Is there a way to connect two PCs using USB ports? (Solved)(Not usable)

[farkas]

I have a laptop and desktop both running Mint 19.1
Trying to figure out a simple way to connect them for direct file transfers. Drag and drop. After searches for a solution on the internet most suggest a home network of some kind.
To set one up for one looks pretty complicated.
There is the option synching my PCs using Firefox. That doesn't really appeal to me. I wan't to keep certain files on one PC only.
For small files or just a couple of pictures I email myself from one account to another. For larger files or whole folders I use a USB device.
Thought of using an USB A to USB A cable. After more research I found that it would release the smoke, which powers all electrical and electronic devices.
See: http://www2.ece.rochester.edu/courses/E ... /smoke.pdf
I do not wish to release any smoke power in either machine.
Levity aside, I found that there are bridge cables that can connect two windows PCs. Would any of these work with Mint? Looking at specs they require windows software. Is there an equivalent Linux application for it?
Another thought is to use two USB to ethernet converter cables on both ends with an ethernet cable between them.
All ideas are welcome.
Thanks.

[RIH]

I also have a laptop & desktop running Cinnamon 19.1.

I looked around a few different solutions to connect the pair but a great deal of the advice was way over my technical pay grade..

I eventually settled for nomachine, which I found simple to set up & easy to use..

https://www.nomachine.com/

https://www.nomachine.com/getting-start ... -nomachine

[farkas]

Thanks RIH.
I'll check them out.

[AndyMH]

Assuming both can connect to the internet via a router, why not just set up shares on each PC. Create a folder, e.g. /home/you/public, in the file manager right click on it and select 'sharing options'. If not installed, it will install the required samba packages. As both PCs are running 19.1 should be straightforward.

+1 on nomachine. Use it myself.

[sgtor]

Back in the old days we used to use the parallel ports to do that, so yes it's possible to do it with USB ports but I don't know of any program that does that. The home LAN really put that method to bed so I don't know if you would want to do it even if you found a program.

The type of cable you're asking about is a crossover cable and you would plug each end into a network card and won't need a router. It's probably easier to set up a router instead. With a router DHCP is usually on by default so it will assign IP addresses automatically, it's all plug n play so to speak.

It's really not as complex to set up a router as you think. With the crossover cable you'll need to go into each computers network settings and give each a different IP address and the same network mask. Also you're already connecting to the internet so why not add that extra layer of security that the router's firewall will provide?

I suppose another method would be to setup an ad-hoc wireless connection. I've never done that with two PC's so I don't know off the top of my head the details of how to do it. Wireless of course is less secure so keep that in mind.

[AZgl1800]

Assuming both can connect to the internet via a router, why not just set up shares on each PC. Create a folder, e.g. /home/you/public, in the file manager right click on it and select 'sharing options'. If not installed, it will install the required samba packages. As both PCs are running 19.1 should be straightforward.

+1 on nomachine. Use it myself.

I installed NoMachine and it works great as a Remote Desktop
However, what I need to do is to transfer files from a cellphone to the laptop....
and I have not found a way to make NoMachine do that.

this is for my daughter who refuses to look beneath the 'hood', so it has to be BULLET PROOF or she just simply will NOT fool with it.

it is not bullet proof for me yet, and I get under the hood a lot.
the tiny little control panel that shows up on the cellphone is so miniscule, as to be useless, I have not found a way to enlarge that so that files can be transfered to the remote laptop...
Remote: but laying on her lap, just just wants to move a file from her phone to the laptop.

I have an app that I use a lot, which is Bullet Proof, but way to complicated for her,it is
ASUS File Manager in PlayStore.... it is on her phone, and she refuses to use it.
I use it many times a day.....

[sgtor]

Assuming both can connect to the internet via a router, why not just set up shares on each PC. Create a folder, e.g. /home/you/public, in the file manager right click on it and select 'sharing options'. If not installed, it will install the required samba packages. As both PCs are running 19.1 should be straightforward.

+1 on nomachine. Use it myself.

I installed NoMachine and it works great as a Remote Desktop
However, what I need to do is to transfer files from a cellphone to the laptop....
and I have not found a way to make NoMachine do that.

this is for my daughter who refuses to look beneath the 'hood', so it has to be BULLET PROOF or she just simply will NOT fool with it.

it is not bullet proof for me yet, and I get under the hood a lot.
the tiny little control panel that shows up on the cellphone is so miniscule, as to be useless, I have not found a way to enlarge that so that files can be transfered to the remote laptop...
Remote: but laying on her lap, just just wants to move a file from her phone to the laptop.

I have an app that I use a lot, which is Bullet Proof, but way to complicated for her,it is
ASUS File Manager in PlayStore.... it is on her phone, and she refuses to use it.
I use it many times a day.....

kde connect has an option to do that. Mind you when I tried it I always had to fiddle with it to get it to reconnect but your situation might be different.

[lsemmens]

with modern (i.e. in the last 10 years, at least) routers, just set up file sharing, and work that way. Much easier than the old method of crossovers, which I HAVE used way back in the days of DOS!

[farkas]

Looks like a hard wire USB port method is not practical or maybe impossible.
Thanks to all who responded. I think I'll try the file sharing method. If I run into problems I'll make new post in the appropriate forum.

[dancer_69]

Since you talk about smartphone and android os, you just need to install mtp-tools(maybe installed already) and to connect the phone with usb cable. Then on the phone you choose mtp file transfer and then the phone's storage will be available in the file manager to copy/delete/rename etc files and folders.

[AZgl1800]

Since you talk about smartphone and android os, you just need to install mtp-tools(maybe installed already) and to connect the phone with usb cable. Then on the phone you choose mtp file transfer and then the phone's storage will be available in the file manager to copy/delete/rename etc files and folders.

ah, by the time I could do all of that, using the ASUS File Manager transfers every via WiFi and is closed out before I could get that all going.

the USB cable would be faster, but not much.

but, it is not for me, I was inquiring, it is for my daughter, and she using Win10 and refuses to dig below the kybd. Plug 'n Pray or not at all.

[dancer_69]

This should work on windows too. There you need to find the drivers for the smartphone to be recognised(if isn't happen automatic) and then it will work the same way. This is a standard future on smartphones. Here is a guide I found about this after a quick search:
http://www.stevesandroidguide.com/transfer-files-usb/
The procedure is similar but depends from the smartphone brand/model. Anyway you can find a lot of information in forums for android smartphones, xda-developers forum is very popular. Just ggogle it.

[farkas]

Decided to go with samba to share folders between PCs. I ran into some problems.
Started a new post viewtopic.php?f=157&t=294907
Help from responders and viewers of this post would greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

[catweazel]

Levity aside, I found that there are bridge cables that can connect two windows PCs.

There's no need for a USB bridge cable if your machines have USB 3.0 ports. USB3 supports direct cable connections between machines by sensing what's on the wires, so they can reconfigure themselves. With USB1 or USB2, a direct cable connection is likely to fry your USB controller, hence the need for a bridging cable. Once the cables are connected, you need to fire up and configure the linux usbnet driver to assign IP addresses to the USB3 ports on each machine.

The benefit of a usb to usb connection over USB3 is the ability to transfer files at USB3 speeds ~450MB/s, not LAN speeds, which are typically 10/100MB/s. This only makes sense if your hard disks or SSDs can sustain that level of throughput. In my case, my HDDs are in RAID so a usb to usb connection would give me 4.5x LAN speed.

I got as far as purchasing the straight-through USB cable and researching the usbnet driver. In the end I shelved the project. The trouble to set up IP over USB was more than it was worth to get USB3 speed file transfer.

[farkas]

Thanks for reply catweazel!
I also abandoned the idea of USB to USB port connections.
Absolute fear of letting the smoke that powers my machines escape from them.
Your reply also confirms my suspicions that it might also be very difficult to do so.