Network (IP) USB Hub

[Jonathan]

Came across this on my travels and thought it may come in useful for placing USB devices in physically remote locations. The price seems to be in the mid-$300 range.

http://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp

AnywhereUSB is a network-enabled USB hub. It is the first remote networking solution to utilize RealPort® USB, Digi's patented USB Over IP® technology, making it easy to connect USB devices anywhere on a wired or wireless LAN, while eliminating the need for locally-attached host PCs.

AnywhereUSB/5 provides five USB ports, which deliver the same Plug and Play user experience as onboard USB ports. Software drivers are loaded onto a host PC or server, enabling remote devices to communicate with the host, without changing existing application software. Peripheral devices can be centrally managed and monitored from a remote server or PC via an IP address.

AnywhereUSB is compatible with bulk or interrupt type* USB devices such as bar-code scanners, printers, fingerprint scanners, mice, pole displays, card readers and more. Watchport/V2 USB camera (click here to see a live video feed), Watchport® sensors and Edgeport® USB-to-serial converters are also fully compatible with AnywhereUSB.

[Dean Roddey]

Actually, I've been working on a device which I think is going to really put me over the top finanically speaking. It's my patented 'ethernet over ethernet' device :-)

[Dean Roddey]

OK, then I'll preempt them again with my tunnelling tunnel product, which tunnels tunnels.

[kchad]

More USB extenders:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=148

[Brightan]

I have a AnyWhereUSB device and although it sounds good in theory I have had a few issues with it always working the way it is supposed to (to the point where it is sitting on the shelf somewhere) The biggest problem I had was that it would sometimes just quit and the only way to restore it was to completely unplug it. I was wanting it for some off site applications where I couldn't just walk over and reset it so I guess maybe in an HA application it might not be so bad (depending on how often it locks up I guess)