Ports on the motherboard/expansion slots

USB ports on a Motherboard

The ports are built in and drivers are automatically downloaded through windows.

If you are using Windows XP you may have to find the specific driver for you USB ports.

(Startech 2015)

USB Hub

  Important Note: Please do not connect any USB devices to the Hub until instructed to do so in step 4 of this installation procedure.

1. Plug the AC adapter into a wall outlet or surge protector. Plug the DC connector into the DC power jack found on the rear of the Hub.

Note: The Hub may be used without the power supply when connecting low-power devices such as keyboards and mice.

2. Plug the flat end of the provided USB device cable into the downstream port of your computer, or downstream port of another hub, then plug the mini-USB connector on the device cable into the upstream port on the rear of the Hub

(Belkin 2006)

Firewire port or IEEE 1394 was first developed in 1990 by Apple and worked as a serial bus interface for high speed data transfer. The standard was first introduced on computers in 2000 and became the main data connection port for apple.

Firewire versions:

- IEEE 1394a-2000, introduced in 2000 had the following characteristics: packet concatenation, asynchronous streaming, power saving suspend mode;

- Firewire 800 or IEEE 1394b-2002 introduced in 2002 har the following characteristics: 3200 Mbps, 100 meter cable for optical connections;

- Firewire S800T or IEEE 1394c-2006 was released in june 2007 and supported speeds of 800 Mbps;

- Firewire S1600 and S3200 introduced in december 2007 and supports speeds of 1.6 Gbps and 3.2 Gbps using the 9-conductor beta connectors;

Firewire IEEE 1394 port supports the following operating systems: Mac OS 8.6, 9, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Haiku, Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD.

Because firewire is most common on apple computer if you want to connect a usb device you will need a firewire adapter with usb port. Also for computers that are not apple there are firewire cards that you can connect to the motherboard.

Serial Ports

Serial ports come in a wide range of sizes and shapes and were the original standard for interfacing any device with any other device on a computer. Today, they are rarely used and when one talks of a serial port, they usually mean the DB9 connector (shaped like a trapesoid). Typically they are only used on computers used in industrial environments or as a means of interfacing with an industrial control.

A Serial plug (what is at the end of the cable which is attached to your mouse).

A Serial port (where you insert in your mouse plug into your computer).

We hope this guide to ports and plugs has been informative and useful.

Parallel port

Less commonly referred to as the Centronics interface or Centronics connectorafter the company that originally designed it, the port was later developed by Epson. The parallel port is found on the back of IBM compatible computers and is a 25-pin (type DB-25) computer interface commonly used to connect printers to the computer. Below is an example of the DB25 interface found on the back of the computer.

(computerhope.com 2015)

Mira Enables the Apple Remote for Any Mac

Not all Macs feature Apple Remote support “in-the-box,” including the Mac Pro desktops and the latest MacBooks. It doesn't matter if you have the newest Mac or an older one, with Mira and a supported IR receiver, you can use the Apple Remote with any application.

(twistedmelon.com 2015)