The application lets any USB be connected/ shared over a local area network or the Internet. It lets you share any USB device that is located on a remote PC over a LAN/WAN/VLAN/VPN or Internet and use it as if it was plugged into your own PC.

Pros: With a wide variety of devices available with USB connectivity this application provides a simple and transparent way of sharing devices. The devices may be available on a PC on the local net or may be accessible over the internet across large geographical areas. The device on the remote machine and shared appears exactly as a local device whether it is one of those monster disk drives, digital cameras or even a large USB flash drive.

USB to Ethernet Connector apparently works with a USB driver at the system level. It intercepts USB port activity for the shared device and redirects it via TCP/IP to a remote site, where it is handled appropriately. The way this is implemented is by a set of server/client modules. This is available on both the local and the shared machine. The server on the machine with the physical device communicates locally. The remote client talks to the server to get the service. TCP/IP communication suite is handled transparently.

Unlimited number of such devices could be shared and the user interface provides a nice visual structure to keep track of the connections available. Managing the devices is quite simple through the interface provided. Connecting/disconnecting devices, viewing current connections etc are quite simple. One could even filter the view by trying to look at only the shared ports or actual devices present only. Sharing a device or removing the share also is done from the same interface.

Cons: Nothing really problematic noticed. While working with really remote devices such as a camera at a friend’s location, it’d be nice to get an indication of the progress of the connection when setting up the connection for the first time.

Overall: Simple, easy to use application with TCP/IP connection being handled transparently this is a neat and useful package. Definitely a 4 star item.