Every so often, one of these off-the-wall
USB peripherals really does do something worth clapping about. Today, we're taking a look at one such outlier in the driver-free USB 2.0 Data Copy and Internet Connection Sharing Dongle. While not fancy in design, this here device sure promises a lot. For starters, it enables data transfers between PCs to be handled easily and efficiently, but the real kicker is its ability to give the second computer the option of siphoning internet from the first. Sure, there are more legitimate ways of sharing one's signal, but when you're in pinch, who has time to fiddle with the Networking control panel? It's just $29, and it could save your life. Think about it.
posted Feb 25th 2009 6:51AM
A handy crossover cable. Nice.
Plugging in a crossover cable, Start->Control Panel->Network Connections->Properties->Sharing.
It takes less than 2 minutes to do o_O. Explain why I would need this over just dumping files I had to transfer into the shared folder? Is it really going to save me that much time?
Yeah, what if your already using the ethernet port?
@TREX6662k5
then unplug it
the question here is what if I need to copy files and use the INTERNET at the same time!
With your wifi on one of your laptops and the internet set to shared you can copy files AND browse the web... on both, with just a crossover cable.
LapLink rediscovered
@matty as someone who has actually done such a thing, it sucks in XP, easier to do in Vista, and is almost impossible to do without a crossover cable (i.e. ICS with WiFi peer and hardwire upstream)
AWESOME
really cool. I had problems in the past, transfering stuff from my job computers and this little cable would have been a real time saver.
The KIRF phone supplier has it for cheaper:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20425
cat5(e) or cat6 crossover cable: US$2.
cygwin and sshd: US$0
copying your data easily: priceless
however, since most laptops have wireless or bluetooth, transferring data is trivial!
A simple cable (that doesn't look identical to a similar-but-different cable) that requires no drivers or fancy configuration would be even easier. If this is as simple as they make it sound then I'll happily pay the difference. Besides, I'm pretty sure that none of my computers have drivers installed for the NIC anyway, they are all on WiFi all the time.
If I am not mistaken, you just suggested installing sshd to make point-to-point file transfers on a crossover cable.
Afraid the black helicopters might snag your precious bytes using EM radiation leaking from the CAT?
lol
I thought of this long before USB was even real!
*off sueing the bastards*
Looks great! Thx., Engadget!
I'll take two!
I wish I had one of these right now. I am currently at my friend's house in Japan and she doesn't have a router. Since we both have laptops I tried to do the Internet Connection Sharing thingy in Windows XP but I can't get it to work. When I set the TCP IP settings to automatic it gives me a funky IP address for both computers instead of the usual 192.xxx.etc. So then I set it to manual, assign the host with 192.168.0.1 and the client with ".".".2 and they connect, and I'm even able to browse files. But when I enable connection sharing for the LAN adaper on the host computer, the client is never able to browse the net. It's so frustrating to have only 1 computer for two people. I think it might have to do with the slimmed down XP's I installed on these computers cause they're netbooks and all... Argh!
you're in japan?! what's it like?
...and with two Macs you can do the same with just a few clicks using normal Ethernet cable. Or Firewire. Or WiFi. Or Bluetooth.
That would be great if I actually knew two people who owned a Mac.
great....your point is...?
yeah, thats cos its designed to be idiot-proof.
you as evidence.
P.S. your band is horrible
angsty nerd-metttulz
hear hear.......
all that trouble for a window platform computer.......
Same with Windows and Linux. What is your point?
And with two PCs.
I do it all the time here where a friend of mine has a USB based DSL Modem.
That's nice. No one really cares.
Can I ask something? would that work to connect my laptop with my PS3 in order to be able to transfer files?
thanks
should as far as I know
isnt this thing been around since usb was created?
no
no
Yes, but not with the internet-sharing package included, you had to use ICS and that messes up all your IP's and is annoying as hell to set up for the common average user.
But why not simply use a network cable, or if you have firewire ports any firewire cable will do, no dongle needed.
wonder if you could daisy chain with these. set up a dozen pcs in a row, one network connection, usb cables all going from one pc to the next, would make LAN gaming so much easier!
I don't know if the one in this article can do that. But apparently THIS one...
http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_details.cfm?sku=CU2TCP&cats=106&catid=112%2C106
...can.
Not sure if it's daisy chaining or a start patter from the web connected machine, but yeah...these things are old as the hills. Been using them since back when they used to top out at USB1.1/12mbps. No so much now though. A cheap no-wifi router costs about $10 - $20 and is actually pretty portable. That or crossover cables...Peer-to-Peer or ICS really isn't that hard to set up...
haha, "dongle."
a secure bluetooth version would be better. no pesky wires to deal with :)
is Bluetooth high speed out yet (I don't so); enjoy transferring your files at 3 Mbit/sec.
3MB? Try .7 MB/sec or less in the real world.
Daisy-chaining: And then the guy in the middle gets up and leaves - and the Command & Conquer session by the guys around him breaks down. Been there, done that, with 10Base2/BNC/Coax cabling. There's a reason why everyone dumped it as soon as 10BaseT became affordable...
Sure but those connectors looked damn impressive didn't they? Much more so than tiny plastic gigabit ethernet, or USB dongles.
I have a male-to-male USB cable I bought at a dollar store. Never had the heart to actually try to hook it up to 2 computers.
You cannot connect USB with a plain cable without a device inbetween, you can with firewire though, but not USB, and you were wise to not try.
I just thought about it, I think I'm gonna get one and see how well it really works, now i can use my sprint's connect card and link my bro's computer to mine, and our family trips will be much much better 'cause he is always complaining and wants to use mine, $30 to shut my little bro up will be defiantly worth it, plus being able to do easy data transfer and i don't have to deal with any drivers? that makes it worth $50 to me.
this could be really handy if it allows data transfer between a mac and a PC ... it would be much faster as well... as I have all devices on wifi.
Is this USB setup faster (transfer speed) and simpler than sharing over Wifi? Ethernet (did that once...had some issues)?
Yes. 480Mbps over USB vs. 100 Mbps over common Ethernet and 54 Mbps over most common wi-fi 802.11g. Those are all top theoretical speeds of course.
Was in training last week. Had a laptop, forgot the external USB drive. Could have used this to transfer some 'training' files to the laptop. Had to have a co-worker overnight an external drive instead.
Does it work with two Linux computers? Or between a Linux & Mac/Windows PC? I would buy it just as a simple, no setup way of transferring files. I now have to use a usb hard drive that is plugged into one computer at a time if I need to move files back and forth.
will this work between Mac and PC
then it will be worth it in my house..otherwise not really..
also the USB wire looks very short, can you extend it?
If it really works like plug it in and transfer things....then this is pretty sweet. Nice and simple alternative.