You have the need to connect 2 Windows systems to be able to exchange some data.
You are (not yet ?) willing to install network cards and to deal with Ethernet cables
( coax, Twisted pair, hubs,.....) ?

Lets investigate some other options by looking at the back of your system (desktop PC or
notebook):



You should have:

1 or 2 Serial ports ( also called COM-ports)
connector with 9 pins ( "9-pin male")

Parallel port ( also called printer port )
connector with 25 holes ( "25-pin female" )

1 or 2 USB (Universal System Bus)
Desktop system have usually 2 ports,
Notebook computers usually only 1port.

Infrared port

These plugs/connectors can be used to connect 2 systems together.
Such connection is called : Direct Cable Connection ( DCC )



Like with any component on your system, you need hardware and software:

Hardware : all these connectors on the back of your PC had been originally designed to connect
add-on components to a system ( like parallel port: Printers, serial port : external modems,
USB: scanners, digital cameras,......) with 1 system as "controller".
And the cables used to plug into these connectors are designed for this use.


via USB (Universal System Bus) :

via Infrared port :

via Serial or Parallel cable : Direct Cable Connection



When now using these plugs to connect 2 systems (= 2 "Controllers"),
you need special cables (either purchased or self-made) taking care that
the 2 systems are communicate with each other.

Note: when using a parallel or serial connection, you can only
connect 2 systems, not more !

Depending on the cable, you will get different data-transfer speeds:
- Serial cable (1 bit connection) up to 10 KBytes /sec ( * )
- Basic Parallel cable (4 bit, LapLink compatible cable) up
to 60-80 KBytes /sec ( * )

- DirectParallelŽ Universal Fast Cable ( with electronics in one end of the
cable , from Parallel Technologies' ) up to 500+ Kbytes /sec ( * ) on
ECP ports ( up to 10 times that of the Basic 4-bit parallel cable ! ) .

( * ) Effective data transfer rates are depending upon PC type, CPU speed,
parallel port type, data compressibility and protocol overhead

Software :
Included with
Windows95/98/ME/NT4/2000



You may have decided to use DCC to avoid the installation of a network, but for a Windows
system, the software setup/configuration of a Direct-Cable-Connection is part of Networking
(although it may not be visible as part of networking)

Lets use Windows95, "Direct Cable Connections" as example for a "DCC Network":



The installation and operation is similar to Ethernet and "Modem" networking and involves setting up:
- Network Client
- Network Protocol
- Network Server ("File and Print Sharing")
- Network Adapter: your serial port COMx or printer-port LPTx.