What is the difference between the USB ports on the front/back of the XBox 360?

I just got my Kinect this week and the instructions are adamant that the Kinect has to be plugged into the USB ports on the BACK of the device. It included a cable so I could re-route my wireless network device to the USB port on the front to free up the port.

Does anyone here know what the difference between the back and front USB ports are on an Xbox 360, and why the Kinect can't be plugged into one of the ports on the front?

Also, is it possible to use a cheap USB hub to have the network card AND the Kinect plugged into the back of the XBox so I don't have an ugly cable wrapping around to the front and using up one of the controller ports?

Solution 1:

The front USB ports are most likely split like a mini-hub. The Kinect doesn't seem to work with USB hubs either, most likely it needs the full speed of the USB connection to work and can't share with other devices.

Solution 2:

In Major Nelson's podcast #376, e (Eric) actually talks about the USB ports in the Xbox 101 section (about 43 minutes in). In talking about hooking up the Kinect to an older (non-s) 360, he says it has to be in the one on the back. The reason being, the USB port on the back is on a dedicated bus which doesn't share bandwidth with anything else on the system. The ones on the front are shared on a bus with other items.

I don't know if this same case applies to the ports on the 360-S, but there you have it, the one on the back is on it's own dedicated bus, the ones on the front are not.

Solution 3:

I bought a Kinect to connect to my old xbox 360. I connected it in the front and have been enjoying it for the last 3 weeks with no problems that I can tell. I read the instructions and I wasn't sure as to why I had to connect to the back, and I still am curious if there is any added bonus. All that aside it seems to work just fine connected in the front.