Connect 2PC's with USB2.0, what do I need?

andy

Hi
I want to connect 2 PC's that have USB2.0 . Do I just need a normal USB2.0 cable with 2x A jack's? Or do I need some sort of crossover cable?

Hi,
AFAIK you`ll need a special cable with some electronics in the middle : it`s like a quot;crossoverquot; cable but especially for USB .
A normal cable won`t work !!!
Be aware that it must be 2.0 compatible , not just USB 1.1 ( will be too slow ! ).

MTM.

Like this one...

Bye

Thanks!

though if both your PCs have USB2, they might also have Ethernet, and there you only need a crossover cable, which is a less pricy affair, and setting it all up doesn't take you long (basically if you connect the two PCs before starting them, you should not have to make any changes in the networking setup). Of course that's only 100mbit/s (unless your PCs already have Gigabit Ethernet which gets more and more popular these days), but it would still be my favorite solution to connect two PCs without hassle.

Heard under WinXP its possibility to link PC's via FireWire (up to 400Mbps) !!!

But I cant find any useful info... Bye

Originally posted by Doom9
though if both your PCs have USB2, they might also have Ethernet, and there you only need a crossover cable, which is a less pricy affair, and setting it all up doesn't take you long (basically if you connect the two PCs before starting them, you should not have to make any changes in the networking setup). Of course that's only 100mbit/s (unless your PCs already have Gigabit Ethernet which gets more and more popular these days), but it would still be my favorite solution to connect two PCs without hassle.

I only have 100MBit Ethernet, and the other computer (the one of a friend) has Gigabit Ethernet. But for transfering large AVI files (40GB or more) 100Mbit is too slow. We normally use 400Mbit firewire (as we both have the Audigy) to transfer, but lately we had some trouble with it. I don't have any free PCI left for an additional LAN Adapter, my 100MBit one is onboard and normally is enough for what I do(I-Net).[By the way, for Gigabit Ethernet you don't even need a crossover cable, as the network card itself will find out how to send the data.And it also works on a connection between a GigabitEthernetcard and normal 100MBit Ethernet card]

Heard under WinXP its possibility to link PC's via FireWire (up to 400Mbps) !!!

Yes it is. But it's sometimes not working out that well. If you have LAN running and connect firewire after that, it's not going to work, so you have to reboot without LAN connected and only firewire, so that WinXP will use it. Somewhat strange though. All you need is a firewire card, WinXP should install a networkcard for it (a fake one) and install the TCP/IP same as for LAN(It always does it atomatically, so I can't tell you how to do it manually, as I've never done it before :-) ). You can use a normal 6:6 pin Firewire cable as Firewire is network compatible or 6:4 if you want to use Firewire with you laptop.
No need for some extrabox inbetween as it is with USB2.0. I like firewire more, only these troubles are getting on my nerves :-(

Originally posted by A380

Yes it is. But it's sometimes not working out that well. If you have LAN running and connect firewire after that, it's not going to work, so you have to reboot without LAN connected and only firewire, so that WinXP will use it. Somewhat strange though. All you need is a firewire card, WinXP should install a networkcard for it (a fake one) and install the TCP/IP same as for LAN(It always does it automatically, so I can't tell you how to do it manually, as I've never done it before :-) ). You can use a normal 6:6 pin Firewire cable as Firewire is network compatible or 6:4 if you want to use Firewire with you laptop.
No need for some extrabox inbetween as it is with USB2.0. I like firewire more, only these troubles are getting on my nerves :-(

Thanks for the info !!!

All my PC's have 100mbit/s ethernet and FireWire (onboard or soundcard), but only one box has USB2...

Atm I use ethernet, but Im looking for something faster !!!Bye

Last time when we connected our Pc's via Firewire, it killed my firewire connection and I couldn't get it installed again. Next day I booted up and there it was again. It's really cool when it works, but as we lately had so much trouble with it.(When I'm through all my university examinations I'll try to find out what's that all about).
I thought about connection both Pc's via USB2.0. But it's not worth buying this converter thing.

i use firewire networking with my Girlfriends laptop and it works really well i like 400mbps

i use the Firewire port on my audigy 2 as well never had a problem with it

JEREMY

Originally posted by jeremymacmull
i use firewire networking with my Girlfriends laptop and it works really well i like 400mbps

i use the Firewire port on my audigy 2 as well never had a problem with it

JEREMY

I guess you are using firewire only? Cause booting win with a LAN connection and disconnecting that later and connecting firewire doesn't work. Only if I boot with LAN beeing not connected and then connect firewire.

quot;I guess you are using firewire only? Cause booting win with a LAN connection and disconnecting that later and connecting firewire doesn't work. Only if I boot with LAN beeing not connected and then connect firewire.quot;

NOPE im using a normal 100mbps network via an 8 port router which has 5 computers connected to it to share a broadband connection in the house which i always boot with and have on

and only when i need to do i connect my gfs laptop up via firewire i either bridge the two networks so her laptop has internet access for download windows updates etc or i dont so i can copy stuff across without her laptop being accessible from the rest of the network and my house mates computers.

back to your point it does work and work well i dont need to boot specially and it works whether lan is connected or not in my case

JEREMY

Thanks, for info. That's how I want it to work, too. Now I know that it's possible, always thought it's somekind of bug...

this might be a stupid question but HAVE BOTH computers got XP sp1a or greater cos the firewire networking was greatly enhanced in sp1a and again in sp2

try updating the computers to sp2 if uve not done so already

if this is a silly question and uve done all this i apologise

JEREMY

Yep, WinXP SP2. Made a slipstream CD an installed right aber SP came out, same did my friend. That's why we also first thought it could be SP2 that mixes something up. But that's not the case.
Thanks for help, you can't know if it's installed or not an it could have been the solution.

Can 2 indepentant USB2-Controllers be combined to 960 MBit/s using 2 such cables?

not as far as i know and if you really need the speed then it would Be far cheaper and easier to use Gigabit ethernet

JEREMY

Adding Gigabit to an existing Laptop is kinda difficult...