Rewire Your File-Transfer Routine

So...this is just a cross-over cable?

That's only feasible if your cable reaches both computers. If not, that's why the router/switch/hub was invented. Running a long cable isn't that great especially if it's gonna be laying across the middle of the floor or up/down floors.

And if you only have one NIC card on each computer, means you have to unplug the cable from the "internet". And then when you're done, you have to plug it back in.

Too much of a hassle if you're moving data between computers often.

More information please. How does it work? Why does it work? Does rearranging the pairs make the cable able or unable to do anything else?

When connecting one computer to another, nic to nic, you must setup a fix ip on each IP protocol, simply because you have removed yourself from the router and an automatic IP will not be assign to each nic. Still, if you do happen to have a router, why removing it will make files transfer any faster, I do not know. My router connects at 100mbs and so do my nics on my computer.

When buying RJ45s they usually come in a package, so you will have some left over. When buying a RJ45 crimping tool and RJ bit\chuck\key, they range from low to high; low price being a piece of crap and maybe you’re crimping might be successful.

If I was wanted to transfer an extreme large amount of data off a hard drive to another, I’d take the cover off the external hard drive and attempt to connect it internally to the computer, via the main board. Assuming you has the knowledge to do this in the first place.

When making connections, this is not something you wish to do with the power on. I do want to state the obvious, since I wish no one to blow up their own computer.

I have been working with electronics for over 25 years. Working with electronics or computers is all toys to me and fun. But to other people this could be difficult and the possibility to harm something is there. I say if you are a novice, you can learn to do this from the internet. If you have a friend that’s done this before, do not be shy, ask for help.

Connecting an external hard drive to be internal and transfer a large amount of data is the cheaper way to go and the fast way to transfer the data.

Why not buy a gigabit switch for $30? A lot cheaper and easier than buying a $100 crimping tool, destroying a good ethrnet cable, buying a set of Ethernet ends, and wasting about an hour trying to make this work. Then you have to setup the IP addresses, setup sharing, and hope it was all done correctly.

Starting with the power off everything.

If this was me at my computer with an external hard drive, I crack open the case of my external hard drive, find the sata and power interface. If I did not have a spare sata cable, I temporary unplug my sata cable from my Blue Ray\DVD\CD player and power. I then plug the sata and power to the external hard drive. I be sure the lay the external hard drive in a manner, that none of its' electronics touch anything. On one side of the hard drive some electronics are usually exposes. Once all connects are made, I power up my computer, wait for windows to find it and load the drivers. I reboot my computer. I then explore to find the hard drive and begin transfer files.

After I finish transferring files, shut down and power off everything. Put the external hard drive back in its case. Reconnect the sata and power cables to the Blue Ray\DVD\CD player. Then pause and just do a look over of my connections again, then power up the computer.

I might of left of steps. I toys with computers to much and so many steps come instinctively. Technically, I do not find this task hard and believe any novice could learn and do it, too.

I have spent no money and accomplish my task. ;)

It's a CrossOver cable. Label the hell out of that thing - nothing worse than getting it mixed in with your normal patch cables.

And yes, you will have to specify IP addresses info on both machines if you leave your router (DHCP) out of the mix.

Assuming you just bought a laptop or friend has brought over a laptop and you have the desire to transfer a boat load of data from one to the other, but you home DLS\CABLE router only has one Ethernet connection coming out of it.

Yea making a cross over cable and fixed up network could be an option.

Still, if it was me and knew I had some tools to buy to make this cross over cable, I prefer to just buy a nice router. They do come cheap and work really well. If the router is gigabyte in transfer, but you laptop or computer is 100mb or 10mb, you will only transfer as fast as you weakest link.
The suggestion above of buying a router is a great suggestion.

.........................

In the good old days of making patch cables for 10mb networks was easy, but for 100mb or Giga bit, these device balk if the patch cable isn't just right. For 100mb or above, I prefer to just buy manufactured cables and not have the problems of bad\poor\no transfer of data.

I did a google search to buy a 5ft ready made cross over cable and found one for .99 cents, not including shipping.

This is an absurd and ridiculous suggestion. It is just a crossover cable and no you can't make it for just $10 because you need $50 in tools, but you sure can buy it for $10, and even then would you really want to go this route? Wow.

I have to agree with everyone else. Why would you do this when you can just buy a cross over cable? Actually why would you even buy a crossover cable when almost all modern built in NIC's on motherboards handle crossover AUTOMATICALLY without the need for a special cable.

So yeah, 1988 called, it wants its relevant article back.

1988, ah, the good old days,when the internet was just slow moving modems, connecting to bullentin boards, what fun!

LOL

1988, ah, the good old days,when the internet was just slow moving modems, connecting to bullentin boards, what fun!

LOL

Good luck trying to get this to actually work practically. Crimping an RJ45 is not for the average person, not even intermediate. It's not worth the frustration.

Then even if you make the crossover, good luck getting both computers to talk to each other in a meaningful way. Security? Shares? Protocols? etc, etc...

Just plug both computers into a cheap (gigabit) switch - which more people already own versus a crimping tool.

A more useful article would have been:
"How to transfer files between two computers using your router/switch, say a Win7 and WinXP machine"

On the flip side, a cross-over cable isn't necessary for most newer computers as the Ethernet cards will-auto detect this situation and adjust accordingly.

Have to agree with blaxpear, crimping RJ45 is not easy (did this for a summer) and if not done precisely can actually degrade performance on your cable. Just buy a cross-over or a cross-over adaptor to put on a normal CAT5 cable.

Summary: Just use any cable, forget about IP addresses, and yes, this really is a bit faster than your router/switch and it'll blow away your wireless connection.

1. A crossover cable is not needed since most any computer built in the last 5+ years will auto-detect a crossover-style connection and internally flip those wires.
2. You don't need to do anything about IP addresses. Both computers should self-assign an IP in the 169.254.x.x range. You only need to figure out one of these, the one you want to connect TO. Although, you may not need to know either. If you have file sharing setup, the availability of the shared folder will be broadcast on your new network between the two machines.
3. If you can do this, it *IS* faster than most switches and routers. How much faster may be only a little if you have a fast switch.

The sata interface of a laptop will plug into a desk computer just fine and transfer of files will be quick and easy too. The sata interface of a laptop hard drive will plug into a desk computer sata interface just fine and transfer of files will be quick and easy too.

oi

Wow, what a pointless article. If your nic support gigabyte (otherwise there's no point in doing this), chances are, it supports detecting when you're doing a crossover connection, turning this kind of cable useless.
Also, buying a gigabit hub is much more appropriate use of your money/time, since it will be permanent upgrade for your home network, allowing you to transfer files at this "double speed" with no hassle and with internet access intact.

Also: Seriously? Gigabit is at least 4 times faster, hd speeds considered.

They must've ran out of things to write about.

There are many of us still running older machines, so don't be quite so dismissive. My Ideal brand steel-bodied RJ-45 crimper was $24 at Home Depot last year.

With Windows 7 you don't even need a crossover cable. You can use a normal straight through and it recognizes the difference all by itself...

A.K.A. another article that popsci failed on.

Get some subject matter experts before you start posting this sh!t!

nkfro,
$24,

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Yes this article is pointless. I'm pretty sure the auto-crossover capability is available on ALL gigabit nics as per the standard. Something Popsci should know for sure. Also copying to a hard drive then moving that to the other pc and copying them back would definitely take twice as long as using a network. I copy from one PC to another all the time at 120MB+/s. It would definitely take 6 times longer using USB2!!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??? If you're going to do that just buy a USB 3 card for $10 and upgrade you life, USB2 is gross and slow! That brings up a good point, why isn't this article about USB 3.0?? At least it came out within the last 5 years...

Correction: Automatic MDI/MDI-X Configuration is specified as an optional feature in the 1000BASE-T standard,[10] meaning that straight-through cables will often work between gigabit-capable interfaces. This feature eliminates the need for crossover cables, making obsolete the uplink/normal ports and manual selector switches found on many older hubs and switches and greatly reduces installation errors.

1988: when 88% of emails were legit, 12% spam
2012: when 12% of emails were legit, 88% spam

You can't be serious... I guess you've never heard of auto-mdix, most computers built in the last 10 years have a gigabit Ethernet adapter that does auto-mdix, meaning no crossover cable required.