Lag When Using AnywhereUSB/2 with Interactive Whiteboard

Question

I work for a school district and our goal is to make our teachers 100% mobile and remove the traditional tethers that exist within the classroom. We are using the AnywhereUSB/2 device to connect to an Interactive Whiteboard from a MS Surface Pro 3. While everything works there is a considerable delay between interacting with the whiteboard and the interaction appearing on the computer. This is one of a myriad of other attempts that we have taken to accomplish this task. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Jeff

Answer 1

Hi Jeff,

AnywhereUSBs are slower than "native" USB ports and standard USB hubs due to several factors, such as network overhead and a 10/100 Mbit/sec network interface. Because of this, certain applications, where performance is critical, might not be well suited.

General suggestions:

1. Ensure the AWUSB is configured for 100 Mbit/sec / Full Duplex, as well as the port of the Ethernet switch it's connected to.

2. Ensure you're running the most current AWUSB firmware (older versions are USB 1.1, whereas newer versions are USB 2.0).

3. If it's possible, isolate this computer and AWUSB to a private/isolated network, in case other traffic on the network is causing congestion.

Besides this, there aren't really any performance "tweaks" or tips that I can think of to make it perform any faster.

I believe Digi is considering releasing a newer model AWUSB with Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 support some time in the future, so that might be worth trying out, if these suggestions don't help, and you're still looking for this solution at that point in time. I might suggest asking Digi Sales about this, particularly if you'd be potentially interested in purchasing several units.