am i dreaming or is this possible i can connect my digital camera to a computer with a usb port and then open it's folders and transfer photos, i reads it as an external drive, why can't another computer be read the same way etc. is it possible to connect my laptop to another computer using a dual male usb cable and do the same?, (or 2 firewire equipped computers) i know i should use a home network but it it seems i need more equipment than just 2 computers with lan cards and a cable... it would also help at work where my floppy less laptop needs to transfer files to various older computers that aren't connected to a network...i used to just tranfer files by floppy but my new laptop doesn't have 1 and burning everything to cdrw ia a pain esp for 1 old computer that can't read cdrw's... i still haven't been able to transfer files from my old amstrad nc100 using the null cable i made up from 2 old mouse serial cables and an advanced serial connection, despite spending hours on it and mucking around with transfer speeds etc... it seems that this should be a simple thing to do but as i never hear of anyone talking about it i assume it is not considered needed or possible???;o( eric e

If you get a special USB cable (for that purpose) you can use direct connection to hook up to PCs. But you can do the same thing with cross over serial cable, which if you haven't been able to do suggests that you need to more carefully follow the XP instructions. Reason the camera just needs a plain USB connection is all you are doing is directly accessing the memory storage card, not a computer/processor/etc.

a special usb cable is that a null modem cable that works through the usb ports? new laptop doesn't have serial/parallel or infrared ports so advanced connection seems out of the question but if i can make up a null modem usb cable i'll give that a go thanks for the tip will do some more searching about those cables and maybe dig out the old amstrad again and try again from scratch eric e

ok i've found them, usb bridge cables with active electronics in the middle of the cable, also need special software... damn, simple things get difficult quickly eric e

If both computers do have a LAN-card, you can also use a crossed UTP-cable, and simply connect both computers together. You don't need more hardware. It's easy to find the way to do so on the web. Andre.

You should find most of the answers to your main questions at: http://www.helmig.com covers all aspects of M$ OS networking; with/without a hub etc.; USB and DCC modes too. Software you already have in your OS.