yourself in your configuration and network. However there has never been a problem reported using external mass storage devices like hard disk, CD-ROM or USB-sticks. Further many customer successfully operate NetUSB-400i to connect Dongles for software protection.
Also quite different devices like the VScom USB-COM product series operates via NetUSB-400i on many operating systems.