Connect 2 Computers with a USB cable?

I'm surprised you have not yet gotten an answer. I did a quick google search and it seems there are special male to male usb cables, with a small device in the middle, that will do this. From that search they are about $20.

However, I did find a place that said a firewire male to male will do this, you just need to set up some kind of network.

If both computers have ethernet cards, you get get routers as cheap as $20, with rebates, from Compusa or Best Buy, you just need to keep looking a be patient.

But I'll bump this up so someone who actually knows what they are talking about can answer you.

 

not possible

just as hooking two computers together with a standard ethernet cable doesnt work either.

 

With ethernet, no router would be needed for this, just a $15 crossover cable would do the trick.

As mentioned earlier, FireWire (IEEE 1394) would be more suited to the tast as it's a lot faster than 100baseT Ethernet is.

To answer the original question, though, a straight male A-to-male A USB connector will not do anything for you, for the same reasons that a non-crossover Ethernet cable won't connect two computers directly.

 

The easiest (and cheapest) would be as Ghoti mentioned would be a crossover cable. It looks like a regular cable, just wired differently. I got a six foot one at CompUSA for $6.

If you have Windows XP on both, then it is generally just a matter of changing the IP addresses on the two computers, sometimes I have to restart. Then it is just as if you have a 2-computer network.

You change the IP Address on one to 192.168.0.1 (Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0) and on the other to 192.168.0.2 (Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0) in the TCP/IP Properties.

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:8a6cc4ae7f]It could work if you have the right driver software on both machines. Most OS don't expect to be transferring data as you suggest, but there's no reason an application on both couldn't use the USB serial port to communicate with each other.

You can connect two Macs with a firewire cable, boot one regularly and the other in "Target Disk Mode" and the second then appears as a disk on the first.

Crossover Ethernet cable is the easiest way to go. Some machines don't even require crossover since they will autosense direction.[/font:8a6cc4ae7f]

 

ok i guess you havent seen the new thumb drives coming out at 20 GB?

 

Try google for "USB bridge cable".

Vincent

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer\";p=\"106440)</div>

I used google and put "computer to computer" in parenthesis and then the word USB and I think the word connect.

The 3rd or 4th one down had the firewire solution.

However, you do need to make some network settings changes, though they seemed to suggest it was nearly automatic with windows xp.

Vincents solution should do the same thing.



The router solution would require waiting for them to go onsale. And you might need to install the router software. The speed of networks is changing quickly. What I was suggesting for $20 would be wireless g. Wireless b is nearly extinct, and the g+ and g++++(or whatever they call the latest speed demon versions, would be nearly $100.

But you can get a "g" quite cheap now.

I wish I had kept the exact web site.

 

ya know, if you are not in a hurry, you could always use an ipod.

 

Most modern operating systems allow you to multihome a single physical network interface - that is, assign multiple IP addresses on different networks to a single network interface. Windows XP and any recent release of Linux support this. So even though your desktop PC only has one network adapter, it can logically live on two entirely separate networks (different network numbers, different subnet masks, etc) that just happen to share the same wire. You could even have your desktop PC act as a router between the two logical networks - this is know as the "one armed router", since there's only one physical network.

For example, if your development system is on network 192.168.100.0, you could add a second IP address to the existing network adapter on that network on your desktop PC, in addition to the IP address it already has on a different network. This is simple to do and would probably take less time to do than it took you to post your original message.

Unless there's some security issue where you're not allowed to put the development system on the same physical network as your PC, I would take this route.

 

I've used a program from Alohabob called PC Relocator and it worked really well. Install the software on the original computer, install it on the new computer, connect with the crossover USB cable, and it'll do all the copying for you. Even copied Windows Desktop settings and bookmarks. Except for the speed of the new computer, I would have never known anything was different.

Looks like you can get a 3 day trial period...not sure if you can actually do your copying with the trial, but if so, you're only looking at about 8 hours to do everything (I started it, went outside and rebuild my deck, and came back for dinner and it was almost finished!). I think I copied somewhere about 15 GB.

It also looks like the basic version, w/o the cable, is only $29.95. I'd recommend that software over dealing with IP addresses, etc.

tim

 

I've connected my two computers together via an inexpensive KVM electronic switch which allows me to use the same mouse,keyboard and monitor for both at the press of a key on the keyboard. One computer is still Win 98 and the other Win XP. This, however, doesn't answer your problem of the computers communicating with each other. That could be solved with using a D-link router.

 

Hey, Tony.

I see two clues in the responses above.

The iPod may be slow, but can be connected with either USB or FireWire.

I have used Target Disk Mode on 2 Macs connected with a FireWire cable, with great results.

I will trim down my "If I only had a Mac" section of this post to mention that all recent Macs have auto-sensing Ethernet ports, so crossover cables matter not.

But why not bring your questions to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store? If you don't like the suggestions at Old Orchard, enjoy downtown Chicago or Oakbrook. They will enjoy wrestling with your problem and you will get more than you pay for. Hope this helps.

 

i transpotred an entire win 98 setup with an ipod and it worked like a charm. only issue we had was a redetect on the video card. the OS just thought we had replaced the card. we just rebooted to safe mode loaded standard VGA drivers booted back up and installed the new video card drivers and done. total time 15 mins. other option?? reload entire os and updates. probably two hours

 

i transpotred an entire win 98 setup with an ipod and it worked like a charm. only issue we had was a redetect on the video card. the OS just thought we had replaced the card. we just rebooted to safe mode loaded standard VGA drivers booted back up and installed the new video card drivers and done. total time 15 mins. other option?? reload entire os and updates. probably two hours

 

Check out Tiger, they sell a USB cable and program to do just that, and CHEAP