Cheapest on Staticice is $109! Newer model after that price is USB3
http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=targus+dock…
Connector Types:
4 High-speed USB 2.0 ports*
1 Network (Ethernet 10/100Base-T)
1 Serial (PDA, mouse)
3 Audio (speaker, microphone, digital audio S/PDIF output)
1 Parallel (printer)
2 PS/2 ports
Yeah it is a museum piece.
The PS/2 is bleeding edge compared to the parallel port.
Also, a dock without a video connector is pointless!
Parallel port? Luxury! I will need to add a parallel port card and use up a valuable ISA slot to get one of those!
ISA slots? Make sure to check your DMA and IRQ settings first, don't want any conflicts!
Well, at least we've got 10BASE-T, I have no idea where all my 10BASE2 T connectors and terminators got to.
And speaking of throwbacks, it's seems everything old is new again with Windows 10, they're bringing back memory compression (in a way)
http://slashdot.org/story/15/08/18/2024249/windows-memory-ma…
@kapone: Wow, those conflicts I'm getting are so frustrating. Just not enough IRQ's!
Wow, everything seems to be going in a big circle in the IT world these days!
I've got some co-ax connectors if you need. Along with some serial cables for the dot matrix printer
Parallel port never accepted a keyboard or mouse.. which is what the PS2 port does
Just outed your age their kiddo! :)
Keyboards used to connect to an AT Keyboard Connector (5-pin DIN), and the mouse to a serial (RS232C) port. If you had a 'new' computer your motherboard had the serial port onboard (wasn't a huge amount of use for mice prior to Windows, although they were supported by some programs). Otherwise you had to get an expansion card and deal with the DMA/IRQ woes spoken about earlier in the thread :)
@kapone:
I admit my age.. :) Just saying that you cant compare the PS2 to Parallel ports because they are for different purposes, thats all. I've used PC's since back in the mid eighties as a kid, so this is nothing special to me. :)
But what about the "High-speed" USB 2.0 ports?
USB 2.0 is high speed. Do you have any idea how long it took to copy my GIF (not animated!) porn collection across to my new computer using Laplink and it's parallel cable?!? :P
I remember those days fondly. When you had to go into BIOS to set EPP mode on the parallel port for the laplink cable to work.
Note, these do not offer Video connectivity so these will only work using the inbuilt screen. No good for running multiple displays or combination internal/external displays.
Good to know. This would have been the core reason for wanting a dock.
Exactly! I suppose if you had a lot of peripherals connected and didn't want to continually plug & unplug then this would be OK… but yeah, a bit limited really.
Why would someone need this?
These don't duplicate the video port, so they're a usb hub with an ego. Ancient technology.
Must have found an old box of gear hidden in the back of the warehouse?
Don't buy it, it is not compatible with windows 8 onwards….. The driver is outdated.
I disagree. Windows 10 is basically just a Service Pack for Windows 7, with no real low level changes.
"Any application or hardware that requires an old driver will be a problem. If you depend on an application that interfaces with a Windows XP-era hardware device and the manufacturer has never provided a driver that works on Windows 7, you’re likely in trouble. On the other hand, if there is a driver that does work on Windows 7, your hardware should continue working properly on Windows 10." http://www.howtogeek.com/219782/is-windows-10-backwards-comp…
Its pretty sad to say that my company uses these to connect up our monitors/mouse/keyboard/LAn
stay away
This doesn't do video, must be a different model
Docks can be great, they just need to have the right connectors to be useful.
If I could spare the cash I'd love one of those new docks that can do video, multiple USB and network all over a single USB 3.0 port, as well as acting as a KVM switch (so you can have multiple computers hooked up to the one monitor and set of USB devices).
These are painful to use, we have them at work and they cause nothign but trouble!
This could be useful for a mini HTPC .
USB hub with ethernet and audio. The S/PDIF is what makes it interesting. But what chipset? Will 5.1 passthrough work?
Windows does not do 5.1 with generic drivers.
i wonder if i should get one of these so i can fire up my old scanner that runs off parallel port
USB to parallel/serial/ps2 cable/dongle is a couple of bucks each on ebay.
Left overs from the 1800's ;) Whats a ps/2 port again :p