Connect 2 computers with type-c?

[evo85210]

with new computers and phones using type-c ports, what would happen if i connect two laptops like the following

 

[Computer A](type-A USB)--------(type-C USB)[Computer B]

 

would computer A show up on computer B as a external drive and vice-versa? or would it just give me an error?

[Arty]

Anyone wanna test it?

 

This didn't work with usb a to usb a cables, so i doubt it will work this way too.

[evo85210]

1 minute ago, Arty said:

Anyone wanna test it?

 

This didn't work with usb a to usb a cables, so i doubt it will work this way too.

i would test it out, but i don't have a type-c to type-a cable, wondering if anyone have tried it out?

[TOMPPIX]

i don't think it works.

[mariushm]

It won't work, usb doesn't work like that... it's has to be a host  to client connection, you're trying to create a host to host connection.   A host is the computer, the usb controller, a client is the peripheral like keyboard, mouse, external usb drive etc

You can buy 2 usb network cards, plug them in each laptop/computer then use a basic network cable to connect the two network cards, and you have a 1 gbps connection.  Nowhere near 5gbps the usb3.0 can provide or 10gbps with usb 3.1

 

[evo85210]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

It won't work, usb doesn't work like that... it's has to be a host  to client connection, you're trying to create a host to host connection.   A host is the laptop, the usb controller, a client is the peripheral like keyboard, mouse, external usb drive etc

You can buy 2 usb network cards, plug them in each laptop/computer then use a basic network cable to connect the two network cards, and you have a 1 gbps connection.  Nowhere near 5gbps the usb3.0 can provide or 10gbps with usb 3.1

 

i see, so basically because both sides think they're hosts, they won't communicate properly
then how does a usb crossover cable work? does it have a chip in the cable that acts as a client to mediate between the two hosts?

[SCHISCHKA]

I have not seen evidence this is possible outside of using a network adapter or USB bridge. USB is communication between a host and a dumb device. There's some usb3 spec that allows two way communication and there are USB crossover cables but as far as I can tell no operating system has software to create a network unless using one of those special bridging cables which act as a dumb device between the two hosts

[mariushm]

14 minutes ago, evo85210 said:

i see, so basically because both sides think they're hosts, they won't communicate properly
then how does a usb crossover cable work? does it have a chip in the cable that acts as a client to mediate between the two hosts?

Think of two usb network card chips in the center of the cable. They're either hard coded to certain IP addresses or the software that comes with the cable automatically configures both network cards automatically making it invisible to the user.

 

Because the distance between the two "network cards" is so small (less than a few centimeters apart) there's no need for the insulation transformers (the blocky things on network cards, on some computers those are hidden inside the network jack connector) so basically all that's needed is a voltage regulator (to produce 1.8v or 3.3v the network chips need, from 5v in the usb cable), the two network chips and maybe a couple of crystal oscillators for keeping timing.

[Falconevo]

Just connect over WiFi and use the UNC path (Admin Share) for the drive you want.

 

Example;

Goto File Explorer on LAPTOP-B and type \\LAPTOP-A\c$

'REPLACE LAPTOP-A WITH THE HOSTNAME OF THE LAPTOP'

Open that from LAPTOP-B and it will open the C drive of the other laptop

 

If you want to go in the other direction, just supplement the hostname on the other laptop.

If you want to access a different drive letter, change the C$ to D$ etc etc

It will ask you for admin credentials

 

USB is not designed for networking, although some cables with controllers in do exist.

[mariushm]

He asked specifically for usb.

 

If you have regular gigabit network cards on both computers, you can just use a simple network cable to connect computers between each other.  Ideally, you'd use a "crossover network cable" but gigabit network cards are smart enough to automatically detect that the cable is straight regular network cable and they pick the proper wires to send and receive data through.

Once you make connection between computers with a cable, it's a simple issue of simply assigning a unique IP to each computer and the same subnet mask (255.255.255.0 is common) and you have a network between the two computers.

 

But I think evo was asking because the usb is rated for 5 gbps or 10 gbps and maybe he was wondering if it's possible to transfer files at those speeds.

 

Quite recently (a couple of months ago or something like that) there was a new standard ratified (802.3bz) which extends the current network standards, making it easier to have network cards with 2.5 gbps and 5 gbps speeds, besides the 1 gbps and 10 gbps speeds.

 

For the 2.5gbps speeds, they use the same protocols and same cat5e or cat6 cables, so existing chips could be quite easily modified a bit to reach those speeds and they don't need a lot of power to work, so we may have usb network cards capable of 2.5 gbps in the near future.

 

5 gbps can be reached with cat6 cable (which is cheap and easy to find these days) but there's a different way of sending the signal (a bit similar to how 10gbps network cards work) through the wires and more power required for long distances (a couple of watts usually) so it would be a bit harder to modify existing network chips to make them work at 5 gbps. It's probably going to take more time until we'd see 5gbps USB 3 network adapters but eventually we'll see them.

 

 

 

[evo85210]

i'm not actually trying to transfer anything between computers lol, i was just curious, thanks for all the replies tho, learned some knowledge