KVM - can I choose what to connect?
rpgs rock dvds
However, don't want 4 mice,keyboards,headphones.
Can I get this to work? ie, will a KVM allow me to connect 4 PCs to
one mouse,keyboard,headphone but not share any monitors?
Any comments gratefully received, thank you, best regards, Robert.
PS, can you add a 2nd keyboard,mouse and have both sets of
keyboards,mice to work at the same time so you don't have to press a
switch button on the KVM?
Arno Wagner
> Got 4 PCs, thinking of getting a KVM. Got 4 monitors, need them all.
> However, don't want 4 mice,keyboards,headphones.
> Can I get this to work? ie, will a KVM allow me to connect 4 PCs to
> one mouse,keyboard,headphone but not share any monitors?
Yes. Just do not connect the monitors over the KVM switch.
> Any comments gratefully received, thank you, best regards, Robert.
> PS, can you add a 2nd keyboard,mouse and have both sets of
> keyboards,mice to work at the same time so you don't have to press a
> switch button on the KVM?
Do you mean you want a second mouse and keyboard on some PCs that
are not connected over the KVM swich? If they use USB and the
OS in the PCs support thism, then you can. Might not work
during bootup though.
Arno
Al Dykes
>However, don't want 4 mice,keyboards,headphones.
>
>Can I get this to work? ie, will a KVM allow me to connect 4 PCs to
>one mouse,keyboard,headphone but not share any monitors?
>
Yes, connect the video-outs to the monitors instead of teh KVM box.
>Any comments gratefully received, thank you, best regards, Robert.
>
>PS, can you add a 2nd keyboard,mouse and have both sets of
>keyboards,mice to work at the same time so you don't have to press a
>switch button on the KVM?
I think USB works like that. If you hook several SUB mice to one
machine, they wil all move the cursor when moved. Try two USB
keyboaads and see what happens. They might have to be identical.
IMO, you could get yourself very confused when you try to use this
lash-up.
--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
rpgs rock dvds
Thank you for your help.
Re: "Do you mean you want a second mouse and keyboard on some PCs that
are not connected over the KVM swich?" ... I meant:
Sometimes I'll need to control 2 PCs (with 2 monitors) at the same
time. For this I'd need 2 sets of mice/keyboards. However, the
actual PCs themselves may change (out of the 4 possible available).
Therefore I was hoping that the KVM device would allow me to select 2
'active' mouse/keyboard/audio ports for this scenario.
hehe, to be honest, this is confusing me just thinking about this! I
think if I can muddle my way thru this by just using 1 mouse/keyboard/
headphone for 4 PCs, but have 4 monitors, then that's the main problem
solved. I know I'm going to need 2 sets of mice/keyboards for
controlling 2 PCs at the same time, and will have to experiment a bit
to get things working OK.
btw, was browing thru ebuyer (dot com), and thought this could be a
possibility:
SwitchView MM1 4-port KVM Switch
Many thanks, best regards, Robert.
rpgs rock dvds
> In article <83f2b975-2f9a-4949-8a31-b0ea35107...@m71g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
Thanks for your reply. I posted some details to the other guy who
responded, in case you're interested.
Cheers, Robert.
Arno Wagner
There are KTM switches that have this "dual channel" capability.
They were significantly more expensive that last time I checked
(some years ago) though. If it is not stated explicitely, then
the KTM switch cannot do it.
> hehe, to be honest, this is confusing me just thinking about this! I
> think if I can muddle my way thru this by just using 1 mouse/keyboard/
> headphone for 4 PCs, but have 4 monitors, then that's the main problem
> solved.
;-)
> I know I'm going to need 2 sets of mice/keyboards for
> controlling 2 PCs at the same time, and will have to experiment a bit
> to get things working OK.
> btw, was browing thru ebuyer (dot com), and thought this could be a
> possibility:
> SwitchView MM1 4-port KVM Switch
If I read this correctly, this one supports either USB or PS/2,
but not both at the same time, so you only get 1->4, not 2->4.
Side note: Some KTM switches want special (expensive) cables.
Take one that uses standard cables you can get cheap.
Arno
Arno Wagner
> In article <83f2b975-2f9a-4949...@m71g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
> rpgs rock dvds <rpgsro...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>>Got 4 PCs, thinking of getting a KVM. Got 4 monitors, need them all.
>>However, don't want 4 mice,keyboards,headphones.
>>
>>Can I get this to work? ie, will a KVM allow me to connect 4 PCs to
>>one mouse,keyboard,headphone but not share any monitors?
>>
> Yes, connect the video-outs to the monitors instead of teh KVM box.
>>Any comments gratefully received, thank you, best regards, Robert.
>>
>>PS, can you add a 2nd keyboard,mouse and have both sets of
>>keyboards,mice to work at the same time so you don't have to press a
>>switch button on the KVM?
> I think USB works like that. If you hook several SUB mice to one
> machine, they wil all move the cursor when moved. Try two USB
> keyboaads and see what happens. They might have to be identical.
Actually USB does nothing for this. It is purely a driver-side
feature.
> IMO, you could get yourself very confused when you try to use this
> lash-up.
Indeed...
Arno
Marten Kemp
I have a Belkin 16-port KVM switch with two sets of inputs -
two CRTs, keyboards and mice - than can be switched to any
of the 16 output ports.
--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
rpgs rock dvds
>
> - Show quoted text -
Many thanks for the info. Thanks also to everyone else's input.
Re: "Take one that uses standard cables"
Yes, this is what I am most worried about. I have looked at some KVM
products online, and many (all?) seem to require a special vga+keyboard
+mouse "all-in-one" cable. As I really want to use my nice DVI-D
video cables, and not KVM cables, I am worried that I won't be able to
achieve my basic objective, which is to use a KVM device purely for
just keyboard, mouse and audio sharing. This is my worry ATM.
Best regards, from Robert.
rpgs rock dvds
> rpgs rock dvds <rpgsrockd...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:> On 3 Apr, 13:59, Arno Wagner <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
> > Sometimes I'll need to control 2 PCs (with 2 monitors) at the same
> > time. For this I'd need 2 sets of mice/keyboards. However, the
> > actual PCs themselves may change (out of the 4 possible available).
> > Therefore I was hoping that the KVM device would allow me to select 2
> > 'active' mouse/keyboard/audio ports for this scenario.
>
> cost around USD 60.- each.
> but if is only for the mice and keyboards, you might be happy with thishttp://www.usbswitch.com/
> Just use keybords with builtin hubs to connect the mice.
> Chris
Interesting product. If I can find something like that to also share
audio, that would be great. Also, do USB hubs allow the recognition
of mice and keyboards at boot-up and in DOS?