You used to be able to connect two PC’s together via the parallel port. I had to do this once to re-install Windows 95 on a laptop with a hard drive and floppy. It was painfully slow but it worked.

▲

userbinator 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1284#Characteristics

Up to 2MB/s effective throughput, better than 10M Ethernet. Likely it was slower for you due to other limitations.

▲

exidy 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I believe this was pioneered by Laplink[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplink

	▲	b3lvedere 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yup. Used to use this a lot in the DOS era. Copying files between LPT or COM ports. Slow, but worked without too much hassle.
	▲	genewitch 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		or [x\|z]modem ?

▲

chriswarbo 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> You used to be able to connect two PC’s together via the parallel port.

This could be done on Amiga too, using parnet https://crossconnect.tripod.com/PARNET.HTML

I recall it being easier to set up than a dialup modem (since the latter also required installing a TCP/IP stack)