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Recommend a KVM switch?

S

sm8000

Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Messages
525
I'd like to invest in (or ask for) a KVM switch. What are some good name models without issues like interference, and are good and reliable? I'd prefer the kind with a box rather than all wires. What price range should I expect for a good quality unit?
 
Linksys or Belkin, you can get as many ports as you need, all of them need a set of cables to go to each box, the newer ones have video, usb, audio, the older ones used the parallel ports to hookup. the most common are Video, ps2 mouse, and ps2 keyboard. watch out for the ones with cables attached, they lose alot in the proccess.

You need to get the type that will hook up to ALL of you boxes, if you are not doing alot on each box the simple cheaper units will work.

Do be aware that some older HP, and Compaq boxes do not like to have a cheap KVM or cables. they won't be able to read the mouse. Some of the PIII Ibm netvista's also have to be tweaked to work well with a cheap box.

I am switching my system over to the Belkin Omni-View Pro series as I will be able to check ALL 20 of my boxen from one moniter and keyboard setup, I can use the manual switch to go to another box if one is busy doing something like down loading a large file, with out worrying if the hot keyswill cause it to stop, which sometimes happens.

I shopped around and found good used units, the average price for these 8 port units, that will link to each other is around 65- 75 dollars, without cables. Shop around for the cables, they are sometimes very cheap on e-bay, and sometimes you can get them very cheap if you buy a larger lot of cables, I picked up 4 more 6ft cables than I needed at the time, but for the same price as I would of had to pay for two cables online or one in Compusa.

Look at your actual needs and what each box takes , figure out how big a KVM you really need and If you are planning on expanding, get bigger now. Measure the length of the cables needed and add 1 foot.

Start shopping, and don't buy until you see what the prices are everywhere you can, follow acouple of the size you are looking for to see what the last minute bidding is doing, there is alot of very last minute bidding in the top end networking and KVM sales. PAY ATTENTION TO THE PORTS, some very top of the line equipment is for sale very cheaply because the port type is no longer used and to make them work you have to program you boxes to do so, not fun ;)

Hope this helps :D


 
Thanks very much! My needs will be far more modest than yours ;) One of the systems is an IBM Aptiva (K6-2 about to become K6-3) and both will be on the same desk with monitor in between - figure 3 or 4 feet of cables for each should do. No need for USB as I'm hoping to get a hub that fits in my Viewsonic monitor's stand, most likely only needed on one system. I'm thinking of looking into Linksys, I like to think of Belkin as a good name but I've heard horror stories of their KVMs, even fielded a call where one turned out to be interfering with a customer's video card.
 
FWIW - I scored my boss one of these and it's a dandy. If that's got enough ports to do what you need, it's a great answer and pretty reasonable, price wise.

Regards - B.B.S.
 
Some suggestions from personal experience:

- Get a powered version.. "unpowered" ones draw power from the ps2 ports, and alot of times specifically off pc on port1. If that pc is turned off, the switch may act funny.. like stop working.

- Keep cable length under 6ft.. The signals tend to get flakey at or past that length.
 
Thanks very much all of you, great info here. I'm going to consider my options and see if I can put one on the ol' Xmas wishlist.
 
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