If you had two PC's, and coupled them together via LAN ports using cat5/ethernet cable, could you transfer files between them, and how fast would the transfer be?

IE, to send a 700mb AVI file from my PC to an external HDD connected by USB2 takes about 3 mins - would it be faster if sent to another PC via ethernet cable?

 

you would need a cross over cable if you was running them direct, transfer speed would depend which network cards you have most standard ones are 100mbs

 

Yes it would be faster expecially with gigabit ethernet and the appropiate high speed cabling, however 3 minutes is not a long time to wait, use this a break from the pc and have a cuppa

 

Unseen - the USB2 is fine for transferring from the PC to the external HDD enclosure, but I am thinking when I move I might have a PC upstairs and one downstairs, so rather than trans from one to the external HDD, then from external HDD to the other PC, I was thinking linking the two PC's together - and I guess that USB cable across that sort of length isn't the best idea.... Don't know if you can even connect two PC's together via USB cable for file transfer.....

NRG - I though I would probably need cross over cable (something about the wires being linked to different pins?)

Each PC would have a 10/100 LAN card in them (one is a built in port and the other is a PCI card)

 

yes you can usb network two pc's togeather... ethernet will always be faster through

the crossover cable works as follows

 

just how unseenmenace has put, you can go through the mains of you house instead of having cables every where http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...=46494&doy=5m2 with one of these they work well bit better than wireless