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General Software Discussion / Re: I'm so fed up with (software or hardware) KM / KVM switches working so badly
« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2017, 10:20 AM »Relais are made to take a "beating", so noise is to be expected, but that isn't worrisome. If you have a mechanical switch that uses PS/2, any problem you experience can be blamed on that standard. It is designed to be under continuous power and therefore reacts very badly when power is interrupted. For work I used to have one with 4 channels and it came with its own power supply and circuitry to keep everything under power whether their channel was selected or not. For years I used it to operate 3 PC's with NT4 and Windows 98 on them. That KVM switch worked flawlessly, but with the caveat that you didn't exceed the maximum supported screen resolution.
In current day prices, that thing would have costed 600 Euro easily. Any other type of (electro-)mechanical switch? Hardly worth the hassle. USB based KVM switches are supposed to handle power interruptions much better than PS/2. Still, get a model without separate power supply and circuitry to keep unselected ports under power and it remains misery. These are also not cheap, but I hardly bothered with them as I went to another employer, where I discovered the Synergy KM software.
Back then it was free and worked very well, once you got your head around the strange way to configure it. Used that for years, but then went to an employer that would afford multiple monitors on decent enough hardware. About 6 months ago, I had a need for KM software again, but found out out that Synergy wasn't free anymore...and I couldn't find the installer in the software repository that follows me around since way back when.
First I tried InputDirector, but that wouldn't work. Then I tried Sharemouse, which, after setting it up only once, keeps on working flawlessly. Your comments about Sharemouse continuously needing to be configured sound therefore a bit strange to me.
There is still another device you could try, which uses the ethernet port on your computer to transfer the KVM signals. While those are expensive, they hardly have limitations. You could even get WAN access to such a device if you really want to. Google for 'IP-Based KVM' if you are interested.
In current day prices, that thing would have costed 600 Euro easily. Any other type of (electro-)mechanical switch? Hardly worth the hassle. USB based KVM switches are supposed to handle power interruptions much better than PS/2. Still, get a model without separate power supply and circuitry to keep unselected ports under power and it remains misery. These are also not cheap, but I hardly bothered with them as I went to another employer, where I discovered the Synergy KM software.
Back then it was free and worked very well, once you got your head around the strange way to configure it. Used that for years, but then went to an employer that would afford multiple monitors on decent enough hardware. About 6 months ago, I had a need for KM software again, but found out out that Synergy wasn't free anymore...and I couldn't find the installer in the software repository that follows me around since way back when.
First I tried InputDirector, but that wouldn't work. Then I tried Sharemouse, which, after setting it up only once, keeps on working flawlessly. Your comments about Sharemouse continuously needing to be configured sound therefore a bit strange to me.
There is still another device you could try, which uses the ethernet port on your computer to transfer the KVM signals. While those are expensive, they hardly have limitations. You could even get WAN access to such a device if you really want to. Google for 'IP-Based KVM' if you are interested.
). While the SMF forum software might look a bit outdated to some, I like its functionality. While I can appreciate "form over function" in some cases, I am more of a "function then form" guy.