Can any of my beautiful readers recommend a good link for connecting PCs? I’m looking for some sort of PC-to-PC software. I have a USB cable designed for PC-to-PC communications, but the software provided is chunkus blowus. (That’s Latin for “blows chunks”, of course.) I’ve been searching Google and NoNags but I haven’t been very lucky. Most of the stuff out there looks like it was programmed for Windows 3.1. Anybody out there running their own little home LAN? It’s got to be possible without buying a router or needing CAT-5, right? Can’t I just do this with USB? (And don’t go telling me to use Microsoft’s built-in Direct Cable Connection because I don’t want to have a computer listening and a host and a guest and all that.) I just want to be able to share files, actually; I’m not even really concerned about sharing printers and / or an internet connection. Help!
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Would help to know which product you started with… is it this one? http://www.ezusblan.com/
Good point, Jason. I’ve got one of these: http://www.bafo.com/proddetail.cfm?ID=378
Check out LapLink. http://www.laplink.com and go to PCsync
Best and easiest way, maybe a bit heavy on the pocket book in some cases, but buy a cheap hub, NIC cards, and then conect the computers into the hub.
Windows 2000 and 9X are smart enough to recognize each other with winddows networking installed and both in the same workgroup.
NIC cards and HUBS are easy to come by, check out Ebay for good values. Or the best value is talking to someone at work and seeing if they have any old ones to hand out.
Right. I know how to create a LAN; I’ve done it several times. But I don’t *want* to install a network card. That’s my point. I just want to be able to use my USB ports.
what you really should do is get over that “I don’t want to install a lan” attitude, bite the bullet and buy a Linksys all-in-one wireless access point (WAP)/4-port switch/router. In ain’t Cisco but it’ll do for SOHO. You then get a wireless PCMCIA card for your laptop and sit out on the porch by the pool sipping bud and sharing files with your desktop. Then go gorilla WAP hunting in the city and get high speed internet access for free since it seems like most of the wireless LAN admins out there still haven’t got a clue about WAP security …
Or I guess you could just buy a USB ‘network’ connection kit – I think they sell them as a bundle for pc-to-pc connections. But that wouldn’t be as fun …
check http://www.bestbuy.com or http://www.microwarehouse.com or http://www.linksys.com for the WAP stuff …
PS: For the record – I’m posting this from a WAP connection at my boss’s house as a test of his wireless system I just installed …
You could also try using Linksys pat #USM100M – it’s a USB-to-CAT5 dongle the size of a thumb drive. Use two of those, a cross-over CAT5 cable and Win2K networking and I bet that would be the simpliest solution for pc-to-pc …
Tober,
I *have* a Linksys USM100M. That’s what I use at work. But I don’t want to buy another one and the Win2K networking protocols all revolve around “hosts” and “guests” and I don’t want to deal with all that. And *trust me*: I would buy a wireless set-up if I had an extra couple of hundred bucks to blow …
Monkeys.
The Linksys USB to Ethernet adapter is what you need. The USB to USB connection is just that – a direct connection. Get the Ethernet adapters and a cheap hub (like $40 – seriously), and just tell Windows to look for it. It will see the network connection, and you’ll have a peer to peer LAN. What is the DAMN problem?
On second thought you should probably go ahead and spring for a Cisco Catalyst 4006 with the Sup III engine blade, 2 48 port (VoIP powered of course) 10/100TX blades, an IDS blade, and 1 high density GBIC blade for all your fiber optic connection needs.
With a pony like that boy would you ROCK! Just think – Spanning-tree algorithms, RMON, SNMP traps, EIGRP routing, the list just goes on and on …
Two pieces of chewing gum and a wet string.
not sure what you want it for…but…
we have a lot of applications where there is no LAN in place but we need file transfer capabilities.
PC Anywhere. Fast, reliable, easy to use. Yes, you have to deal with host and remote but it’s simple. Laplink is a pain in the ass.
The nice thing is that if you do have some TCP/IP connectivity, PCAW will let you control through IP connections and do what you need.
I don’t know how I ever did my job without it.
this is a great tool for pc to pc
you can have a personal room up to 500 -people