USB networking? Future or Failure?

[joe4324]

I dont really know nor understand alot of the technical aspects of USB or even standard cat5 networking. But I am curious if USB can support actual data transfer from pc to pc. If so wouldnt usb networks be very desireable? abeit the usb 1.1? standard is a bit slow but unless your transfer 10 gigs of mp3's or pRon it would be fine for internet sharing and lan gamming. But with usb 2 comming out it appears to be very fast. IF its possible to use usb to netowrk computers would the speeds of usb 2.0 directly translate or would there be a slow down?

Feel free to flame me if I am talking out my arse 🙂

 

[ojai00]

With USB 2.0 coming out, USB networking would become a lot more popular. I think the speeds for USB 2.0 are like 480mpbs or something like that, which would make for almost 5 times the transfer speed of CAT5 networks. But I don't really think that it would be widely adopted as a corporate network option because CAT5 is so widely available and so easy to setup. If you're doing computer to computer transfers, you should be fine. It would be a lot faster than USB 1.1 networking among those computers. Hope this helps.

 

[Woodie]

Somebody didn't a recent review of USB networking...and concluded that it was pretty much garbage, especially under USB 1.1

I don't see any businesses switching to USB based networks any time soon. Between cat5 and gig over copper, there's no benefit. NIC cards are quite inexpensive, and hot-swapping, dual and quad nics are all available. Nobody wants to build a server with an external nic (as in, a USB one). Besides, it might interfere in some stupid way w/ the mouse/keyboard. (I know it's not supposed to, but....)

--Woodie <---this opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it, if you're NOT a subscriber!