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USB KVMs Compared
EconolineCrush writes "KVM switches have always been a great way to control multiple machines, and now they're coming with all sorts of cool USB peripheral sharing and audio switching functionality. The Tech Report has a compared a couple of the newest KVM switches from Belkin and IOGear that're worth a look if VNC just doesn't do it for you."
KVMs are good, and they certainly have a variety of specialized uses, but they're not versatile enough, in my opinion. For example, in situations where two computer might need to both be used at once. What do you do then?
I've been looking around for solutions to this problem, because I've been thinking of opening a cybercafe, and I found something called BeTwin.
BeTwin is like the inverse of a KVM switch. Instead of having one keyboard, monitor, and mouse control one of a bunch of machines.. it turns a single machine -into- the bunch of machines.
Licences are $80 a head, and you can have up to 5 people independently using a single Windows 2000/XP machine just by plugging 5 USB keyboards, 5 USB mice, and 5 graphics cards into a computer (5 USB speakers too, if you think the USB bandwidth will take it!).. absolutely ideal for cybercafes where processing requirements on each station are low.
I have decided to go with the Linux route, rather than pay these fees, but thought I'd share it anyway.
mogorific carpentry experiments
If you only have two or three machines that all need audio, it's probably a better idea to either buy a small mixer board (the slightly expensive or skill-required choice) or run them all through one another (the cheapass choice.) If you have two machines there's really no reason not to do this, unless you plan on turning one off occasionally while using the other- but if you're a KVM kinda guy chances are you leave the damn things on eternally. If they're close enough to one another and you don't use cables that are too long or loop around other things- one could use a 8 inch mini cable to connect a pair of towers sitting next to one another- you won't have any signal problems.
The clear choice seems the IOGear device- it comes with cables, has OSD, and does not hail from the nauseating Brushed Metal Plastic Alien Bubbles school of design.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Don't believe the hype. The guy asking specifically mentioned LCD screens - and they tend to look like hell when you put them through a KVM, especially one of these low end KVM switches. The reviewer was using a CRT screen, unless I'm mistaken.
I tried the previous Belkin USB KVM. It sucked. Apart from failing to switch smoothly at all - the keyboard would constantly disappear on switching and then I'd have to actually move it to another port to get it to work - the video signal was terrible. I was running at 1024x768@70Hz. It was blurry as hell.
I contacted Belkin to tell them it was the least impressive product I'd ever bought, detailing my problems.
On the monitor front, they replied that the switch was not designed to be used with LCD screens, which was why the quality was so bad.
Seriously, when you're used to pin sharp LCD displays, putting them through a KVM and turning them into something that looks like a 6 year old CRT is not such a great idea.
Maybe Belkin have fixed this issue with the new one, but bear it in mind if you have an LCD screen.
I actually have two monitors and one kbd/mouse, and use a simple Belkin no-frills USB switch with the kbd/mouse. It works like a charm - mainly because I don't think it tries to be too clever.
Oh yes - the KVM also looked rubbish on my CRT monitor too - but I traced this to the 'official' Belkin VGA cables - they sucked too. Replacing them with other (not expensive) makes of VGA extension leads improved the video quality on the CRT enormously. This was trivially proved by just using the leads as extension leads, taking the switch out of the equation. When using the Belkin leads, video quality was crap. Again, maybe they've fixed that now - I don't know - but it's something else to be aware of.
Tim