Ron, I missed this discussion earlier. I can be proven wrong, but I too believe it won't work just to reverse a hub. I understand the usb system as being a base to peripheral methodology (master/slave?). The hub acts like a peripheral to the computer, but acts like a base to the other stuff attached to it. If you turn it around, you'll get that communication confused.

I have no idea about the physical safety if you wanted to test this, though.

I'd be looking at usb print servers. With a quick scan, I didn't find any that allowed multiple usb inputs. They all had network input with a usb connection to the printer only. Essentially, the print server gets connected to your network, not to any single computer.

Some of these come with a router built in, so it can also be your network router if you don't have a network already in place. For simplicity, I'd probably stay away from those, just because you end up with two points of failure inside one box.

Now, I understand you might have a reason not to have a network hooked up to a specific computer. If that's the case, I'd look harder for a print server that does allow multiple usb inputs.