14 DAY TRIAL // For those computer users that are managing several systems and a lot of USB based peripherals, the latest product release from the hardware company Keyspan could be a real lifesaver. The USB 2.0 Server from Keyspan makes it possible to connect over a network USB printers (including multi-function printers), USB scanners, USB hard drives and other types of USB devices to be used and shared by several computers, according to the manufacturer's Web site.
According to the Keyspan company, this USB 2.0 server supports both Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks as well as two powered USB version 2.0 ports. For easing the connectivity to a preconfigured network, the Keyspan USB server included, besides the RJ45 Ethernet connector, network speed auto sensing and different IP addressing protocols like Static, DHCP and ZeroConfig. The connectivity with USB devices is ensured by the use of high speed USB version 2.0 ports that are fully powered (500mA). From the USB server's "Fact Sheet" users can find out what exactly this product does: "USB Server software supports USB printers, multi-function printers, scanners, storage devices, PDAs, digital cameras, serial adapters, mice, keyboards, and more. USB printers may be shared on an automatic basis. Other USB devices are shared on a "one user at a time" basis. USB audio/video products are not supported at this time."
The operating system support for the USB networked server made by Keyspan is covering all the major brands like Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (32bit versions only), Mac OS X (10.3.9 or later) and all Linux distributions based on 2.6.x kernels. According to the news site TheRegister, while there are a lot of USB print and storage servers on the hardware market today, only a few of them, mostly only the newer ones can also "support multi-function printers, scanners, data-loggers and the like".