Silex E1305 DS-510 USB Device Server

You want a powered usb output located by a remote usb connected device. By remote I mean that computer is in one room and the USB connected device is in another and your partner does not like cables snaking through halls and doors. As long as you have a wired network connection between your rooms then the Silex works a treat. Follow the easy to read diagrams packed with the unit and its up and running on my Windows10 and Mac OS straight away. Now I am a bit weird. I develop electronic bits and bobs and I hate having my expensive laptop plugged directly into a bit of development hardware and software that I am putting through it's paces, as often some of the voltages on my circuits can be at house mains voltage, a breadboard of wires can easily short over. So my Laptop is wireless connected to the house network and the Silex USB server port is connected to the USB programming device plugged into the breadboard of wires. The Silex unit, is right next to the laptop but I have an air gap between the dangerous breadboard. The only downside I have is, I would like to air gap the Silex unit from my network cables, so a wireless network connected Silex unit would be awesome. I have plans to do this with a unit from Amazon, but if Silex or any one wants to offer a total solution for me to try, I would love to take them up on it. If any one has a similar Bluetooth to USB server solution I would like to know about that as well.

Very glad I found this product. I don't believe it's the USB3 version, but I didn't need high data transfer rates. Spent a bit more than I'd hoped, but still cheaper than many poorly reviewed devices from e.g. Startech or other manufacturers. So we're winning here. No CD in the box (good, who has CD ROM drives these days?!) but within a matter of minutes I had managed to (a) find the website to download the software, (b) find the download link on the website*, (c) install the software, (d) actually connect to the USB device. I was pleasantly surprised. Given this is a relatively niche device, I thought it would be a bit more painful. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a *sensible* looking options dialog in Windows, with "start automatically with Windows". Haven't actually tested whether this means "at user login" or whether it runs the software as a service (really hope it's the latter, I suspect it won't be) but at least you can opt for automatic startup. There is also an option to automatically connect to devices, or - I guess - approve them first. Even if this doesn't run as a service automatically (I can't find an entry in services and haven't actually rebooted my server yet), I may try to use NSSM (google it) to achieve this. When you launch the software, there are no annoying hoops to jump through. It automatically scans your IP network and detects the device. By the time I had loaded the software, looked away from the screen, and looked back - the name of my USB device was showing. Hit connect, and it's as if you have plugged the device into the USB port. In my case, I'm using it to solve two problems at the same time: 1/ I wanted to connect my RF Transmitter to a virtual server (Hyper-V in my case) 2/ I wanted to locate the physical server elsewhere and still have the RF Transmitter nearby. It has two ports. I assume it would be possible to connect your own USB hub and add even more devices - not sure. To be honest it exactly fits my needs hence I'm giving it 5 stars.

Software downloaded but no intructions about which of the several executable files to run - suggest this should be included in the instruction leaflet. Trial and error but got there in the end. Device works well BUT the "app" needs to be running continuously, i.e. don't be tempted to close it- just minimise. Suggest add this to the instructions. If device is to be shared by multiple users, each must have the software installed- add to instructions When shared by multiple users, the printers have to be "reassigned" by the last person who used them. E.g. if I use printer A and person X now wants to use it, they have to open the software, click on the printer and then wait for me to give permission for person X to use the printer. Bit clunky but it works.

Despite this product stating it works with "virtually any other USB device": - Attaching a mouse consistently bluescreened my PC - Using a headset prevented any kind of microphone from working at the same time - Webcam video was choppy at 720p, despite the network link being good enough to handle it

Ok, it's been a long journey. My goal was to connect all of my game controllers, keyboard, etc. wireless - to my PC from my couch to use on the big TV which is around 15 metres away from my PC. I tried all sorts of methods, and this product finally lets me do that. My setup is as follows: My PC is hosting various games and emulators - Mame, Dolphin, Steam, etc. I use Moonlight to beam it up to my TV (so no need for HDMI). Now, my PC is connected to the network switch. The Silex E1305 DS-510 USB Device Server is then connected to another switch at the other end which is around 15 metres away. I have the following devices, and all work perfectly: - Dolphin Bar - Wireless keyboard (with a USB dongle) - 2 game controllers (with USB dongles) 4 devices are all connected using a powered USB hub that goes into one of the 2 Silex ports. The software link in the instructions refers you to some links that do not work... but with a bit of digging around, I found the drivers, installed them and voila, all devices are detected as if they were connected to my machine. I don't usually have time to write reviews unless the product is awesome, or aweful... and in this case, it's a 5 star.So if you're a gamer wanting everything connected wirelessly via a network to a TV in another room, this is the one for you. My only criticism is that more ports could have been provided... but a USB hub sorts that.

I have a usb printer and a usb scanner. I looked at the instructions to non-existent links and gave up. I plugged the gadget in. The USB drivers were already in the PC for the equipment from when it was previously directly connected. The only setup I did was installing the "SX virtual link" on each PC. Sometimes you have to click on this a couple of times to start it up but once running it all works flawlessly, including the scanner. If my room was different - I find the Windows 10 printer sharing on a PC better than the Silex because the Windows sharing is a bit less clunky than the SX virtual link, but it does all work reliably. This gadget saves replacing the printer and scanner with ethernet-connected versions. Next time I would just buy the ethernet connected versions of printers and scanners, but I am glad I got this in the meantime.

I was excited when I discovered this device as I was looking for a way to conduct video conferencing from my lounge using my computer upstairs in my bedroom via our gigabit home network. I installed the setup software and the SX Virtual Link software and tried firing up Zoom meetings, then Microsoft Teams, then the Logi Capture software for my Logitech C920 HD Pro webcam, but none of them worked particularly well. In fact, only Zoom worked at all, but the video quality was poor compared to what I get with the camera connected directly to the PC - the other software didn't work at all. The concept is genius, but I guess it works better for low demand applications, such as print spooling and peripherals, not so much with HD webcam transmission (despite claiming to do just that!). My network connection between the devices is a gigabit powerline that performs perfectly well when playing 4k video across my network, so a 1080p webcam feed shouldn't have caused any issues. I'm so disappointed, as now I may have to purchase a mini PC specifically to enable this functionality instead of simply connecting across my network to my existing PC. I'm certainly not going to be able to keep my pc in the lounge. I might persevere a bit more, but most likely I'll just have to admit defeat and return it to Amazon.

Limited or no support for Mac as in Headline. OEM tech support was vague and condescending. The usb server is very slow on a wired network and not fit for purpose on a wireless network. Not happy.