Using USB to Separate Computer and Keyboard/Mouse?

Klaus Thorn asks: "As a member of a technical team that plans a radio station with several audio-editing cabins I'm thinking about separating the noisy heat-producing computer from the cabin using one VGA cable and one USB cable. The computer is in the computer storage room. In the cabin there is (besides LCD) an USB hub with keyboard, mouse, soundcard and CDR-drive. Has anyone tried this? I need to know whether this all-USB-solution is clean and stable or a bunch of problems. I need to know what distance I can put between cabin and computer-storage room. Let's assume USB 2.0 and amplifying USB cables and Windows XP."

"One more detail: When the admin changes some hardware in the computer store room he does not want to run to the cabin to push a button. He could plug out the USB cable and plug in another USB cable that is connected to mouse and keyboard in the same room. After he's finished he could exchange the usb cables again (to the one leading to the cabin). This is only sensible if the computer will accept all four USB devices without driver reinstall and reboot. Anyone tried this or can predict wether this will work?"

Comments

Try it yourself

[Rick the Red]

Not to be flip, but why not try it yourself? Surely you have a Windows PC with at least one USB port, so give it a go. From personal experience when I unplug most USB devices Windows gives a warning that I should have told it first, but Windows doesn't crash. You might also try two keyboards (one in each of two USB ports) to see if you don't need to unplug the remote keyboard to use a local one (I'm sure you can find PCs with two USB ports and use one for local, the other for remote).

As for how far you can go, I would think VGA is your limiting factor, not USB.