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USB Laptop to Desktop

An area of the forum to post ideas for new products or discuss things that are not related to 2BrightSparks products
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joker
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USB Laptop to Desktop

Post by joker »

Is there anyway to use SyncBack with a USB cable connected directly from Laptop to Desktop? If so what is a good cable for this? If not, why not?

Thanks,
cj
Dave Wilkins
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Post by Dave Wilkins »

Only with a special USB cable made for the purpose. These have a pair of mini-network adapters built in (usually in a dongle mid-cable, sometimes with over-sized USB plugs containing an adapter each, so that the intervening cable is in fact strictly speaking a Cat-5 (etc) network cable).

To use one of these you would still need to set up networking, sharing, permissions , etc on each PC, because that is the protocol that would be used.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/help/index ... rticle=189
http://www.2brightsparks.com/help/index ... rticle=205

Note: the above is referring to cables that use standard network protocols. There are apparently (or were, anyhow) some USB:USB adapters that use a proprietary protocol - it's unlikely SyncBack could use them, as stated.

Bear in mind that if your laptop and desktop have internet connectivity it's probable they are in fact networked already (when connected to the common router you're probably using). What they probably don't have set up yet is the sharing & permissions parts
joker
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Post by joker »

So this would be no better than just using a local network setup?
Dave Wilkins
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Post by Dave Wilkins »

AFAIK, no, and possibly even slower - all depending what spec the embedded network adapters are: beware that such cables might only support 10Mbit/sec or worse (see below). AFAIK, you will not usually achieve USB2-style throughput, because there is a networking bottleneck in the middle - you'd need embedded network adapters that match or exceed USB2 (480Mbit/sec in theory) to make the latter the governing factor. Given that standard network protocols are 10, 100 and 1000 Mbits/sec (the last one a.k.a. 'gigabit'), and I'm not aware of any with embedded gigabit chips...

A quick Google suggest the usual BS is still out there, such as one hit which quotes "for high speed connection up to 480 MBps" - given that (1) the phrase 'up to' clearly starts from & includes the number '0' & (2) they seem to be accidentally claiming 480MegaBytes/sec, which is impossible with USB2 (max theoretical throughput is 480 Megabits/sec, roughly one eighth of what they are - no doubt honestly and accidentally - claiming...

Other cables only support USB1.1 though you may have to dig deep to find that info (yes, I found one). At least one type blithely states '5M bits/sec', which - though honest, if it wasn't for that weasel 'up to' part - is frankly pathetic.
denyalmartin
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Re: USB Laptop to Desktop

Post by denyalmartin »

Here i sharing best information. You can use the LPT port. Or, if you don't mind slower speed, or will not be transferring much data, then you can use a free serial port. Either way, you could of course, use Direct Cable Connection program available with both systems, and the appropriate cable.
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