Re: [gentoo-user] OT: PC as USB client

[Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On 7 Oct 2009, at 22:08, Alex Schuster wrote:
>
>> Stroller writes:
>>
>>> On 7 Oct 2009, at 18:38, Alex Schuster wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Rohit writes:
>>>>>
>>>>> I have seen a cable and a box (USB powered only) which used to make
>>>>> drives of one machine available to the other.
>>>>> It was available from scan.co.uk - 2 years back.
>>>>
>>>> I didn't find it there, but now that I looked for such a thing I
>>>> think I found a similar one. Thanks! Linux is not being mentioned, but
>>>> at least it says there are no drivers needed. I wonder how it would be
>>>> possible that two system use the system at the same time.
>>>> As the cable is cheap, I think I'll just get one and try it.
>>>
>>> Do you have a link for this, please?
>>
>> Only in German:
>> http://www.pearl.de/a-PE187-1414.shtml?query=USB data link
>>
>> It says there is no driver or software installation necessary. When
>> connected, a data transfer program will open automatically. Does this mean
>> there is some program that is executed automatically when connecting, or
>> is
>> this just the usual Windows feature that opens a new drive and shows its
>> contents?
>>
>>> I'm very unclear how this could be achieved without drivers.
>>
>> Me too, after some thinking I believe this will not be what I need. How
>> would the cable know the location where to store data it receives from the
>> other client?
>
> I'm not able to answer any of your questions, but I've seen similar products
> advertised before which were clearly 2 USB network adaptors - like this
> <http://ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA3005.htm> - in a single cable. In fact,
> looking up that example I found the same store explicitly selling exactly as
> I describe: <http://ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA3004.htm>.
>
> In this case the "no drivers needed" would suggest to me that the drivers
> are installed by default under XP.

And also "no drivers needed" does not mean "no software needed" :)

I googled around and seems most common with these cables is a program
called PC-Linq. This page has a link to download (maybe it works in
WINE?) and a screenshot:

http://www.georgedillon.com/freeware/pclinq.shtml