At 12:24 PM 02/27/2007, you wrote: >--- Sean McCoy <<mailto:osr%40jeffnet.org>osr@jeffnet.org> wrote: > > > > Yes, it can get confusing. Once again, according to > > Apple two years > > ago: as long as the FW800 port has only FW800 > > devices attached, it > > will operate at 800 regardless of the presence of > > FW400 devices on > > the FW400 ports. They didn't mention this idea of > > placing a FW400 > > unit at the end of a FW800 daisy-chain, and since > > there isn't much > > point in doing that because there are FW400 ports, > > I'd suggest > > playing it safe and keeping them discrete. > >But then what about the idea that there is only one FW >bus shared by all of the ports and that the bus speed >for al devices drops to the speed of the slowest >device on the bus? I'm sure I read this in several >places. I even purchased a hub because one of my >devices is FW 200. >Is this all incorrect? Apple claimed this was unequivocally incorrect, that the single bus was capable of operating at multiple speeds as long as the FW800 port wasn't connected to any slower devices. HOWEVER, they also said that any devices slower than 400 anywhere on the bus would bring the entire bus speed down to that speed. So whatever your FW200 device is, it could be compromising your entire FW system. If it's a camera or something similar, I'd unplug it from the bus whenever it isn't in use.