File transfer between two laptops

[BryanFazekas]

Sander Rossel wrote:

Why would you even want to return to such brutal methods in the age of fast internet?

I have files that I do not want on the internet, so using it as an intermediary is not acceptable. OTOH, I pay for the MS 365 subscription and have the files that don't matter in OneDrive, so they are accessible on my desktop, laptop, and phone.

[danbergen]

Have you tried AirDroid? AirDroid Personal's Nearby feature lets you effortlessly share files with friends and families even without the internet.

Dan

[darktrick544]

Lap Link (that takes me back)

[User 3866237]

How about setting up a FTP-Server either on the Windows or Mac machine in your local network, i.e FileZilla :)

[Cpichols]

Quick! Do it at the end of the month.

[rtischer8277]

File transfer using Skype has always worked for me. Just don't make the mistake of centralizing your PCs under a Microsoft account. They will push you in that direction at every opportunity. Create an email account for each of your PCs and use that email to sign in to each of your PCs. No need for an A to B wire. My 12 PCs are mostly ethernet-connected desktops but some are Wifi-connected. Skype used to be P2P, but after Microsoft took over your files will still have to go through their server farm. They didn't used to. But consider this: Skype to Skype transfer of files, any size, anywhere, is still free. And that's probably why they are trying to extinguish Skype with their Teams product. But for now, Skype is certainly a proven technology and is to be preferred over some obscure A B connector technology. Finally, Microsoft PC file sharing ACL is a nightmare. Always has been. Always will be.

[Member_14192382]

Perhaps a USB/RJ45 adapter?

[Ralf Quint]

Just use a network cable between them. Works for me just fine, at Gigabit speeds (well, almost, depending on the machine)...

[JP Reyes]

I think you meant a SCSI cable (it was the USB of its day on desktops and high end workstations)

[Member 4650365]

Maybe LapLink, using a serial cable or special cable to link two printer ports?

[Richard Jones]

I used a product called LapLink long ago, with special blue or yellow cables, depending on serial or parallel.

[Matthew Barnett]

What I usually do is write something in Python for both machines that transfers via a socket. That's how I transfer files between my Windows PC and a Raspberry Pi.

[JohnDG52]

What's the dropbox limit?

[sasadler]

You're a baby, built my first computer (actually wire wrapped most of the boards) back in 78.

[ScottTheFortranHacker]

In all the discussion, nobody mentioned that you can do this, found on YouTube, by BarTech TV: How to share a Mac Drive with a Windows 10 PC Seems like a good solution if you need to do it repeatedly, and files stay local.

[trønderen]

I was a SCSI fan for several years, trusting it to become The standard for disks, printers, scanners, ... SCSI had professional qualities that deserved a better fate. But when I had to buy an adapter cable for my eight SCSI plug 'standard', and the salesman nodded, 'But there are fourteen different ones in use, I called it quit. SCSI did have one big disadvantage, though: It was parallel standard, with lots of wires. So cables were thick and stiff, most plug alternatives were large. I have been fearing that USB would suffer the same fate with a bewilderment of plugs - A, B, Mini, Micro, A 3.x, Micro 3.x, B 3.x, and then C ... There are even Mini A and Micro A that I've never seen in real life. That makes 10 different ones ... After my experiences with SCSIO, I was about to ditch USB completely, and when the first alternative to or variation of USB C comes, I will. For now, it looks as if USB C may be turn out as a real Standard plug that will live for at least a few more years without 'improvements'. I am in the process of mentally accepting it; it is not quite there yet. (I am using it, but still with some reluctance and distrust.) There is a good programming (and debugging!) rule, saying that 'Constants ain't! Variables won't!' I am tempted to add: 'Standards ain't!'

[trønderen]

Sander Rossel wrote:

I've been using computers since I was seven or eight years old, which is quite early for someone my age :-D

Correction: You were knowingly using computers from you were seven or eight year old. At that time, even two year olds were using computers regularly, but they didn't think of them as such. Embedded computers were all over the place, even in those days. At the time when you were seven or eight, I was regularly in contact with (and made a few tools for) visually handicapped kids. When their classmates learned to write A, B, C with a pencil, they learned to write A, B, C on their keyboard, using WordPerfect. The first graders never related to it as 'using a computer', but as a writing tool. They also used 'bulletin boards' (using modems, at 300 bps) to communicate in writing with their friends, not thinking of it as using the internet - which it technically wasn't, but when internet gradually took over, they hardly noticed the technology change. They had known the functionality for years.

[trønderen]

To me, that argument makes perfect sense.

[trønderen]

When I was teaching at a Tech. College in the early 1990s, one of the student exercises were implementing a simplified Kermit over a serial line between two PCs. The first part of the exercise was soldering a null modem cable. This was commonly known among the lecturers as The exercise that the students would remember, and come back to the lecturers to thank them for providing, many years later. The students learned a lot about communication, synchronization, debugging of distributed systems, ... Even though the setup was very simple, all the elements were there. At that time, I also learned that the oil company of the Norwegian state (it has been renamed a few times; I think it was named Statoil back then) actually used Kermit for transferring data from their 'technical', VAX based systems, to their 'administrative', IBM mainframe based systems holding their huge databases. They had made several unsuccessful attempts at finding some protocol implementation for direct VAX to IBM communication, but both companies were famous for their 'Protocol xyz with a twist' policy, using that 'twist' as a wrench to force their customers into obedience. But both were willing to pass files to/from PCs (of their own DOS variants, of course), and both PCs were capable of running Kermit over a null modem cable. When I visited them with a group of students, they proudly showed us the two PCs, side by side on a small desk, running as "modems" between this huge IBM mainframe and this powerful top-range VAX, transferring data at 19.2 kbps 24/7. Bottom line: Kermit may be an alternative. It has been used for such purposes by billion-dollar companies.

[trønderen]

Which computer has a parallel adapter nowadays? Several years ago, I dug up some old serial port equipment, for plugging it into my computer. I searched it all over, but couldn't find the serial port. The computer was a couple years old. I had owned it for more than two years without noticing that it didn't have an RS232 serial port! (Later, I discovered that the mainboard actually had a COM1 header, so I could have plugged in an old bracket with a 9-pin RS232 socket from one of my old, discarded PCs, but at that time I had found alternate solutions.) To find a PC with a parallel port, I will have to visit the museum part of my old PC collection. They never ran anything but DOS.