Using the hub is easy, simply connect the hub to your computer using the included USB device cable and firewire cable. After plugging in all of the cables you will have 4 available USB ports and 2 available firewire ports. USB offers a maximum transfer rate of 480 mbps, and firewire offers 400 mbps. Although USB can max out at a higher rate, many pros in the industry will say that firewire is more consistantly faster.