I found nice toy called the Draytek Vigor 2200USB.
This is a ADSL Router,4 port ethernet switch and USB Master.
It came out last year and a quick search found a price of £175.

If it would be possible to get it to work with the empeg it would expand the possibilities of the world of the empeg.

Please read the below link for more information or search the net.

http://www.seg.co.uk/draytek/products/vigor2200usb.html

Quote for the page...

Can I add other USB peripherals ?
Not currently. It is intended in due course to support various other peripherals. The schedule or types has not been announced yet, but this might include any USB device such as webcams, printers, analogue modems, ISDN TAs, VOIP devices, bluetooth or Ethernet802.11b adaptors etc.

Yes, but what would it do? It would treat the empeg as a PPP device, eg a modem running a remote PPP link. So.... it'd give you an ethernet interface. That you already have.

Hugo

Other way round.

Empeg Ethernet -> Switch Ethernet.

The empeg would be able to control the device's hanging off of the router.

there example is...

PC/MAC Ethernet -> Switch Ethernet

So the devices attached to its usb are controlled over Ethernet.

As it has 2 USB master sockets you could talk to the empeg via USB but i think the Ethernet is more likley to work.

How ironic - I spent an hour looking for something similar to this yesterday.

I was looking for a small embedded multi-USB master device that could be easily hacked to periodically poll a slave (empeg) and initiate and control slave-slave communications.
Then we could add support to both it and HJ to support devices such as memory card devices, mice and keyboard, webcams and palm devices such as iPAQs (creating a virtual ethernet link between the 2 so that standard client-server software could be used). Not easy, but not beyond the realms of possibility either.

IMO, the lack of USB master is the biggest flaw in the empeg. That's not a judgemental statement - I'm sure that there were excellent reasons for it, but if it had a USB master then the possibilities for hacking support for other devices would be incredible.

The empeg would be able to control the device's hanging off of the router.

No, the router would be able to control the devices hanging off the router.

So the devices attached to its usb are controlled over Ethernet.

I don't see any indication that the makers are thinking of implementing that; certainly it would make no sense for that device's primary function (router over a USB cable modem).

This isn't the droid you're looking for.

Peter

requoting my original quote..

Can I add other USB peripherals ?
Not currently. It is intended in due course to support various other peripherals. The schedule or types has not been announced yet, but this might include any USB device such as webcams, printers, analogue modems, ISDN TAs, VOIP devices, bluetooth or Ethernet802.11b adaptors etc.

I can't see what use a ethernet switch that can control a printer would be if you can't send info to the printer.
and get print status and info back.

I can't see what use a ethernet switch that can control a printer would be if you can't send info to the printer. and get print status and info back.

A network printer server? Again, I don't reckon this device offers you anything that you can't already do through the empeg's existing Ethernet connection.

Peter