Best Fix-All Windows/Linux USB 3.0 Bridge Cable or Adapter

At various times, I've had problems transferring data between Windows machines, and between Windows and Linux machines. I've spent hours troubleshooting ethernet, where Wi-Fi doesn't do the job.

It occurs to me that maybe someone has devised a cross-platform USB 3 bridging cable or adapter that I could use for data transfer. But I haven't found anything yet, after spinning my wheels for a while in Google, Amazon, and Newegg.

Anyone aware of such a product?

Not aware of a cable, but some other ways...

Create a Windows share, access from Linux with samba (or vice versa). Windows share to transfer between Windows machines.

Use sftp, usually from Windows to Linux...(because I don't know how to set up ssh on a Windows box, but WinSCP will allow a Windows connection and transfer to/from Linux). sftp/scp between Linux boxes.

(Holding head, moaning, shaking ...)

I was looking for a way to avoid Samba and all the rest. Nice and simple cross-platform solution. But I think there may just not be, and in that case your suggestion may be the best there is.

I get that...and I've certainly taken pains to avoid Samba for a long time. WinSCP to pull from/push to Linux boxes.
Windows sharing between Windows boxes...or sneakernet.

Given that all that's available, I'd be surprised if there is a USB cable solution, but I could be wrong.

I'm assuming your problem with ethernet is on Windows. I've never been able to get that to work properly. Linux it's basically idiot proof though.

Yeah, meshing different versions of Windows, old and new hardware, and also Windows to Linux. The concept is, just run the cross-platform software and then plug in the bridging cable. Seems like someone would have built an easy USB-oriented cross-platform front end for rsync or something by now. But I guess not.

Maybe I'll eventually figure out a way to use a bridging cable between Windows virtual machines, with those on Linux hosts perhaps using passthrough from a Windows 7 or 10 installation. Sheesh. At this point I can barely pronounce those words, much less make it happen. But somewhere, over the rainbow ...

If I remember correctly the older USB transfer cables with linux support created a virtual network between the two computers. You would still need to use the typical common networking protocols to share files i.e ftp, ssh/sftp or Windows file sharing i.e. SMB/CIFS (samba). I don't if USB 3.0 transfer cables are supported.

Another other option might be to setup your own cloud sharing like nextcloud or owncloud.

I would expect that transferring files between Windows computers should be fairly straight forward however it depends on versions. linux and Windows XP does not support home groups.

Stringing cables between boxes doesn’t strike me as a “nice and simple solution” if those boxes are already networked.

When on Windows, access Linux using an FTP or SCP solution. Personally I use Cygwin with OpenSSH.

When on Linux, access Windows shares using smbfs or smbclient. The server part (i.e., Samba) is not required if I remember well. AFAIK, there are also SSH servers for Windows.

Hi,

Maybe this article will help; https://askubuntu.com/questions/2070...o-linux#207103

If you have a LAN then I would suggest that you look here; https://putty.org/

I have used putty in the past without to much of a hassle.

You can also download;

Bitvise SSH Server Bitvise SSH Server is an SSH, SFTP and SCP server for Windows. It is robust, easy to install, easy to use, and works well with a variety of SSH clients, including Bitvise SSH Client, OpenSSH, and PuTTY. The SSH Server is developed and supported professionally by Bitvise. You can download Bitvise SSH Server here.

Several other alternatives that allow you to move things between Windows and Gnu/Linux. Do a search!
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Thanks for those links. It looks like Putty may be the best option available for my purposes.