Cloud Engines announced its Pogoplug network-attached storage adapter at the CES today. The box connects a USB hard drive or flash stick to your home network in order to let you access your files from over the internet. Unlike some of the other USB-to-Ethernet adapters we've seen, the Pogoplug isn't designed mainly to provide local shares, like you'd use to exchange files between computers on your home network or to send media to a set-top box for viewing on your big TV screen. Instead, it provides a web-based interface for remotely getting at all your files.

Setup looks simple; you plug in the drive and network cable, hit up the Pogoplug website to register your adapter, and then you're ready to go. The device's software works with the website to keep track of your IP address and all the technical details like that, and security controls let you set up limited-access folders to share some of your data with friends. There's an iPhone app that lets you access your media wirelessly, and upload straight from the handset back to your drive at home. Even though the Pogoplug concentrates on online access, you can still set up local shares — they just require a software download to enable them in the operating system. Since the driver is available for Mac and PC systems only, you might not have much luck getting set-top boxes to see the shares.

While Cloud Engines claims that Pogoplug is "compatible with any external USB 2.0 hard drive", and we hope that's true, we've been disappointed in the past when this sort of gadget only worked with drives in the old FAT32 format, back from the Windows 95 days, and not the much more widely-used NTFS format. We're hoping that's not the case with the Pogoplug, and will update you as soon as we hear back from Cloud Engines.

The Pogoplug is priced at $100 with a shipping date in March, but if you get a pre-order in now, you can pick one up for $80.

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