HOWTO: Forward your USB devices through Reemo

This page will guide you through the process of forwarding your USB devices through Reemo. Reemo USB forwarding technology is primarly aimed at redirecting HID USB Devices (Graphical tablets, remote devices, crypto keys etc…) and is not compatible with realtime devices (Audio/Video).

For this guide we will take the example of redirecting a remote device used by NFL coaches to control their replay software.

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These remotes are USB devices simulating a serial COM port on the computer. Here we can see that on my local computer (with the remote physically plugged in), it exposes a COM port (COM3)

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Note

Before following this guide, make sure that the necessary drivers for the device you want to redirect are installed on the local computer where the device is physically connected.

Step 1: Prepare the distant computer to accept your specific device

The two remotes used in this guide share the same driver provided by the manufacturer. First, we need to install this driver on the remote computer.

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Step 2: Prepare the distant computer to accept virtual USB devices

Right now, if you try to connect to your distant computer using Reemo and open the USB menu, you will be greeted with an error message indicating that you need to install the Reemo virtual USB driver.

This driver is not shipped by default by the Reemo software and needs to be installed separately.

Here is a step by step guide to install and configure this USB driver.

  • Download the Reemo USB driver: https://downloads.reemo.io/drivers/reemousb.zip

  • Unzip the file

  • Navigate to the directory using the Windows cmd.exe tool using “Run as an administrator”

  • Run the following command: devcon.exe install reemousb.inf ROOT\ReemUSB

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The Reemo service needs to be restarted to detect the newly installed driver.

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Step 3: Install the USB companion application on your local computer

The last installation step required is to download and install the Reemo USB companion app. This application will make the bridge between your local USB devices and the Reemo webclient.

This application is available for download on Windows here: https://download.reemo.io/reemo-usb-companion.setup.x64.exe

When you are ready to forward your USB devices, start by launching the USB companion app. It will be in standby waiting for a Reemo connection to ask for USB devices.

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Note

The companion app needs to be started for USB forwarding to work through Reemo. The app makes the bridge between your USB devices and your web browser where the Reemo connection resides.

Final Step: Redirect your USB devices when using Reemo

First connect to your computer through Reemo

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Open the USB menu

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Fill the supplied code to synchronize your companion app with your Reemo connection and hit connect.

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You should now see your USB devices ready to be redirected.

For our guide we can select the “FT232 Serial (UART) IC” device which corresponds to our remote device.

Hit connect and Reemo should redirect your USB device to the distant computer

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If we open the device manager on the distant computer we can now see that the remote device is detected and is exposing a new COM port (COM5). This means that the remote is correctly redirected using Reemo USB forwarding technology.

You should now be able to use this USB device like if it was connected to the distant computer directly.

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Note

Reemo USB forwarding is only compatible from Windows to Windows but we plan to make it available on all OS in the future.

Happy Reemoting !