Is it possible to use USB ports to connect two desktop computers without a router?

I have two desktop computer. I need to know if I can use a usb cable to link the two computers together.

Is it possible to use USB ports to connect two desktop computers without a router?nortan

Yes you can, but you need a special Bridged USB cable.

A very easy way to connect two PCs is using an USB-USB cable. Connecting two PCs with a cable like this you can transfer files from one PC to another, and even build a small network and share your Internet connection with a second PC.

The first thing you should be aware of is that there are several different kinds of USB-USB cables on the market. The one used to connect two PCs is called 鈥渂ridged鈥?(or 鈥淯SB networking cable鈥?, because it has a small electronic circuit in the middle allowing the two PCs to talk to each other.

There are the so-called A/A USB cables that, in spite of having two standard USB connectors at each end, don鈥檛 have a bridge chip and cannot be used to connect two PCs. In fact, if you use an A/A USB cable you can burn the USB ports of your computers or even their power supplies. So, these A/A USB cables are completely useless.

A/B USB cables are used to connect your computer to peripherals such as printers and scanners, so they also won鈥檛 fit your needs.

The cable length of a Bridged USB cable is usually 2 meters and newer products support USB 2.0, so theoretically the USB bridge can transfer data at up to 480 Mbps, faster than the ubiquitous Fast Ethernet or even the pre-N Wi-Fi. Several vendors make USB bridge cable which can work in two modes, that's for simple data transfer between two computers and local area networking (LAN). If you want to copy or move large files from one computer to another, choose the direct transfer mode. If you want to network computers for file and printer sharing or Internet connection sharing, choose the virtual LAN mode.