Off Topic: can anyone recommend a USB KVM
Claude Jones
cjones at levitjames.com
Mon Jan 21 16:17:38 UTC 2008
On Monday January 21 2008 12:48:32 am Richard England wrote:
> The IOGear KVMs I mentiioned earlier were either PS2 to PS2 or
> USB to USB. There was no crossover. I was not aware of those
> until it was pointed out that they exist here.
>
> These were NOT powered units. I've seen one Belkin multiple
> connection externally powered unit (4 ports I believe) that
> it, several years ago, was a right royal pain. Things just
> never switched properly with it. Could have been that switch,
> but it was new at the time. The newer ones, however, might be
> better so do not take my anecdotal evidence too strongly
> unless you are acquiring a used Belkin.
Thanks for that clarification, Richard. I've got a IOGear PS2
model that has been buried under a mound of cables behind my
monitor stack for three years, or so, and I've never had to get
to it because it just works. This whole problem is actually
someone else's, my employer, and his situation is slightly
complicated by the fact that he's got a kvm connected to his
kvm; he's got an Avocent remote unit that is connected via CAT5
to a KVM in our server farm, so he can do server administration
from his office; the remote Avocent unit in his office then
connects to a local KVM which allows him to switch between
various computers in his office and the remote Avocent.
We suspect that the issues he's having involve the USB protocols
and how they behave. I think with USB KVM's, at least older
units, each time you switch to a different machine, the machine
had to redetect the keyboard and mouse as
newly-plugged-in-devices, and this was causing issues in the
environment in which we were operating.
We're going to look at a newer IOGear unit I found on their
website that seems to address this: "With IOGEAR's USB Sniffing
Technology you can use your favorite USB keyboard to control all
features of the USB KVM. The MiniView™ II USB features keyboard
and mouse emulation so your computer never loses touch with its
peripherals." (From the IOGear website page on the model
#GCS124U KVM)
Hopefully, the emulation will solve the issues we've been having.
I'll report back since this seems to be an issue of interest.
--
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA
More information about the fedora-list
mailing list