Ī "star" "short cable" external USB with the plastic casing removedĪ USB network is built from USB hubs connected downstream to USB ports, which themselves may stem from USB hubs. Hubs may feature power switches for individual ports to allow conveniently power cycling unresponsive devices. Some USB hubs may support power delivery (PD) to charge the laptop battery, if self-powered and certified to do so, but may be referred to as a simple docking station due to the similar nature of only needing one connection to charge the battery and connect peripherals. "Short cable" hubs typically use an integral 6-inch (15 cm) cable to slightly distance a small hub away from physical port congestion and increase the number of available ports.Īlmost all modern Laptop/notebook computers are equipped with USB ports, but an external USB hub can consolidate several everyday devices (like a mouse, keyboard or printer) into a single hub to enable one-step attachment and removal of all the devices. Physically separate USB hubs come in a wide variety of form factors: from external boxes (looking similar to an Ethernet or network hub), to small designs that can be directly plugged into a USB port (see the "compact design" picture). All devices connected through a USB hub share the bandwidth available to that hub.
BEST USB HUB FOR PC SERIAL
A four-port "compact design" USB hub: upstream and downstream ports shownĪ USB hub is a device that expands a single Universal Serial Bus (USB) port into several so that there are more ports available to connect devices to a host system, similar to a power strip.