Small Office File Sharing through USB 3 3.1 optical USB cable

DonMurray · 11 May 2019

They now make optical cable for usb 3 I am looking for ways to share files with 3 computers from one hard drive that is faster than Ethernet. My thinking is that it would probably be more secure because you can easily unplug USB without causing problems. maybe my thinking is wrong here and there is no way to share one hard drive via USB 3 with three computers. ?

Or like instead of using a NAS or a file server for a small office maybe a USB hub that shares files from a hard drive.
Any thoughts or ideas ?
If it was an office where only one person at a time plugged into the drive that would definitely work if I could find some type of USB hub that would plug into the hard drive.

Lugh · 12 May 2019

What 2 of us use here is a USB plugged into our wireless router. It's fine, but definitely isn't 'faster than Ethernet'—but I assume a wired router would match Ethernet speed.

hsehestedt · 12 May 2019

Donny, I must admit that I am not very familiar with optical adapters for USB 3, but from a quick online search it seems like much of what I am seeing is limited to gigabit speeds so that's not really providing a benefit over gigabit Ethernet.

However, if you are really looking for some speed, is Thunderbol3 3 with USB-C connections available to you? It's capable of up to 40 gigabit speeds.

My understanding is that 40Gbps is extremely expensive with 10Gbps being much more reasonable and 20Gbps point to point connections being possible with nothing more than a cable needed.

Caledon Ken · 13 May 2019

If I might jump in.

I understand the need for speed but once sync'ed and the bulk of the data is on the Shared storage device and the connecting computer do you really need all that speed to re-sync. I would expect the number of changed files to not be that big. Of course if you are re-syncing some massive data base on every sync maybe you need that speed.