USB Connection

[Hal Courtney]

If I connect my desktop and laptop via a USB cable and a USB hub, they should automatically see each other, right? I was informed that the other computer would be in My Computer as a hard drive and I can just copy files back and forth.

Thanks,
Harold

[MacGyver]

No, you cannot do that. If you connect two computers' USB ports together, you will damage both ports. What you need is a special USB file sharing cable:

<a href="http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?product_id=USBTXFER12" target="_blank">http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?product_id=USBTXFER12</a> (there may be other options available but this is the only one I'm aware of)

Considering the price of this is $70USD, you may be better off buying two cheap ethernet cards and an crossover cable and networking that way. IF you're constantly connecting to different computers and don't want the hassle of putting a network card in each one, then the special USB cable would pay for itself very quickly.

[Hal Courtney]

MG,

Thanks for the heads-up.

OK, I actually have an ethernet in each machine and the cable. But I have no idea where to begin to get them talking to each other. Can you recommend a tutorial somewhere that will take me step by step thru the process? Keeping in mind I am completely network-ignorant, and not especially intelligent...

Thanks,
Harold

[Hal Courtney]

Oh yeah, I'm using Win XP on my desktop and Win 2000 on my laptop, if that matters.

Thanks,
Harold

[flyboy747]

Here's a little page that might help. There are several out there but this is one of the first ones that I came across:

<a href="http://www.homepcnetwork.com/index.htm?wireintro.htm" target="_blank">http://www.homepcnetwork.com/index.htm?wireintro.htm</a>

You can go to that page and then select at the drop down box at the top which page you want to go to (I just went and looked at the Connect my 2 or more pcs with standard network equipment). Hope that helps a little.

Good luck!

[Ahcoraj]

wwww.cyberguys.com has the USB PC bridge for 35$ Tiger direct has one for 30 <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-Details.asp?sku=C184-4016" target="_blank">HERE</a>
Since you already have the ethetnet cards in each, i suggest a crossover cable you can get at any place that sells belkin cables (compusa, bestbuy...etc.) All you need to do then is enable file sharing on both machines (actually i believe it's enabled by default in w2k and XP) thenset the workgroups to the same name and share whatever resources you wish to transfer.