Winstar M4: Connect 4 USB Devices To Your Local Network

As home networks have proliferated, it's taking a while for peripherals to catch up; ethernet ports are reasonably common on printers, but there's still a price-premium.  Winstar's M4 USB Networking Server aims to address that, a compact box that supports connecting up to four different USB 2.0 devices to your home or office network.

Unlike some rival devices, the M4 plays nicely with multi-function printers, together with USB hard-drives, speakers, webcams and scanners.  You can also plug in memory card readers and flash drives, as well as your standard printers.  Unfortunately you'll need a USB hub to do that: the M4 only has one USB port.

While not as flexible as something like the Pogoplug – which makes it its job to share files on a USB hard-drive through an easy-to-use internet GUI – it's also quite a bit cheaper.  You can preorder the Winstar M4 online for $33, and it will apparently ship on March 14th.

[via Red Ferret Journal]