To be able to access USB device from the client side, your USB device should be first shared. This process resembles sharing your hard disk resources among other users on the network. However, unlike file sharing, a USB device becomes inaccessible for local usage once it is shared.
If you want to share your USB device over Internet, make sure that you have external IP address, which can be visible and accessible from other computers.
In fact, USB Network Gate shares a USB port, to which you can connect any USB device. Moreover, you can disconnect a device, and connect another one to the shared USB port. No system reboot or application restart is needed. Just unplug your USB flash drive, then plug in your USB webcam, and it will automatically appear on the client side.
Licensing is based on the number of ports (devices) you can share, not the number of people using shared USB ports/devices. For example, Single License for one shared USB device allows you to share only one USB device on the server machine, though any number of people can connect to it remotely and utilize it (one client at a time).
To access any USB device remotely from the client side, the device must be plugged into the shared USB port on the server side. It is recommended to share a port with the device already plugged in.
Though, if you are sure which port is free, you can first share this port, and then connect your USB device to it.
In this example a USB device is already plugged in. So let’s see how to share a USB port with a device attached to it using USB Network Gate:
1. Switch to Share local USB devices tab.
2. Select a USB device you want to share and click Share:
3. Share USB device window will be invoked. You can view additional info about your USB device (Vendor, Manufacturer, Serial Number, etc).
Customize some additional settings:
3.1 You can create callback (reverse) connection – connection with a client initiated from the server side.
3.2 Set TCP port, which will be used in connection.
3.3 You can enable traffic compression.
Traffic compression helps speed up interaction with certain types of USB devices and reduce Internet traffic. You may find this useful for USB devices which transfer data in uncompressed format, like scanners.
It is recommended not to use this option for USB devices which transfer incompressible types of data, e.g. isochronous USB devices (audio cards, web cams, etc.). For example, web cam video compression is enabled by default, and further compression can result in degrading video quality.
Traffic compression applied to data, transferred to mobile devices, increases CPU load.
You can also set traffic compression algorithm – best or fast, the latter being the default one.
This parameter can be changed any time, but it won’t be applied on the go. The new value will be applied to a new connection only.
Traffic compression algorithm can be changed under Options in the main menu:
3.4 You can enable traffic encryption. It is recommended for security reasons. All sent data will be encrypted, although it may slow down the communication speed.
3.5 By enabling password authorization, you can use a password to secure connection. The client should paste the same password in order to establish connection.
3.6 In Description field you can label your USB device – set custom name for it. This name will be displayed on both server and client sides. It can help you identify devices if several devices of the same type (e.g. two printers) are shared.
You can also change custom names of already shared devices just on the go. To do so, double-click the device’s description in the corresponding field opposite the device and change its description in the invoked window:
4. In Share USB device window click OK.
5. Once the USB device is successfully shared, its icon in USB devices tree will change to
.
Tip: If you are unable to share the device, try unplugging the device, sharing the port where that device was present, and plugging it in again.
6. Now you can access shared USB device from the client side.