Sergio determined (by asking for a show of hands) that most of SPCUG's members have more than one computer (lots more, as a brief survey revealed), and Belkin has several products that help in keeping all the machines for both IS administrators and home users running smoothly.

Belkin now makes various power protection devices, surge protectors, KVM devices (keyboard, video, mouse switches), USBs, and, of course, the usual cables and wires.

Sergio brought out the USBs (universal serial busses) and USB hubs, and passed some around for the audience to inspect first hand, while bringing up on screen the full range of these products. USBs allow connecting peripherals without having to initialize them; the computer recognizes them immediately.

A wide range of USB product is now on the market: mice, keyboards, joysticks, printers, scanners; there is even a sewing machine and a dialysis machine, and Belkin's adapters work with all of them. The company is on the cutting edge of USB and FireWire products to make them more accessible for video capture and networking on a very small level; and, even though it is not a major maker of network interface cards (NICs) or routers and hubs, it will be building NICs in the near future.

Belkin has developed cables that allow connecting our serial devices (printers, scanners, and such) to their Multiport, a USB hub. He also explained that the new standard for USB is now 2.0 and that it is backward compatible with 1.1, which is not as fast as 2.0. This will run at the speed of the device, but Belkin makes an upgrade card, a serial-to-USB adapter.

They also make a dock station for people who are on the road with their portable computers. It has more ports than you would usually find on a notebook: two PS/2 inputs, one parallel and one serial port, four USB inputs. It works with a variety of notebook brands— Sony, Dell, and the like—for between $350 and $600, and one for about $150. It works, in fact, with both notebooks and PCs.

They have developed modules that: are adapters, in some cases from ADB to USB; come in the shape of a flying saucer that interlocks; come in different colors; and include a power supply that allows you to run high-speed devices with a bandwidth of twelve megabits.

There are other ports for the more passive devices—mice, keyboard, joysticks—that don't need that transfer rate or a power supply. The modules are connected to the computer through a single IRQ by one cable between the two.

With this arrangement, you can connect up to 127 devices into one IRQ. A power supply at 2.5 amps is included that provides 500 milliamps per port. Sergio showed how you can put these on the desk and modify them as needed. Other hubs are modular and can be daisy-chained with cables. USB hubs eliminate any need of the old switches we used to move from one device to another: different printers to different computers, for example.

Sergio introduced a device that adapts SCSI to USB, even though SCSI is faster: a transfer rate of five megabytes per second compared to twelve megabits for the USB. This adapter allows people who have newer computers to use their older SCSI peripherals through the USB port without using additional ports. These range in price from $29 to about $79.

As they got to making USB adapters, Belkin had to accommodate the most common device—the parallel adapter—before they came up with their unique design, and now there is also an adapter that allows a parallel printer to be connected through the USB port. They now have something more flexible than the first ones that were hard-wired.

Sometimes printers are a distance from the computer, but the distances are limited: five meters with USB. If your printer is to be farther than that, you can daisy-chain hubs for distances up to twenty meters. Incidentally, they discovered that printers connected through USBs printed much faster than the 900 bits of parallel speed. Sergio did say that we might find some printers incompatible and that we should go to Belkin's Web site and tech support that lists printers.

In response to a question, Sergio explained that one could connect two printers to a computer using the USB port and still connect a Zip drive to the parallel port, assuming a Centronics 36 connection, with a two-port PCI card or hub. One would then chose the desired printer through the software's dialogue box. These cables with adapter cost $39; economy series hubs are as low as $29.

To upgrade a computer to USB, the PCI card with two ports does the job inexpensively. For notebooks, Sergio recommended a PCMCIA card with two ports, for about $99; you can then use your mouse and keyboard.

Another very interesting USB device is called DirectConnect—it allows setting up a network of up to five computers in a small office or home. It is plug-and-play and eliminates the NIC, but still uses Ethernet 10BaseT, transferring at about eight megabits per second. The device sits between the computers with cables leading to each of them. It is easy to use and works well with games for multi-players. It costs about $49.

Other products include the BusStation, a PCI card with four ports based on Lucent Technologies' Quadrabus technology that allows running multiple, high-speed devices and that runs at twelve megabits on each port; a Pocket hub that is, Sergio says, very, very small and includes a power supply needed to run high-speed devices, useful for those who travel. There are adapters for motherboards that are ready; some came out before the computers themselves had the ports, and these bring them up to date.

One of the newer, popular activities for people on computers is video capture. Belkin now makes the VideoBus II, a new version of the earlier VideoBus that required a sound card. This gizmo allows you to edit video clips—from a VCR or a camcorder—that can be posted on the Internet, for example; it sells for about $79.

Belkin makes a number of mice; most are ergonomically designed for both right- and left-handers, two-button, scroll-wheel devices, and one optical mouse that works on any surface. They range in price from about $10 to around $40. These are plug-and-play USB.

They are also working on a keyboard and mouse based on RF that should work as far as forty feet away. RF, or radio frequency, seems preferable to the more common infrared techniques. Their keyboards are USB with built-in hubs that allow daisy-chaining some devices like the mouse and joystick. Extenders for mice and keyboards are available for people doing presentations, for example, allowing them to control the machines while standing as far as 200 feet away.

Belkin has a number of FireWire devices (using the IEEE 1394 standard) from cables to PCI cards, hubs to CardBus adapters for PCs and Macs. FireWire provides all the flexibility of USB, but connects only up to 63 devices, and is limited to 4 1/2 meters, but has a transfer rate of 400 megabits (you really gain on video capture, for example). Editing software comes with the card for digital camcorders.

The KVM switches (keyboard, video, mouse switches), or OmniView, are products that allow one mouse or keyboard or one video monitor to control up to four computers. They were meant for a specific market of value added resellers and distributors, but they are now in the end user market since a lot of people have multiple computers in their offices and homes. Belkin makes different configurations of these switches to suit different conditions and different needs.

The OmniCube is a hub with four ports, and these can be daisy-chained, and other OmniView devices can be daisy-chained to control 256 computers or servers.

Another KVM device is the Matrix unit that incorporates two controllers of multiple computers so that two administrators using the office at the same time can control different computers. These can be daisy-chained up to 16 times.

Protecting our computers is a necessary practice, and Belkin has the means to do so. They build uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and so-called surge protectors (we don't want to protect the surges, we want to protect the computers from the surges) that provide power in case of blackouts and spikes in the outside supply of electricity (something that has become important in recent times).

The ProGold has an automatic voltage regulator to keep the voltage steady to between 110 and 120 and protects against surges, as well. Some provide power for from 19 minutes to as much as 45 minutes, have software that shuts down the computer if necessary, and are connected through a USB port. Other protectors—the Isolator Surge Protector, for example—are available for printers, laser particularly.

Belkin has an extensive Web site that lists all its products and their prices, and you can buy online as well as find out where all the local vendors are to be found. Sergio mentioned a number of prices, but in looking to the Web site, it seems that some prices have changed since he made this presentation in February.