USB Link cable
 

I spend a fair chunk of my time unscrambling PCs or removing viruses etc for clergy friends (who are mostly highly computer-illiterate).

The main tool used is my laptop (IBM Thinkpad R31) and a USB-to-USB link cable (made by a firm called High Edge, and labelled HE100). That has done sterling service for some time for transferring files and virus-killers etc.

For the last couple of months, it won't work. I get an error message "Bulk Read Error 11" when I run the USB link software. It does the same between my desktop and the laptop, where it used to work fine.

I think (not sure) that this started to happen about the time I installed XP SP2.

I'm using an HE100 link cable, with GeneLink 1.08A. I think the software is by a separate supplier from the cable itself, so there may be a different software package out there that will work OK. Anyone know of a source? Google has failed me so far.

Anyone else use GeneLink or the HE100 and have any advice?

Keef,

I have not used the USB to USB connection you are talking about, but I have a suggestion for exercising the demons out of your fellow clergyman's computers.

How about just putting all the utilities you use for fighting the evil demons on a USB Dongle:

http://images10.newegg.com/productim...214-008-02.JPG

The one I use is:

http://www.swissarmy.com/webstore/im...es/53970_l.jpg

Take Care,

Richard

Thanks for those.

Yes, Richard, I have a dongle with some stuff on, but usually the job is to try to recover their stuff, and for that I used the USB-to-USB lead that doesn't work any more.

Windows Firewall? OFF, definitely! I use ZoneAlarm, which coexisted happily with the USB lead.

Have you tried Bluetooth link technology?

Or am I on about something different? :confused:

I use Bluetooth for my laptop to talk to my cellphone, but I've usually had to spend a fair bit of time to get Bluetooth links to work (laptop, iPaq, several cellphones, BT headset, and so on). I wouldn't want to be doing that in these cases.

I use the USB-USB cable mostly for dealing with friends' PCs that have been infected with viruses - first, to upload virus removal software, and second to download key files to my machine to try to unscramble them. Until recently, it was the work of a minute to install the USB link software and get the FTP set up. Now, it just doesn't work.

I'm hoping someone, somewhere will say "Ah, it's an incompatibility in XP2 grot.sys; you need to download patch XXX from YYY." No joy yet, though.

Or for someone to say "There's a new piece of software called xxx that will do the job - remove the old one and install this".

The granddaddy of file moving software make a product called filemover which works okay with SP2 apparently. Given you already have a USB cable (assuming that the cable itself isn't the cause of the problem, i.e. that it is physically damaged) you could just buy the download version.

In the good ol' pre-Windows days you could install the laplink software on the second machine without a disk - you ran a DOS command and the software was squirted down the wire by the first machine. So that's progress! Mind you, I frequently use a firewire cable to link two Macs and that works with a single key being held down as it boots, no configuration required.

To conclude:

There's a new piece of software called FileMover that will do the job - remove the old one and install this.

Thanks for that! I used to use Laplink back in the old days - with a serial and a parallel cable, and as you say with the option to squirt the software down the cable to the second machine. I think I still have Laplink floppies and manual somewhere in the cupboard...

I didn't really want a $39 item - skinflint to the last, I've now taken to using the (freebie) USB pen drive (64MB) which seems to do the job.