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It's a little janky (you have to boot to recovery mode), but you _kinda_ can with modern macs by using Target Disk Mode. The drive appears as a network share,

It's a little janky (you have to boot to recovery mode), but you _kinda_ can with modern macs by using Target Disk Mode. The drive appears as a network share, but it's not bidirectional, in that you can read/write from/to the target device, but the target device do the same to you.

zbrozek 2y ago
That's undershooting the possibility by a lot. If I plug two computers into each other via USB I would expect the OS on each to establish a network link at the best-available bandwidth.
- vardump 2y ago
  That’s what already happens (at least with TB, USB 4?). 10 Gbps networking. Although it seems to have really high latency for whatever reason.
  - zbrozek 2y ago
    I'd like it to work USB 1.1 through 3.2, not just Thunderbolt. We have dual role, why aren't we using it? Host side thinks it's talking to a NIC, device side acts like a NIC.
- acchow 2y ago
  On Mac, You can establish a thunderbolt-bridge network connection and then share files. But it's not automatic. You gotta do it manually https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-connect-mac-computers-mchld53dd2f5/mac#:~:text=To%20transfer%20files%20between%20the,connection%20option%2C%20then%20click%20Connect https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-conn.... I would have expected airdrop to automatically switch to thunderbolt if such a connection exists, but it doesn't.
  - jasomill 2y ago
    Unless something has changed in recent macOS versions, by default: 1. Thunderbolt Bridge exists and is enabled. 2. All active (enabled, connected) interfaces get link-local IPv6 addresses. 3. All active interfaces without static or DHCP-assigned IPv4 addresses get link-local IPv4 addresses. 3. Multicast DNS (Bonjour) is enabled. So basic networking should be automatic, though no file sharing services are enabled by default.
    - acchow 2y ago
      That's great! I wonder when they will automatically switch Airdrop over to thunderbolt when one is available.
  - zbrozek 2y ago
    I'd like to do this with actual universal serial bus (USB), not peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) on a universal serial bus connector.

zbrozek 2y ago

That's undershooting the possibility by a lot. If I plug two computers into each other via USB I would expect the OS on each to establish a network link at the best-available bandwidth.

vardump 2y ago
That’s what already happens (at least with TB, USB 4?). 10 Gbps networking. Although it seems to have really high latency for whatever reason.
- zbrozek 2y ago
  I'd like it to work USB 1.1 through 3.2, not just Thunderbolt. We have dual role, why aren't we using it? Host side thinks it's talking to a NIC, device side acts like a NIC.
acchow 2y ago
On Mac, You can establish a thunderbolt-bridge network connection and then share files. But it's not automatic. You gotta do it manually https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-connect-mac-computers-mchld53dd2f5/mac#:~:text=To%20transfer%20files%20between%20the,connection%20option%2C%20then%20click%20Connect https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-conn.... I would have expected airdrop to automatically switch to thunderbolt if such a connection exists, but it doesn't.
- jasomill 2y ago
  Unless something has changed in recent macOS versions, by default: 1. Thunderbolt Bridge exists and is enabled. 2. All active (enabled, connected) interfaces get link-local IPv6 addresses. 3. All active interfaces without static or DHCP-assigned IPv4 addresses get link-local IPv4 addresses. 3. Multicast DNS (Bonjour) is enabled. So basic networking should be automatic, though no file sharing services are enabled by default.
  - acchow 2y ago
    That's great! I wonder when they will automatically switch Airdrop over to thunderbolt when one is available.
- zbrozek 2y ago
  I'd like to do this with actual universal serial bus (USB), not peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) on a universal serial bus connector.