I was thinking over the past year we’ve reviewed quite a few great products here at DragonSteelMods and many of them were very good, in fact quite a few were excellent and overall just extremely useful. I was contemplating possibly doing a year end round up list, not of the best products but of the products that we found the most useful, yeah there is a difference between best and most useful…
Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t start the list yet because the year isn’t over yet, and because I just got something for review that I feel is the most useful gadget yet to come my way. There are numerous ways to transfer data and share files between computers, and of course the first thing that comes to mind is home networking, and well that can be a bit daunting for a beginner, even with the wizards included with Windows.
I do quite a bit of transferring data between my laptop and my PC, and the same things for friends and relatives when they boink their systems up as well and I need to fix things but save their files. Normally I’ve got to transfer everything to a USB drive or external hard drive and it’s a pain, but the USB2.0 Direct Link Cable that I have today for review makes sharing and transferring files extremely easy and fast. No drivers are needed just plug an end into each computer and you’ve created your own little private network to transfer files. Very easy, and fast, this is one of those products that I’m happy to own and one that I will be getting a lot of use from…
USB2.0 Direct Link Cable
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: USBFever
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
USB2.0 Direct Link Cable from USBFever
-Support File Transfer Between Two Computers
Product Code#:AL152-A796
Price: US$19.99
Highlights:
Want to transfer files between two of your computers (Copying Files from one to another) easily and instantly?
Want to transfer files at greater speed?
This single cable is just the solution! Fast and Easy!
Features:
– Full compliant with USB 2.0, Fast and Easy, transfer rates up to 480Mbps
– Direct cable link of USB to USB
– Driverless (except Win 98), Plug and Play, support hot plug
– No extra power is need
– Over current protection, avoiding mis-operation damage
Usage:
– PC / PC
– PC / Laptop
– Laptop / Laptop
System Requirements:
– Windows 98, 2000, XP and Windows Vista
Options: Color
– Generic
Related Data:
– Connectors: USB A Male – USB A Male
– total length: 2 meters / 6 feet approx.
Package Contents:
– USB2.0 Direct Link Cable x 1
– Driver CD for Win 98 x 1
– User Manual x 1
A Better Look at Things
:
There’s not much at all to this product at all, it comes packaged in an easy open plastic and card board package, the cardboard just slides out and you’ve got access to the product.
The cable consists of two three foot USB cables with a coupler in the middle, the product appears well made and the USB cables are nice and thick.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
There really is no installation involved, just plug it in and Windows will recognize and install it automatically. I did find I had to restart both computers though to finish the installation, a minor inconvenience but we’re accustomed to those by now with Windows.
If we look at ‘My Computer’ we’ll see the Direct link cables actually appears as a Removable Storage drive called Thunderbird.
Once you have both computers connected you can double-click the Thunderbird icon and up will pop an Explorer style window that is split in the center, the top half is labeled ‘Remote Host’ and the bottom ‘Local Host’. I connected my laptop up to my main computer and through Thunderbird I can easily navigate my laptops hard drive to transfer data to and from it. This of course looks the same, but reversed on my laptop and the same idea applies.
I really couldn’t test the speeds of transfer as my laptop is older and is equipped with USBv1.1, so it would appear that transfer times are slow, even though transferring files seemed fast as well as was access times to the remote computer.
That’s it, there’s nothing really to this device, it’s simple and does exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Summary:
What more can I say to summarize this product? It’s great, it’s easy to use and it does exactly what it is supposed to do!
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to network computers together to share file then this is it.
It has become part of my little tech-troubleshooting toolbox, and I can recommend it to anyone else who does tech type work as well.
DragonSteelMods gives the USB2.0 Direct Link Cable from USBFever a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.
Pros:
-Very useful
-Seems well made
-Long cord
-No drivers needed
-Easy to use
-Easy installation
-Low price for it’s value
Cons:
-None really
I would like to thank USBFever for the chance to review the USB2.0 Direct Link Cable and for their continued support of DSM.
Discuss this review HERE
review# 355