Tom's Hardware KVM Roundup

nexex writes: "Tom's Hardware has a new article with a review of several KVM switches. I have considering buying a KVM switch as I seem to collect/use more & more computers, I feel left with little choice :) While I have several friends who have taken the plunge, they have all spent wildly different amounts on them. Granted price plays a great factor on the features you get, but how do you know which one is not going to end up letting you down? If you end up with el cheapo, you will most certainly end up regretting it, as this device will be carrying the signals of your primary input and output to your systems."

Comments

Success Varies

[ZxCv]

I had a Belkin 2-port for a long time that worked nearly flawlessly. The only problem I ever had with it was switching away from an X session and then going back would cause the mouse to go haywire to the point of needing to restart X. Not sure if this was the fault of X or the KVM switch, but either way it was annoying. :-)

A few months back I was looking through uBid.com and found a 4-port KVM that had plenty of features (more than the Belkin, at least) and even included 2 free cable sets. I had never heard of the brand (Genie), but I figured at only $100, it was worth a shot to get all my machines hooked up to the KVM and thus ditch an extra monitor. And luckily enough, it has performed flawlessly. It still irks me to remember how much I paid for the original 2 port Belkin (almost $300 a couple years ago) now that this "cheapo" one is working so well, but its also good to see the good features and stability of the higher end KVMs coming to the lower end of the price range.

Why no networked KVM?

[JoeShmoe]

Before you yell out VNC, follow me...

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a box you could tack onto your existing system to pump the basic IO over your existing CAT-5 wiring? My ideal unit would have the following

Input jumper for power switch control
Input jumper for reset button control
Light sensor for power light
Light sensor for HDD light
Light sensor for Link light
Light sensor for Act light
Serial PS/2 port for keyboard
Serial PS/2 port for mouse
15-pin RGB port for monitor

Here's how it would work. You mount the box on the back of your server unit and connect your power and reset buttons to the unit and connect the unit to the reset/power jumpers on the motherboard. You stick the light sensors near the respective LEDs. You wire up the KVM to the unit and optionally plug the local devices into the unit.

Now, the unit is a little linux box that takes the input and sends it over the network (now we're using VNC) to my remote session. The bonus is that I can still see the unit if it's crashed (the VNC service or the whole dang box). I can boot into the BIOS and make changes. I can run utilites and so on from DOS sessions. Plus, I can click a button and reset the box, or power it down. If I connect to the session and see no image, I can see if the power light is on or if there is any hard drive/network activity.

I can think of about a billion times in my techie lifespan that I've wished for such a device. Yes, I know there devices you can use to remotely power off a computer. Yes, I know I could setup a webcam to monitor some lights. Yes, I know VNC gets me most of the way there.

But it's not cost effective to buy one of these for each server. I would rather have one box that could control 4/8/16 boxes. It's just a standard KVM with some extra inputs attached to its own dedicated Linux box!

So please, Linksys, Belkin...whoever...can't someone please build this, or show me a link to something like this?

- JoeShmoe

Re:Why no networked KVM?

[JoeShmoe]

Oh, and for bonus points...how about another connect to allow this network KVM to function as a floppy boot device? IE, I would transfer a floppy image (say a BIOS update or a Ghost boot disk) to the KVM from my workstation, reboot and have the remote system boot to the "Floppy" on the KVM. Then I "eject" the floppy and reboot into the normal mode.

I forgot that floppy swapping is another big reason I've had to make wasteful trips to the server room, which I would like to eliminate.

- JoeShmoe