Just so you know, NAU is the half-brother of the NAS, meaning that, instead of storage, it offers a USB connection to the network. This Network Attached USB adapter from Addonics is one solution of this type and it offers one a multitude of uses if employed with a home or office network.

Practically, any USB device will work with the NAU Adapter, which means that any computer being part of the network this device is attached to will be able to benefit from the USB gadget connected to this adapter. Because, nowadays, everything is USB, from mice and keyboards to speakers and PDAs, this adapter offers a wide variety of uses for those of you that are currently connected to a network of computers, and I don't mean the Internet.

It works with the USB 2.0 standard and it comes with its very own one-foot CAT5 Ethernet cable. If used with an external storage device, keep in mind to allow others to employ it if you are the first to have access to it. File-sharing rights must be attributed from the operating system's interface, otherwise only one person at a time can have access to the USB external storage. This would be one downside of using such an adapter. The file-transfer speeds over the NAU Adapter's integrated Gigabit Ethernet connection can go as high as 30 MB/s.

Addonics retails it for $49.95 and it is a good price to pay if you take into consideration the fact that it can spare you a lot of installation time and money for cables, when in need of connecting various devices such as speakers, in different areas of the network. Also, it will work with fax machines, game pads, card readers and even that dinosaur-gadget, the Floppy drive. The producers don't mention anything about Mac OS or Linux compatibility.

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