PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

PC-to-PC parallel cables

Windows NT does not support direct parallel connections, but Windows 9X Direct Cable Connection can be used to establish a parallel-to-parallel link between two PCs. You can use three types of DB25M-to-DB25M cables for a DCC parallel connection, designated by Microsoft as follows:

Standard cable

The Standard cable, shown in Table 23-5, is also called a Basic 4-bit cable, LapLink cable, or InterLink cable. This the slowest parallel DCC cable, but can be used to link computers with any types of parallel port, including dissimilar ports on the two computers. Expect throughput of 40 to 70 KB/s when using one of these cables—painfully slow, but still about 10 times the speed of DCC over a serial connection.

Table 23-5. Standard cable for use with InterLink or Direct Cable Connection

DB25M	DB25M	Connection description
2	15	Data bit 0 (active when high)
3	13	Data bit 1 (active when high)
4	12	Data bit 2 (active when high)
5	10	Data bit 3 (active when high)
6	11	Data bit 4 (active when high)
10	5	Acknowledge (active when low)
11	6	Busy (active when high)
12	4	Out of Paper (active when high)
13	3	Select (active when high)
15	2	Error (active when low)
25	25	Ground to Ground

Extended Capabilities Port cable

The Extended Capabilities Port cable, shown in Table 23-6, is also called an ECP cable. This cable can be used to link computers that both have ECP parallel ports (including IEEE-1284 ports in ECP Mode) installed and enabled. ...