Bit OT: KVM switches

[Rob Nicholson]

Err, new at Dabs is ~£14 + delivery.

[Grunff]

Last time I bought some (a couple of months ago) I was amazed how much they've come down. I remember paying £20+ per set of cables not so long ago.

[Colin Wilson]

Going slightly further afield here, but is it possible to arrange a KVM as a "pass-through" device so you can still use a keyboard and mouse on the second machine rather than the ones attached via KVM on the primary machine ?

[Andrew Gabriel]

This is the sort of thing I buy cheaply (new) from weekend computer fairs...

[Huge]

Ta, I shall look at that.

[Lurch]

On 30 Jan 2005 17:34:14 GMT, [e-mail] (Huge) strung together this:

I use VNC on all my machines, which is handy as I can sort other family members problems without leaving the chair. One thing it is pretty useless for, (unless anyone can tell me otherwise), is to use on a headless machine that requires a login, as the VNC server doesn't start until you've logged in.

For anything more than a bit of basic stuff it's a PITA. That's why I got the KVM.

[Mike Barnes]

If they're both Windows PCs you might like to take a look at this as well:

's not free, but it's only $15 and it works brilliantly. I use it regularly and it's been 100% dependable. It has features that are specific to Windows and you might (might!) not get on a more general- purpose product, e.g. send Ctrl+Alt+Del, reboot the other PC, etc.

[Bob Eager]

Not for the Belkin model I'm talking about.

[Bob Eager]

I got got good sets from CPC not lnong ago - nice quality...about 8 quid a set AFAIR.

[Bob Eager]

I forgot to mention that Dabs is almost as much a risk as ebuyer these days!

[John Rumm]

I think you can get UltraVNC to run as a service, which should sort that.

[John Rumm]

You can simply not connect all the wires. I.e. just connect video to a PC and you can switch the KVM so that your monitor displays its output, but you use the mouse and keyboard connected to the computer rather than the KVM ones.

(Also handy if you get a KVM that can do manual switching as well as function key switching)

[John Rumm]

One thing to watch if you use very hires (or high scan rate) video modes (i.e. 1280x1024 @ 85Hz or better), a good many KVMs can make a bit of a pigs breakfast out of the screen display (i.e. loss of clarity, ringing on edges etc), often simply due to the poor VGA leads bundled with them. Budget for a good set of screened XVGA leads as well and you often get dramatically better results.

One other funny I have found with my one (Belkin E series), is when running Suse Linux on one system and Windows XP on another, you would get berserk mouse mode on switching to Linux from XP (OK from Win2K). This can be fixed by hot keying to a text TTY screen and then back into the X desktop.

[Cuprager]

Belkin do a nice one that is good quality and is 'hot-key' switchable, it has 2 built in hard wired connections. I have one at work as i run linux and windows boxes. The only downside is that the picture quality suffers ever so slightly due to (i think) longer cable runs and more plugs in the way of the vga cable, or really badly if you opt for either very cheap or very long (>2m) cables.

have bought a stack of bits from ebuyer over the years and have never had a problem. The stuff is so cheap that i can handle their sometimes flaky delivery or the odd faulty 50 pence mouse!!

Gerry

[Lurch]

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 21:11:59 +0000, John Rumm strung together this:

I think it is running as a system service on all machines but I can only login locally, which is annoying when you're the other end of the house and have to reboot.

Yep, just checked, it's set as a system service.

[Rod Hewitt]

"Rob Nicholson" wrote in news:kq9Ld.174$ [e-mail]:

Bloomin' excellent device!

Got a cheap Belkin KVM - works fine. But in these days of USB, you might want to consider whether you want a purely PS/2 based KVM. Or (with DVI around) an analogue link for video? Also, consider whether you want sound to switch between PCs.

[Andrew Chesters]

'ck me! How have I ever lived without that? I've been titting about swapping HDs to get muppets data back for them for years.

Off shopping with the bosses money tomorrow!

Andrew

[Huge]

realVNC runs as a service. I can log into my XP machine using it.

[Andy Burns]

If does (or can) run as a service on W2K and WinXP with nobody logged in, I know win98/98/ME have a much reduced idea of what a "service" is so perhaps it will only start afer login on those operating systems, upgrade ...

[Andy Burns]

vnc can send c-a-d to login/reboot, tranfer files, view between combinations of windows/pda/mac/linux/psion and more ...

i.e. more things than a windows specific product ;-)