I often need to move/access data (several GB at a time) between my Laptop and Desktop computers (it's on the laptop for mobility, and desktop so it can process it in 10 minutes rather than 2 hours).
The local network is only 100Mbps and gives me around 500KB/s. I tried linking them with an Ethernet crossover cable (1Gbit) but this only hit 20MB/s (I calculated that it should be up around 120MB/s...) which is still not that great and it prevents the desktop accessing the internet or the rest of the network while it is at it (only one Ethernet port).
Why is the crossover cable so much slower than I expected? What other options do I have for moving/accessing/etc. stuff?
Available Ports:
Laptop: 1Gbit Ethernet, USB 2.0.
Desktop: 1394a, eSATA 3.0Gb/s, USB 2.0, USB 3.0
I can't use a local router to connect both computers with 1Gbit as their disallowed on the network :(