Anyone have any experience with these? I’m looking for a two-port switch at a reasonable price that causes very little (or preferably no) video degradation.
I’d look on eBay first. I assume you want to use this for high-bandwidth video stuff, eg, gaming/video?
Outside those uses-- which pretty much require hard-wired connections for the video-- remote control over ethernet (VNC, pcAnywhere, remote desktop, terminal services, etc) is a lot more cost effective.
pcAnywhere
Ooh. That’s a good idea.
If you’re running XP, you don’t even need that.
Remote Desktop Connection. It rocks. I use it to access my desktop computer via WiFi from my laptop in my living room all the time.
And Remote Desktop Connection uses a whole lot less resources than PCA, too (although it does have fewer functions).
My laptop recently died, leaving me with only one laptop: a 266 Mhz Compaq Armada. This thing is heavy enough to use for weight training, particularly when compared to my old 3 lb Vaio. It’s also slow as hell running XP with 96 MB of RAM. In any case, I set up Remote Desktop Connection on my little wannabe server, forwarded the appropriate ports on my router, and now just connect to the server from the laptop. Since all the computing takes place on the server end, there’s virtually no load on the laptop, and it performs wonderfully (it is, of course, depending on local bandwidth). In any case, I’ve done 2 road trips with it in the last three weeks, and have no complaints.
I think RDC does require XP Pro, though, doesn’t it? You just turn it on somewhere in the properties tabs of “My Computer.”
Terminal services for games? Blah. No good for FPS or driving and flight sims.
I got a little 2 port kvm from, I think, Linksys back in 2001 and I love it. It comes with high quality shielding cables. I can do 1280x1024x32 on both boxes. The only down side is the thing has ports coming out all of its sides, so it looks like a spider when you have both boxes and the console hooked up. I just toss it behind my desk and use the keyboard to switch between the two.
Stay away from USB KVMs. It would take a few seconds for the mouse to initilize on all the one’s I tried. That drove me nuts. Worse, sometimes the mouse just wouldn’t get recognized and I would have to cycle the switch to wake it up. Stick with PS2.
Get good cables. If you’re using those cheap little thin video cables from Belkin, you’re bound to have trouble. If your video degrades even with good cables, sometimes you can fix it by lowering the resolution on one or both of the machines.
I do NOT recommend pcAnywhere. We used it for years at my previous job, and I swear to god, every new version Symantec released got buggier and more bloated. Finally, after bluescreening a machine because I hadn’t installed the first patch for version 8.0-- which had been released less than a month ago-- I swore off that crap forever.
Remote Desktop connection is definitely the way to go. It’s built into Windows XP (Pro only) and Windows 2000. There is one caveat, however-- you cannot control the “current” desktop login. Every login will be independent of what you see on the screen, eg, a seperate user session, invisible to the person currently using the machine (if any). This isn’t what most people expect, but it makes sense once you get used to it.
Whatever remote control software you pick, try to get one that ‘hooks’ the video driver. Otherwise the speed won’t be so hot, as the software has to guess at what pixels have changed on the remote host rather than having the video card automagically notify it every time it performs a video operation. WinVNC, which is otherwise great (and free!), has that problem-- it’s kinda slow because it does not hook the video driver.
And as I said in my first post-- if you are doing anything video intensive, like gaming or video playback, you do not want to go the software route. Still, I would avoid KVM hardware if you can. It’s an unnecessary expense for the majority of remote control uses…
I do NOT recommend pcAnywhere. We used it for years at my previous job
Chet and I have used PCA for years as well. I spend about 90 minutes a day on it, and I’ve never once had it bluescreen on me.
So what would you recommend for video intensive stuff?
I use a Belkin KVM and it’s, well, reasonable, if not cheap. It’s about $50-60 average retail (for the non-USB version.) You’ll end up paying for the extra cables to connect the second computer, though.
All in all the only problem I’ve had is that my linux box doesn’t like the idea of the ps2 mouse dropping in and out when I switch, so I’ve had to attach a seperate mouse to both machines. If you’re not running linux, or are better at running it then I am, then I don’t think this would be a problem at all.
I’ve noticed no video degredation whatsoever. The switchover is a quick double scroll lock, then up or down. Boom, you’re at your next machine. Simple and easy.
I spend about 90 minutes a day on it, and I’ve never once had it bluescreen on me.
The bluescreen was during the initial install of the software. pcAnywhere is invasive and patch-happy. It is usually fairly reliable once you get it running & patched, though there were a few times on gb.com where it randomly stopped functioning over a year and a half time period. That’s why I had WinVNC installed on the server as a backup.
More to the point, pcaw type functionality is included in every copy of Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP Pro. Better, actually, since it’s native: remote desktop / terminal services (same thing).
So what would you recommend for video intensive stuff?
If you have a need for remote viewing of high bandwidth video, you’re stuck with dedicated video cables, so that means a traditional KVM.
I don’t have a specific recommendation. The degradation Erik is referring to is a side effect of running long video cables and/or passthrough (think Voodoo 1 & 2). Even though VGA is an analog cabling standard, it’s extremely high bandwidth (at resolutions > 1024x768) and thus quite sensitive to signal quality.
All in all the only problem I’ve had is that my linux box doesn’t like the idea of the ps2 mouse dropping in and out when I switch, so I’ve had to attach a seperate mouse to both machines. If you’re not running linux, or are better at running it then I am, then I don’t think this would be a problem at all.
Why don’t you just tty (remote console) into the linux box, or use the native linux VNC servers (which have video hooks, unlike the Win32 server)?
Yes, this is an area where XFree86 is really nice. X was after all designed with a client/server architecture to make remote usage entirely transparent. If I want to try a program I don’t have installed at home I can just ssh into the university and run it from there. It’s a bit slow over ADSL (512kb/s) but other than that it looks like I would have run it on my local machine.
Anyone have any experience with these? I’m looking for a two-port switch at a reasonable price that causes very little (or preferably no) video degradation.
Almost as soon as I picked up a two-port switch, I found myself wanting a four-port one. The price difference wasn’t all that much either. Unless you’re completely sure you’ll never have a third machine (server, whatever) you want to switch to, I’d bite the bullet and get the bigger switch to begin with.
I’ll second that…
The earlier comment about USB KVM switches was also right on. However, I find that I’m willing to live with the delay as USB is re-recognized in order to have a built in switch which shares USB devices, such as my USB mic and USB printer/scanner/copier/fax with multiple computers (including the G4 which sits in the corner, gathering dust). If you want to share USB devices across multiple computers (in addition to the keyboard, monitor, and mouse), USB is well worth it. I have a 2 port IOGear and a 4 port Belkin; I’d recommend an IOGear to anyone since the damn thing worked perfectly. I’d avoid the Belkin USBs, since they’re damn picky (as I learned much to my consternation!)
asjunk
IOGear! it’s the only way to go… cheaply, at least. you can probably search the forums for previous mentions of various experiences with IOGear or related KVM’s, as i know there’s been several topics that covered this stuff before.
- mlatin - megadoot -
Erik you could have also just asked me - I have an extra switch in the basement. The basement server farm is down to only 4 PCs from a high of 9, I have a 4 pc switch and cables. Next time I send you a box of chocolates, I will send the switch.
Chet
You probably don’t need hardware. Get Synergy instead. Thats what I’ve used for quite some time now.
You probably don’t need hardware. Get Synergy instead. Thats what I’ve used for quite some time now.[/quote]
Synergy faq said it doesn’t share the video, though – it’s KM, not KVM.
I put in a hearty second vote for IOGear’s cables only KVM switch. Though I have no idea if it’s good for all that technical stuff you’re throwing back and forth.
I got mine simply because I wanted to set up an old DOS machine so I could play the old SSI Gold Box games, and Xcom, and Might and Magic and all of the rest without needing to double my interface stuff. It’s easy to switch back and forth, it was cheap, aces all around.