Is there some way to connect two computers using USB?

Question

USB is a popular standard and I was wondering whether there is some way to connect two or more computers using USB ports rather than the Ethernet ports.

Answer 1

Yes you can, but you need a specialized USB peripheral known as a USB bridge. A Standard A-to-A type cable would fit the connectors but it would damage your port and maybe your power source.

Please see FAQ on USB.org site: http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5, question 5 and 6.

What the special cable does is provide a chip in the middle that acts as a USB Host, and then again, as a USB peer.

Combining this with a USB Hub you could create a small LAN, but it´s definitively not the way to do it, as Ethernet would have more performance and be cheaper.

Some suggestions already been provided, where is another one with pricing: http://www.datapro.net/products/usb-2-0-host-to-host-cable.html

Answer 2

First result on Google: http://www.conniq.com/FAQ/DCC-USB-cable-bridge.htm

Answer 3

According to this article, yes there is. It requires the purchase of a special cable, as an A-A cable would fry the computer.