Grinder wrote:
> Bennett Price wrote:
>> My backup device is a USB 2.0 250 MB Iomega Hard Drive.I'd like to put
>> it in my garage, requiring about 20 to 25 feet of wire. The official
>> USB specs say 5 meters max; if further use a hub/repeater.
>>
>> I'm wondering how realistic the 5 meter spec is. I recall that parallel
>> printer cables were supposed to be limited to 10 feet or so; 75 foot
>> cables worked just fine. Same thing with the specs for RS-232 cables.
>>
>> Does anyone have any real world experience with long USB 2.0 cables?
>> I'm thinking of building mine using unshielded CAT5 cable, one twisted
>> pair for power, another for data. Wise? foolish?
>
> I'm sorry I don't have any experienc in that regard. It seems like a
> simple enough enterprise, though, to just try it and run some
> performance test reading and writing to the volume. If it's not living
> up to spec, the addition of a single *powered* hub should fix you right
> up. You might have some difficulty in finding a 25-30 ft cable
> though--I can't remember seeing one much more that 15 ft.
>
> A pricier altenative, but still nifty to check out is IOGear's Cat-5 USB
> extender:
>
> http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=p...net%20Extender

Thanks for the URL; surprising that it's only USB 1.1
>
>
> If you had to go 150 ft it would definitely be worth a look, but as it
> is a couple of 15 ft and a hub should be enough. I hope you have an
> electrical outlet at your midpoint.