While possible with minor modification, connecting via USB cable is not directly supported. The emphasis is on using this with sophisticated software packages (e.g., Meta's Adaptive Experimentation platform) that are not typically supported via the lightweight MicroPython firmware that runs on the microcontroller. For private, secure communication between the Pico W microcontroller and the client (e.g., Jupyter notebook running locally), a free, private HiveMQ instance can be set up per the instructions in Software Setup.