Does this:

http://www.bluepoint.net/CNENET028

obviate the need for fighting with a slug?

I see it's only USB1.1 but it looks idiot proof.

Looking at it its a USB slave and not a master. Its main use is to allow a PC access to a powerline network setup by using several boxes. Each box contains a powerline > USB network adaptor and does not have any way of controlling the toppy.

Nice idea though.

Are you absolutely sure about that?

It does say: " The PowerLine USB Adapter links your USB-equipped computers and devices over your existing standard electrical wiring."

Computers and devices, it says. In which case the PC is the USB master, isn't it?

Yes.

It is for linking a PC or other computer device over an IP network that uses the powerline. The main clue is that it uses a USB-B plug and they are only used on slave devices.

The other clue is

If you look at their information you will see that they have a host box, 2 USB adaptors and an ethernet adaptor in the list.

Sorry.

But why would you bother to use this device, then? Any PC or laptop with USB is likely to have ethernet on board and using a Homeplug network adapter has much faster network data transfer rates.