USB Net Power 8800 Single Outlet Network AC Power Controller

It didn't work. Plain and simple. The software is buggy, but I didn't really buy it for the software. I was hoping to write my own program to talk to it via the virtual serial port. The virtual port shows up, but hell if you can get anything out of it. It looks like maybe the documentation that led me to believe I could do this was for a different, multi-port version. Maybe there's a way to get it to work, but I've passed my patience threshold.

My fault!! The device IS accurately described and works as described - ie. its USB ONLY!!! The ONLY internet access is via the computer its connected to - when it happens to be on. I overly inferred the internet access part assuming it was maybe a wifi switch - its not. I can't think of much use for a USB switch in my setup - maybe I will someday.

Tricky to install and it does work. The USB-serial interface conflicts with other devices and I need to shut down the application in order to use those other devices. Not as convenient as I'd like, but it does work.

I brought this device to make it possible to switch my network drive off and on from a remote location as the on-board firmware sometimes crashes and needs a restart. For this purpose, the switch does the job and you can't beat the price considering how expensive most remote switches are. The switch handles up to 6 amps of current so make sure whatever you plan to control with this switch is no more than this amount. An interesting technical note: The software driver for this switch is actually made for a Prolific USB to Serial adapter so it appears that this switch was originally designed to work over a COM port not USB and the manufacturer simply added a USB adapter on to give it that functionality. The software to control the switch is likewise designed to communicate through COM ports and does not require installation (simply copy it to your hard drive and run it). The software on the CD appears to be designed for a variety of devices including this device, IP cameras, etc, only a small portion of which you actually need. It should be noted that the computer you hook this up to must remain on or else the switch will turn off when the computer does. Also, I noticed the switch will turn off when you start the controller software so you have to either keep it running or close it and don't run it again unless you want to turn the switch off. For those interested in developing their own software, an SDK for Microsoft Visual C++ is included. I rate this product at 4 out of 5 stars: It's nowhere near perfect, but it works, is easy to use and it's low price can't be beat.

First let me say that this does indeed work on windows 7 64bit. I posted an image as proof. I manually ran the driver installer from the disk (as administrator) Then I manually ran the software installer from the disk (again as administrator) I had to change the default location as it defaults to D:\tools and D:\ is a cd drive on my system. I'm glad it came with a USB cable, as I never realized that a standard USB to Standard USB is kind of rare these days. (same connector on both ends) All i have are usb to usb B, usb mini, micro, etc. The device does make a loud clicking sound as the relay inside the box engages. The software is not as polished as we are used to in this day and age, but it seems to be robust enough to be able to program the unit to what you want to do.

It works. But it has a host side (ie a PC) USB plug hence you need a special usb cable. Yes, one is supplied but it's about 1.5 feet long. Way to short for any convenience. Why does not it have a standard device-side USB plug? Degraded buy another star - shutting down control app turns the outlet off. Truly ridiculous. It's going back.

I bought this to automate switching on and off a device as part of a software development process. This device does NOT work on Windows 7 64-bit even if you download the version of the software that claims to be updated for it. This device does work locally on Windows Vista 32-bit for local control of the device. None of the remote (over the network) control features. The software that comes with the device has a pretty horrid user interface and just barely works. For one thing, it claims to be successfully connected to the device even when you have the USB cable unplugged. That is just one of its multitude of flaws. It is not intuitive or polished at all. So, at some basic level, this device works. The software bundled with it is trash. It's main saving grace is that it doesn't cost much and there seems to be no equivalent product that is easy to find. If you need actual out-of-the-box functionality on multiple platforms and network controllability without hacking it up yourself, look elsewhere.

I can use my Win7x64 notebook to turn on and off a set of external drives on my WinXp32. I can even use two of them to control different sets of external drives, but it is a little tricky. The device appears as a (virtual) COM port, even though connected with USB. The software finds the switch on the lowest-numbered virtual COM port. If you go into device manager, you can disable that virtual COM port, wait a minute, then let the software find and control the other COM port and 8800. Re-enable the first port to control the first switch instead of the second (you have to quit the app). This can all be done remotely via remote desktop. Clunky procedure, but it works, and will prolong the life of my external drives, some of which are only used for backup occasionally.