Male to male usb

[putitinder]

Hiyall
Can I chop 2 usb2.0 extension cables and rejoin the males to connect 2 laptops (pc)?
I am talking about the male oblong (not the square kind) kind.
I know that usb carries currect and don't want it to short my usb ports.
:brokenheart:

 

[DaveSimmons]

You might need a USB crossover cable (cross connect wires send <-> receive?), and you might need software to make one act as a "device" for the other. I've never had a reason to do this so I'm guessing.

You're probably better off connecting them using wifi or a category 5 (ethernet) crossover cable (or normal 2 cables + hub) since no extra software is needed.

 

[phisrow]

You don't want to mess with this. They sell special USB male-male cables, but those have some sort of special purpose lump of translation logic or something in the middle. They are not just passive crossover cables. Also, you need special drivers, which often suck, to use them.
If you do hack up the cable you describe, the best you'll get is no response, and the worst involves dead motherboards. Do it with ethernet, or firewire if you have it.

 

[putitinder]

Thanks for both bits of advice. I made the cable, but had thoughts like yours which stopped me trying...



ANyway no harm done...

O

 

[Mday]

USB has 2 working modes, peer to peer, and master and slave. The typical implementation is master and slave since most devices are attached to PCs as peripherals\accessories (mice, scanners, keyboards, printers, etc). If you direct connect using a "twisted" USB M-M cable, you'll shut down both computers at the best, or kill both at the worst. If you want to connect two computers together using a usb cable, you need a chip in there to negiotiate the communications since the chips on both systems think they are the "master" and will not talk directly to each other. If you want to transfer files back and forth, soend the $20 and buy yourself a USB transfer cable.