[ale] USB A -> USB A Cable

Mike Panetta ahuitzot at mindspring.com
Sun Sep 21 15:38:07 EDT 2003


A hub won't do what he wants.  Assuming what he really wants is a USB A->A cable (which does not or may, but should not exist).
The USB A port is the host port.  A female USB A port is on every computer and hub.  Hubs also have a USB B port (to go from the computer to the hub using a USB A->B cable), as hubs are devices.  USB only supports host to device connections (ie its not multi master like firewire) thats why there are 2 different types of connectors, its to force you to only be able to connect devices to hosts, and not devices to devices or hosts to hosts.  Now there are things that will allow you to connect USB hosts to other USB hosts, they are a kind of bridge (the "networking" thingie I mentioned) that shows up to each computer as a USB device with special properties.

Either way the USB spec does not allow USB host to host connections without some imtermediary device (bridge) in between.  That is why there are no USB A->A cables (or there should not be because they would serve no purpose other then to frustrate the user and possibly damage the hardware).

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: David Corbin <dcorbin at machturtle.com>
Sent: Sep 21, 2003 8:03 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>, Jim Popovitch <jimpop at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [ale] USB A -> USB A Cable

On Sunday 21 September 2003 00:40, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-09-20 at 23:57, Mike Panetta wrote:
> > Whay would you want one?  USB hosts can't be directly connected to other
> > USB hosts, so it serves no purpose.  Maybe what you really want is one of
> > the USB "networking" thingies?
>
> Ahh, maybe that's the deal.  I need an A to A connection to connect my
> laptop up to some Cisco devices.
>

Yes.  You need a USB hub.


-- 
David Corbin <dcorbin at machturtle.com>

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