PC to PC USB communication

usb communication pc
user1214513 picture user1214513 · Feb 16, 2012 · Viewed 11.4k times · Source

How can I communicate between two PC's via USB? I want a program to send numbers trough the USB port to another PC on which another program would show these numbers. I have the feeling that this is impossible because PC's are meant to be hosts and not devices, but is USB truly this limited? I actually hate that USB is not like a COM port which just has an input buffer and an output buffer. You send and receive with ease. I looked at libusb and I could use it, but I can't find a way to make one PC a device. So is it even possible?

Answer

Turbo J picture Turbo J · Feb 16, 2012

I can't find a way to make one PC a device. So is it even possible?

No, this is not possible on a PC. USB communicates always Host->Device, and PC is always Host. You can buy a special USB2USB cable, this has a chip in the middle that communicates as device on both ends.

But I would just use a LAN cable. Every PC I know comes with Ethernet these days. TCP/IP is not too hard to use.

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