Data transmission via Ethernet crossover setup
Data transmission via Ethernet crossover setup
Hi everyone, I recently set up a new rig and moved some files from my laptop to it to clear up space. I’ve managed to share files through my existing network smoothly—using things like Bluesound Node, moderate file transfers, Plex, etc.—by creating shared folders via my wireless connection. But there’s been a challenge for over ten years: connecting computers directly with an Ethernet cable in Windows. In the past, I used a crossover cable, but now everything is gigabit and I don’t need to dig up old cables.
It was slow over Wi-Fi for hundreds of thousands of files (~120GB total), but now it’s much faster once I set up manual IP addresses in the network adapter settings. I’m trying to avoid making mistakes by going back, especially since I want to be careful.
Is there a straightforward method to link two computers this way? Something like plugging in the cable, using a networking tool, and selecting shared folders—either through the wizard or directly in folder properties? Honestly, if I had a proper wired setup, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But right now, I’m not sure.
On a side note, I wonder if it’s worth it to try this instead of using something simpler like a Bittorrent file or a large USB drive. Any suggestions would be appreciated. From a security perspective, I’m also questioning whether I should even attempt this. I remember as a kid, on dial-up, we had to use floppy disks and never had the luxury of zip drives or CD burners—transferring files felt like a real hassle!
Have you attempted to connect via Ethernet on your laptop and ensure both devices are connected to the same network? You should be able to access files using File Explorer by simply dragging and dropping. It’s possible if you’re not sure about the setup.
You don't require a crossover cable. All Gigabit network cards are compatible with auto pair detection, identifying the other card and determining the correct wire pairs for data flow. Crossover cables are only necessary for 100 mbps Ethernet devices. Essentially, the quickest method is to use a standard Ethernet cable between computers or link them to a network switch. Assign each device a distinct IP address—for instance, one computer could get 192.168.0.1 and another 192.168.0.2—using the same subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This informs every card they belong to the same network, allowing them to obtain an IP address without contacting a router or switch. If you connect the computers directly with a simple cable, they form a single network segment. You’ll establish a connection and can exchange files. The simplest approach is to share a folder on the network; from one computer, you can browse it in Windows Explorer, seeing the shared content. Personally, I favor using Filezilla FTP Server on one machine and Filezilla FTP Client on the other. It doesn’t matter which you use—either download or upload files. The installation for Filezilla takes under five minutes: create a user account with its password and specify a folder to serve. Filezilla FTP Client is equally straightforward, requiring only a few steps (set binary transfers and adjust simultaneous connections). I shared a tutorial a few years ago: http://savedonthe.net/a/tutorial_filezilla.mp4. It doesn’t include audio since it was recorded in Romanian, but the instructions are clear. The advantage of FTP is its ability to handle multiple files at once, with resume functionality if the connection drops or a machine restarts. Parallel transfers greatly accelerate large file exchanges, whereas network shares move just one file at a time.
I understand, but I wanted to make sure you had the right approach. You were thinking about using Windows tools like a networking wizard or FTP for easier file transfers. I’ll try that next time. Right now, I’m roughly in the middle of transferring files—about a third done, started when I posted this. Updated March 19, 2020 by metaleggman
It probably won't accelerate your transfer then. Many tiny files increase protocol delay and resource use at the storage level. In practice, you might link them together and talk to the APIPA address they create. Alternatively, assigning a fixed static IP in another subnet is simpler for that PTP connection.
TBF, the setup involves numerous small files and some massive ones in separate folders. It really improved handling of the bigger files. I did experience a slight slowdown with the smaller files, mostly during Windows' initial processing before the transfer. I didn’t consider using APIPA addresses. For future reference, using FTP—especially something like MariaDB mentioned—seems like the simplest option, as it allows me to pause and restart it if needed. It wasn’t possible to enable more than 260 characters in file paths, so I had to navigate through folders to check transfers. Overall, the answer seems to be a definitive no. Womp womp. Thanks for your assistance!
The maximum number of connections in Filezilla ftp client is 10, but there's no rule saying you can't open multiple Filezilla ftp clients. You just have to be careful so that each ftp client downloads different folders ... for example have one client download C:\Games, another download C:\Movies and so on Another trick is using one client for one partition (ex c:\) and another client for another partition (ex d:\ ) Another trick i sometimes use is to configure one download thread, drag a big folder over and wait until all files are added to transfer queue. Then, you can right click on the queue and pause transfers, then sort the queue by file sizes and select all BIG files and raise the priority to those big files. Now Filezilla will transfer the big files, and leave the small size files at the end. You can now limit the number of parallel connections to 3-5 if the big transfers trash your mechanical drive (reading 3-5 4GB+ files in parallel should easily saturate your network card, and do 125 MB/s) and when those big transfers are done, you can raise the parallel connections to the maximum configurable of 10 and finish with the small files. With small files, multiple parallel connections helps as while a connection is closed and new open is opened for a new file transfer, you have other 9 connections active, so at any point you're actually transferring something, so overall you get a higher transfer speed. Mechanical drives won't have any issues with getting 10 random files at a time, as often those small files are within proximity of the other, so most likely they're gonna be in those 32-64-128 MB of cache on the mechanical drive, there's not gonna be so much seeking to cause the drive to slow down. With big files, mechanical drives can sustain 125 MB/s even when transferring 10 big files in parallel .... SSDs have no problems in all scenarios ... they can keep up with the gigabit of the network card.
Connect all devices to a single switch or router for a solid network setup.