Aldi Specials this Thursday: Medion Wireless USB Hub

ZeRoY

Aldi are selling this "Wireless USB Hub" from Medion for 49.99:

• Easy access and installation
• Several USB-devices can be embedded into an existing network – such as external hard disks, USB sticks, webcams and hi-fi systems. The USB devices in the network are identified automatically by the PC or notebook as if they would be connected directly
• Play your favourite songs on your notebook or PC and listen to them wirelessly through your hi-fi system
• WPS-Button (Wifi Protected Setup)
• Connect every WPS-supported device to the remote hub just by pressing one button
• Detachable stand
• 4 status LEDs

Anyone knows exactly what it does? Is that an HDMI port on the back?

peckerhead

ZeRoY wrote: »

Anyone knows exactly what it does?

Fúck, no, but I wants one too!

kingcrowley

Looks like it will share printers/HD and other things over your wireless network

kc66

I think the HD touch screen looks like good value, €249. Sounds lazy, but Id rather a mouse, only have to move the wrist.

bazwaldo

I remember wanting something like this a few years ago but didn't think it existed. Dead handy if your setup requires.

Basically, its a USB hub which is wirelessly connected to your PC. I assume the device would not share on your network, just with the PC that must have some dongle thingy.

duffmagic

I may be being very hopeful here, but isn't that ethernet I see?

Could this be a sort of cheap NAS which must be wired to your router but can be accessed wirelessly by anything? (Or perhaps the ethernet is just to configure it initially with your wireless network details)

It does say..

...embedded into an existing network

and it mentions connecting multiple devices simultaneously

youcancallmeal

Could be very handy to connect to a media player?

beaniebarbeque

Or plug in a USB mobile broadband dongle and set up a WiFi hotspot

Pixelcraft

Presumably this will work on a mac if it attaches to the network?

Our man in Havana

beaniebarbeque wrote:

Or plug in a USB mobile broadband dongle and set up a WiFi hotspot

Is that possible?

Vinny-Chase

Seems to be a whole lot of not knowing what's going on with this.

From I can gather, for what I would want it for is: Hook an external hard drive etc up to it. And then that can be accessed via wireless from laptops in the house, Xbox & PS3.

Does that sound right to any one?

ZeRoY

What puzzles me is the HDMI (or at least it looks like one) on the back ....

EDIT: Looking again it seems to be a E-SATA connection. So in summary its a cheap NAS-type device Wifi!

beaniebarbeque

A little more detail at:
http://www.aldi.medion.com/md8855/uk/ (under additional products).

The idea of this is that you plug in your printer and hard drive via USB, which means that you can use / share them over the wireless LAN. The network port allows you to plug in a DSL / cable router to make your connection wireless.

The audio out, lets you plug in speakers / amp. Presumably you need to stream the music to this device from a PC (which could be using this same device to play the music of an attached hard drive). It's an odd function.

The "HDMI" port looks like the same port on the front in the pic at the above URL. I'm guessing that these are actually USB ports. The spec above says that there's 4xUSB ports.

Will it support a mobile broadband modem? Not sure. The Huawei wireless routers do, but then again Huawei make all the USB modems so they may have some proprietary shenanigans going on. But for 50 quid and modems going for 20 these days, it's worth a punt...

unklerosco

Vinny-Chase wrote: »

Seems to be a whole lot of not knowing what's going on with this.

From I can gather, for what I would want it for is: Hook an external hard drive etc up to it. And then that can be accessed via wireless from laptops in the house, Xbox & PS3.

Does that sound right to any one?

Exactly.. U can hook up a usb hard drive and a printer and then u can access the data and print the printer from any computer on the network...

Basically turns ur HD into a NAS and ur printer into a network printer etc etc...

Is that possible?

Maybe not with this but u can get routers that will create a wireless hotspot from a usb 3G dongle, we use them in work as backup. If the normal internet connection goes down it switches over to the 3G till the normal connections back up... Pretty handy

DavyD_83

ZeRoY wrote: »

What puzzles me is the HDMI (or at least it looks like one) on the back ....

EDIT: Looking again it seems to be a E-SATA connection. So in summary its a cheap NAS-type device Wifi!

So what your saying is : I should buy one?
Man, I'm confused.

Does anybody know would it need to be connected directly to my wireless router (fairly standard Netgear jobbuy) or would it be able to connect to that wirelessly as well, if that even makes sense?

Basicly I connect to the net through a router next door (the in-laws), so connecting directly to it wouldn't be a runner, but would like to be able to hook my printer and hard-drive to it...

Feck it i'll just do some proper research later and try avoid the aldi buyers remorse

jimi_t2

unklerosco wrote: »

Maybe not with this but u can get routers that will create a wireless hotspot from a usb 3G dongle, we use them in work as backup. If the normal internet connection goes down it switches over to the 3G till the normal connections back up... Pretty handy

There's a huge range of newer phones that can do this as well. I can configure my connection settings on the sim of my Nokia 5800 to those of the mobile broadband SIM (just to get the reduced data transfer tarrif) and, with a little piece of (free) software called Joikuspot, my 5800 turns into a 3G WiFi hotspot (think it comes up as an ''ad-hoc'' conection under XP). This app is available to nearly any Symbian/Android/Apple/Java phone with WiFi.

(This is different to Tethering)

yoshytoshy

Do aldi allow you to bring stuff back ,if not suitable ?

Croc

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Do aldi allow you to bring stuff back ,if not suitable ?

Yes they are excellent at returns

yoshytoshy

Croc wrote: »

Yes they are excellent at returns

Cheers ,I'll buy this so ,I'm not sure if the ps3 or xbox will read my hard drive through it.
Handy for printing from the laptop wirelessly aswell ,hopefully.

Nemanja91

On the picture it shows a wireless dongle with the printer, Does this mean that the printer has to already be wireless or could i just plug my printer into the hub with a USB and use it wirelessly then?

Croc

It would appear that you plug the printer via USB cable into the router then set up the printer on you computer, but i ain't gonna swear to that.

The-Game

Does anyone know whether the external hard drive they have also for the same day requires external power or USB powered?? I didnt see any specification for power supply.

Nollog

The-Game wrote: »

Does anyone know whether the external hard drive they have also for the same day requires external power or USB powered?? I didnt see any specification for power supply.

3.5 inch always do.

Do-more

Has anyone found out what standard of wireless this supports? Will it do N?

yoshytoshy

Nemanja91 wrote: »

On the picture it shows a wireless dongle with the printer, Does this mean that the printer has to already be wireless or could i just plug my printer into the hub with a USB and use it wirelessly then?

I'd hazzard a guess and say that the black line in the drawing is ,external hard drive ,usb stick and printer ,indicating they can all connect through usb.

I'm dying to find out how the audio to hifi works ,it would be nice to play audio through the stereo from the laptop:)

Do-more

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I'm dying to find out how the audio to hifi works ,it would be nice to play audio through the stereo from the laptop:)

I'd imagine you have to connect your HiFi to the wireless usb hub via a jackplug extension so the hub will need to be close to your HiFi.

Skidmcmarx

This thing is basicaly an airport express with a little more functionality, i.e you can attach a HDD to this, not just a printer and hi-fi

docentore

something like this

yoshytoshy

Do-more wrote: »

I'd imagine you have to connect your HiFi to the wireless usb hub via a jackplug extension so the hub will need to be close to your HiFi.

Its how it appears as an audio output in windows.

Gadgetman496

ZeRoY wrote: »

Aldi are selling this "Wireless USB Hub" from Medion for 49.99:

• Easy access and installation
• Several USB-devices can be embedded into an existing network – such as external hard disks, USB sticks, webcams and hi-fi systems. The USB devices in the network are identified automatically by the PC or notebook as if they would be connected directly
• Play your favourite songs on your notebook or PC and listen to them wirelessly through your hi-fi system
• WPS-Button (Wifi Protected Setup)
• Connect every WPS-supported device to the remote hub just by pressing one button
• Detachable stand
• 4 status LEDs

Anyone knows exactly what it does? Is that an HDMI port on the back?

I'd imagine it's similar to this IOGEAR one released in 2007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dr1H9Na9qQ

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beaniebarbeque

Do-more wrote: »

Has anyone found out what standard of wireless this supports? Will it do N?

According to http://www.aldi.medion.com/md8855/uk/ (under additional products):

W-LAN 802.11 b/g/n

Do-more

Thanks beanie

kc66 wrote: »

I think the HD touch screen looks like good value, €249.

This could be good combined with an acer revo and wall mounted in a kitchen or the like, presumably you could set it up like a tablet PC with an on screen keyboard etc.

peckerhead

Am I right in thinking that one of these hubs, connected by ethernet cable to their 1TB drive, would give you pretty much all the features of a NAS drive like this one, but with the bonus of four USB ports and an audio output too? You'd have read/write access to the hard drive from any PC on the home network? (so, for instance, you could use it for data backups as well as streaming media?)

Hmmmm...

marti9t9

Thinking about buying one of these yokes but one factor will sway me either way. I don't have any wireless network in my house so does anyone know if this device uses a usb dongle (plugged into laptop) to connect to the hub or will the wifi in the laptop 'see' the hub automatically. If it uses a dongle then its no advantage to me.

maglite

It will use wifi on your laptop,

marti9t9

Theres a discussion on this on hotukdeals website. one guy said this

Right have spoken to someone in the know at the manufacturers (Medion).

This device requires a software utility on all client machines accessing anything connected to the Wireless USB Hub.

If 1 user is using the printer, it is not available to any other user until that user has finished. Whilst this maybe fine for printers, it makes sharing a hard drive not so appealing. Whilst any user is copying, moving, streaming etc from a hard drive connected to the Wireless USB Hub, no other user on the network can access to even view the drive).

Hardly makes your USB device plug and play if you have to open up some software program first.

Nemanja91

Is this just like the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station but it is a USB hub too?

Gadgetman496

marti9t9 wrote: »

Theres a discussion on this on hotukdeals website. one guy said this

Right have spoken to someone in the know at the manufacturers (Medion).

This device requires a software utility on all client machines accessing anything connected to the Wireless USB Hub.

If 1 user is using the printer, it is not available to any other user until that user has finished. Whilst this maybe fine for printers, it makes sharing a hard drive not so appealing. Whilst any user is copying, moving, streaming etc from a hard drive connected to the Wireless USB Hub, no other user on the network can access to even view the drive).

Hardly makes your USB device plug and play if you have to open up some software program first.

You can see that it does indeed require the use of a third party software to access the devices as shown in the video I posted HERE:

-

peckerhead

Tbh I stopped listening to Eric and Morgan there after about a minute... :eek:

So what kind of third party utility would one use on a Win7 home network?

That thing about only one user at a time being able to even see the contents of the drive is a bit annoying, but hardly a dealbreaker. However, if I had that HD cabled to the TV (via something like the WD HD 1080p player), I presume that wouldn't affect/be affected by someone trying to read/write to the drive wirelessly from a PC elsewhere in the house?

One way to find out, I guess....

marti9t9

It is a different product though gadgetman. There was a possibilty that this one didn't require any software.

Gadgetman496

marti9t9 wrote: »

It is a different product though gadgetman. There was a possibilty that this one didn't require any software.

Agreed marti it is a different product but I still can't see it being able to recognize new peripherals without the use of a third party software to link it to another Laptop or PC.

If it is Win 7 compatible (I'm not sure if it stated that anywhere) maybe 7 has something to deal with it?

Either way, if you have a genuine use for something like this it's worth a punt @ 50 bucks.

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Do-more

peckerhead wrote: »

One way to find out, I guess....

Yep, just keep your receipt safe!

I know in Lidl you have 28 days to return goods with the receipt for a full refund, I guess it's the same timeframe with Aldi.

Might just try to get one of these tomorrow, but can't get to the store until 9.30am, so I'm notsure if I'll be in luck.

Gadgetman496

Do-more wrote: »

Yep, just keep your receipt safe!

I know in Lidl you have 28 days to return goods with the receipt for a full refund, I guess it's the same timeframe with Aldi.

Might just try to get one of these tomorrow, but can't get to the store until 9.30am, so I'm notsure if I'll be in luck.

You'll be well early Do-more

Try the day after tomorrow!

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marti9t9

I'm running 7 so here's hoping! It is reassuring that it can be brought back if it doesn't fulfill expectations.

Gadgetman496

marti9t9 wrote: »

I'm running 7 so here's hoping! It is reassuring that it can be brought back if it doesn't fulfill expectations.

Returning stuff to Aldi is never a problem.

Actually, now that I think of it?

My main PC at home is networked with two other Desktops & two Laptops, my machine has it's printer shared\networked & it also has a 1TB external drive mapped, both of these items are available to all machines on my network without the use of any third party software on both XP & 7.

So where's the real advantage of a device like this?


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marti9t9

I'm begining to think it won't do what i want afterall. The sentence "The USB devices in the network are identified automatically by the PC or notebook as if they would be connected directly" in Aldi's blurb led me to think that my meteor broadband dongle may be used with this device. The issue i have is that the speed i get when close to windows is excellent but poor when away from them. I hoped i could set this box up close to a window with the 3g stick plugged in and receive fast internet anywhere in the house. 3rd party software may scupper this idea.

M450

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Returning stuff to Aldi is never a problem.

Actually, now that I think of it?

My main PC at home is networked with two other Desktops & two Laptops, my machine has it's printer shared\networked & it also has a 1TB external drive mapped, both of these items are available to all machines on my network without the use of any third party software on both XP & 7.

So where's the real advantage of a device like this?


-

Well a disadvantage with your current set up is that the computer you have everything wired to needs to be on 24/7 for other devices to connect through it.

With the wireless hub, you only need this low powered device to be on all the time, so you can shut down that PC without preventing other machines from accessing the shared media.

degsie

There was a suggestion on another site that this unit requires 'special' software to run on client pc's. So gaming consoles and media centres may have problems using this thingy. Bummer

Gadgetman496

M450 wrote: »

Well a disadvantage with your current set up is that the computer you have everything wired to needs to be on 24/7 for other devices to connect through it.

With the wireless hub, you only need this low powered device to be on all the time, so you can shut down that PC without preventing other machines from accessing the shared media.

True but my main rig (devices host) is pretty much on the go 24\7 anyway so in my case it's not relevant.

I wasn't really looking for reasons as to why my setup is bad, I'm looking for a reasonable good reason to warrant the purchase of the device in question.

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wes

Definetly an interesting device, but not too sure if I have use for it personally.

KD11

hey not sure if anyone can help with this but i was thinking of getting the vodafone iphone this week but theres only gprs in my area and iv heard thats pretty crap so could i plug a 3 broadband dongle into this wireless hub to create a wifi hotspot for the phone?