Free USB Redirector Software - Windows and Linux Guide

Whether it's to remotely access your serial devices or use them when running virtual machines, using USB redirector software programs can be efficient. Compared to manual setup, free software like FlexiHub makes connecting to your USB devices easier on both Windows and Linux.

In this guide, we will walk you through the process of configuring free USB redirector software, together with device management once the program is set up. For those who prefer open-source options, we will also cover how to work with USB/IP, so keep reading.

How to Setup USB Redirector on Windows Machine

USB redirectors let you access your devices as if they’re directly connected to the computer you’re using, despite being on a remote machine. Here’s how to set up FlexiHub, a free USB redirector app that allows you to connect to your devices seamlessly over the Internet, on Windows.

Go to FlexiHub’s registration portal and sign up for a free trial.

Download and set up FlexiHub on all computers that you’ll use in the remote session—including the machine to which your USB devices are connected.

Install FlexiHub on the computer that will be the server

Launch FlexiHub and log into your account. You’ll see a list of manageable devices upon signing in.

Note: Logging into your account on the FlexiHub website is only useful for managing your account and selecting the number of connections you require. You use the same credentials to log into the app when you are ready to redirect USB traffic to remote computers.

Launch Remote Desktop on the client and start a new remote session.

While in session, launch FlexiHub on the remote computer and sign into your account.

From the list of USB devices, find the one that you want to use and click its Connect button.

Note: The default settings enable all client nodes to access devices attached to the USB ports of machines actively logged into your FlexiHub account. You can limit this access by password protecting selected devices which prevent their general use. You can also lock them to prohibit all remote access.

How to Work with USB Redirector on Linux

Here we will let you know how to manage USB devices with a free USB redirector client - FlexiHub for Linux. As you will see, working with a USB redirector for any Linux distributions is very similar to using the Windows version. Once your account is in order, you can connect to remote devices with the following procedure.

Note: A free subscription allows you to connect to shared USB devices. If you want to use your Linux system as a platform from which to share connected peripherals, you need to select a paid subscription.

Register, download and install FlexiHub on the machine with a direct connection to the USB device and the computer that will access the equipment remotely.

Launch the application on both machines and log into it with the same credentials.

Locate the device you wish to share from the FlexiHub interface on the remote machine and choose ‘Connect’.

After connectivity is established you can access the peripheral from the remote system as if you had it directly connected to your computer.

How to Manage USB Devices with FlexiHub Redirection on Linux

Connecting to a remote device with this USB-redirector for Linux utility from the client side simply involves clicking ‘Connect’ after selecting it from FlexiHub’s list of available devices. These will be all of the unlocked devices on the connected FlexiHub nodes.
Right-clicking on the device enables you to modify the compression level of the USB transmission. This can help you preserve bandwidth and increase the speed with which devices communicate. Compression needs to be used intelligently in order to be useful.
Uncompressed data such as that transmitted by scanners are good candidates for compression. Other types of data do not lend themselves to being compressed and attempting to do so will waste system resources. An example is webcam transmission which is already compressed at the source and will not benefit from efforts to compress it further.
Click ‘Disconnect’ when you terminate your connection to the USB device.

Free USB Redirector - Open Source Solution

USB/IP is a simple and popular free open source USB redirector.

The goal of the USB/IP Project is to develop a general system of USB device sharing over IP networks. Data is transmitted by encapsulating the I/O messages from USB devices into TCP/IP messages that can be used for communication between computers.

USB/IP Design Overview
The tool enables the original USB applications and device drivers to be used without modification by remote devices.

As illustrated in the accompanying diagram, the VHCI (Virtual Host Controller Interface) driver is configured as a USB host controller driver on the client machine.

The role of the VHCI is to enable the connections, enumeration, and initialization of remote USB devices by emulating a physical host controller driver. It takes the request blocks generated by USB devices and encapsulates them into USB/IP requests which are sent to remote servers.

The Stub driver on the server host receives the transmission and turns it back into USB requests that are communicated to physical USB devices.