KVM Switch

[azurelunatic]

I just got a KVM switch -- keyboard + video + mouse -- and it is just glorious. Basically it's making it easier to hook up the good monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the noble little Chromebook George.

She's still a little slow, but a proper input/output combination is just making me so much less cranky.

Why did I wait this long?

Comments

[ekaterin]

Oh, shiny...
Do you have any recommendations on brands for KMV switches? Or is any switch good enough nowadays? I need one, as I now have 3 desktop computers, but only one monitor, and not room enough for more monitors.

[azurelunatic]

I think pretty much anything would be decent these days. I went for the cheapest one (the choices at the local Best Buy were $10 apart, and the more expensive brand also switched audio, which I decided was not worth that to me this month).

I am not sure how many brands carry 3-way; the ones I usually see are 2.

[geekosaur]

You might also want to consider something like VNC (or, for Windows, Remote Desktop) so you can use the other machines from (possibly full screen) windows on the machine in front of you.

[dreamatdrew]

You will have an impossible time finding a 3 way KVM switch. They generally come with connections for multiples-of-two connections. (In fact, I have only seen multiples of two, but I MAY have missed something.)

You could cascade 2 switches and get 3 usable connections out of it, though.

And as far as brand, for the most part, go with what you can find. A KVM is actually a pretty simple device.

[jamoche]

I like the ones with a hard physical switch better than the soft-switch ones that also switch depending on which computer is providing input, because it's very annoying to do a reboot where you need to have a key held down, only for your KVM to decide to flip over to the monitor and keyboard that isn't being rebooted because obviously that's the one you're using.

[silveradept]

Yay! Less cranky is very good. And working, usable computers is also good.

[kunzite]

It's a little backwards from a KVM, but, I have found that Synergy is a godsend program.

I have my desktop computer (mm1) that has a keyboard and mouse I want to use.
I have a pc laptop (ender) that has a screen I want to use.
I have my iBook (mm1-iBook) that I also want to use.

I place ender to the left of mm1's monitors. I place mm1-iBook to the right of mm1's monitors. So, from left to right, it's: ender, mm1, mm1-iBook.

To recap, I'm using mm1's keyboard and mouse as the inputs.

I shove the mouse cursor off the left side of mm1's monitor and it appears on ender's screen. I can now control ender using mm1's keyboard and mouse.

I shove the mouse cursor off the right side of ender's monitor and I'm once again controlling mm1.

I shove the mouse cursor off the right side of mm1's monitor and it appears on mm1-iBook's screen. I can now control mm1-iBook using mm1's keyboard and mouse.

Last I checked they have server/client programs for Windows, MacOSX and Linux.