Question : Parallel Data Transfer Cable Vs Ethernet Crossover Cable

While connecting TWO computers,whats the difference in speed like between a Parallel Data Transfer Cable and Ethernet Crossover Cable?
Which one would be a better option?
My guess is CrossOver should be a better option.

Answer : Parallel Data Transfer Cable Vs Ethernet Crossover Cable

Ethernet would be faster, even a 10BaseT is at least twice as fast so 100BaseT, well you can do the math.
Here's some history and additional info on parallel comms.

Prior to the 1284 standard the PC parallel port model was a simple register set that the host driver could access. In order to transfer data the host driver was required to access the register and manage all the handshaking and data transfer. Since the parallel port was mapped into the ISA bus I/O space the fastest the driver could access the port was 1Mbyte per second. With an overhead of 4 port accesses per data transfer this put a limit of 250Kbytes per second as the fastest the PC could transfer data using the Centronics printer protocol. It would require nearly 100% of the PC utilization in order to achieve this rate. In order to keep the PC responsive actual data rates were on the order of 50KB/S to 150KB/S.

The 1284 standard provided new data transfer protocols that could be implemented in an enhanced register model. One of the key advantages of this was that the register model could remain backward compatible with the existing model but add enhanced features for better data transfer. This was achieved by implementing hardware state machines that would offload the data transfer handshaking form the host driver. The Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) and Extended Capabilities Port (ECP) are these advanced modes.
These modes enable data transfer rates of over 1MB/S with reduced host utilization on today's ISA ports, and 3-5MB/S on future PCI implementations.