BleepingComputer.com: "Active" USB extension cable

Apparently this sort of cable draws power from the USB port to boost the signal and let you go beyond the 15 foot limit for passive cables. Has anyone used these? Oe heard about them? Do devices communicate as well over these as over shorter cable? Or can the distance cause problems even if the signal is boosted? Do they draw much power? Is there any danger of using these with a device that also draws power from the USB port that you will overload and possibly burn out your USB ports?

Actually never heard of one.

Do you have a link to the product in question?

Well, that kinda kills the possibility that you could tell me how well it works. ;) But, it's easy to google for them:

http://sewelldirect.com/usb2extensioncable.asp

http://www.usbgear.com/usb2_extension_cable/usb-extension-cable.html

http://www.amazon.com/Meters-Active-Extension-Repeater-Female/dp/B002VG39BI/

Do you mean this -- http://www.usbgear.com/USB_Repeater_Cable/? Never heard of them before now.
But this is where I'd go to get one -- http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030312&p_id=7644&seq=1&format=2

Thanks for the tip!

Here's some information that you may be interested in. The following is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article on USB.

"Maximum Cable Length The maximum length of a standard USB cable (for USB 2.0 or earlier) is 5 metres (16.4 ft).^[34] The primary reason for this limit is the maximum allowed round-trip delay of about 1,500 ns. If USB host commands are unanswered by the USB device within the allowed time, the host considers the command lost. When adding USB device response time, delays from the maximum number of hubs added to the delays from connecting cables, the maximum acceptable delay per cable amounts to 26 ns.^[34] The USB 2.0 specification requires cable delay to be less than 5.2 ns per meter (192,000 km/s, which is close to the maximum achievable transmission speed for standard copper cable).^[35] This allows for a five meter cable. The USB 3.0 standard does not directly specify a maximum cable length, requiring only that all cables meet an electrical specification. For copper wire cabling, some calculations have suggested a maximum length of perhaps 3 m."