USB Connections

Hi, Bondy111

to make connection this way is very dangerous venture and have no any sense. It's dangerous by electrical reasons. USB device is using crucial for PC's wellbeing 5V PS and in case bad(or wrong) earth(minus) contact you'd take a chance get your lovely toys as a BBQ grill. It's have no any sense as more effective way to use ethernet. Theoretically it's possible to make such ala old-style null-modem connection, but you should write a driver. Forget.

Here's one more option to use USB-bluetooth sticks.

Hello frankd20,

Interesting links. USB transfer cable has optically isolated connection(i hope, not sure). I'm curious which protocol is using(FTP?).

For male - male cable we need driver(if there is some suicide vendor to provide) for making usb port as emulated ethernet either Com or whatever.

Yes, ethernet is the best option.

regards, caramba

USB is not optically isolated and attempting to connect 2 PCs this way could cause damage, especially if one is off and the other on. It cannot work even with special drivers as USB is is a master/slave system and cannot work a peer to peer mode.

The cables for computer to computer use have active electronics in the middle as they have to act as terminal devices to each computer.

USB cables are limited to 5m a maximum of 5m length unless active extenders are used. This limitation is due the the speed of propagation of the signal, not cable losses. This is due to the data pair in the USB cable being bi-directional with the signal flow being reversed at very short intervals.

I've just meant USB TRANSFER cable as a Belkin's product in response to frankd20 post. Inside its "electronics" [as frankd20 said] might be or might be not applied known measures to isolate optically USB signals. I've just guessed of that as I'm quite aware about all possible consequences of two PCs interconnections through their power supply buses (it's simply a madness).

I'm aware also how USB is operating and ways how it could be programmed.

JohnDG said that he possesses such Belkin T cable and there're needed drivers for both PCs to be installed. I supposed so (about drivers), but Belkin site states there's needless any driver for installation. Therefore I'm supposing there is not used any network/communication protocols but emulation of IDE (Hard Disk). Just every of both (PC) since cable plugged in gets a removable disk device for file data exchange. Maybe it is not a poor peer connection for data(files) exchange. But what is it?

Initial poster asked about simple male-male cable (without any electronics or whatsoever devices in within) as way to connect two PCs. I hope he'd got an extended answer.

Nonetheless, thanks for input

regards, caramba

Maybe Belkin have a newer product than the one I have - which definitely needed the drivers!

I'm sure your supposition is correct. If you recall first appearence of USB memory sticks for win98, they were equipped by the drivers and other software on mini-CD. Since Win2k customer doesn't need such. It does not mean that driver is not exist, simply it's built-in into OS. BTW, at the times of win98's reign linux distros had been recognizing any USB memory as SCSI disk with no problem.

regards, caramba

I've used a Belkin product for connecting laptop to desktop via USB - it worked, with the (old) laptop running Windows ME, and the desktop running XP. Had to do some driver installation on both machines. It's an old product (used it about 4 years ago). I'll dig out the details if you're interested.

JohnDG you beat me to the suggestion. I had a peer to peer network between a W2k and a Win Xp computer plus a Belkin usb Hub. you got a GA for that suggestion.

Bondy do you not have any access to recycling depots or scrap yards for computers? Despite living away from the big city I check out the town dump when I go to town. I have found all sorts of good stuff about 4 - 6 yeares old. Yes its obsolete by todays technology standard but it works. Especailly right after X-mas when peopel got nice gifts and dump the old, you can find a great deal of working equipment being tossed. I now have two 17" Viewsonic monitors, plus several keyboard and a couple of mice. Two button but not a scrol type. I am guessing people upgraded to flat LCD monitors and just dumped the prefectly good CRT monitors. Everybody isa goign to wireles routers. I picked up a conventional non wireless router for $25. A week later I was given a wireless router by someone who was upgrading.

good luck!

Yes, I love going to the scrap yard.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gagets/electronic/8199/