Hi guys. Just wondering if anyone has prior experience in sharing a multifunction printer across a (mostly windows) network?

My situation at the minute is complicated.. I DID have the printer attached directly to a Windows Home Server box and was able to scan to a share and print across the network from my other computers. Compatibility problems have forced me to virtualize WHS on XenServer 5.5... This is actually quite useful because I can now run other things on the same box, but the problem is that now WHS doesn't get direct hardware access so it doesn't see a USB attached PSC... Grrrr!

So now I have a choice to make. I've read somewhere that I can buy an add in PCI USB controller and somehow set up a passthrough to one VM at a time. To me, this sound complicated but if it's likely to work reliably I'd prefer this method. I've read about another approach, which I'm not sure about either, but I guess sounds plausible. A Network USB server, (NOT a print server) that can somehow make a USB port accessible across a network. My worry here is that it likely needs some kind of 3rd party software to work.. so not ideal.

If there are any other methods you can suggest I'd be happy to hear them... I need your help guys.

I'm also in the market for a PCI express SATA controller, nothing flashy, just need up to 8 ports, JBOD and 100% compatability.. Any suggestions?

Regards Kevin