Wisdom of hubs

[nathanscribe]

I've run out of USB sockets on my fancy-pants but sometimes annoyingly-specced iMac, and wondered whether it's a good or bad idea to run a keyboard (and mouse, for now) through a powered hub into one of the mac's sockets.  I've been looking at 7-ports, and used to use a Belkin which worked, more or less, but was shoddily made and liable to cause trouble when the nasty mini-USB plug came loose, which it often did.

With a good quality powered hub, are there any likely problems running a keyboard and mouse into it, rather than direct into the computer?

[nathanscribe]

Cheers Ripster.  My main worry was if the hub took longer to wake up and the computer would fail to see the keyboard and refuse to boot properly or something.

I've been recommended the Kensington 'Dalek' and something called "D-hub" I think, from memory... I also run a couple of MIDI interfaces via USB and they're not always too keen on hubs, which is why I'd like to leave them plugged directly in if possible.  Sadly the old iMac has only three USB ports... even the mini has more than that.  Sigh.  I do like my macs, but sometimes wonder what they were thinking.

[Rajagra]

Sometimes keyboards connected to hubs can't be used for going into the BIOS settings. Presumably would also be awkward when installing some operating systems. But generally there are no problems. I rarely use a keyboard or mouse plugged directly into the PC.

[Rajagra]

Supporting USB keyboards at bootup, and supporting USB hubs at bootup are two entirely different things.

[nathanscribe]

Worth trying anyhow.  Thanks for the quick response fellas.

[microsoft windows]

For a keyboard and mouse there is no need for a powered hub.