On Monday January 21 2008 12:48:32 am Richard England wrote: > The IOGear KVMs I mentiioned earlier were either PS2 to PS2 or > USB to USB. There was no crossover. I was not aware of those > until it was pointed out that they exist here. > > These were NOT powered units. I've seen one Belkin multiple > connection externally powered unit (4 ports I believe) that > it, several years ago, was a right royal pain. Things just > never switched properly with it. Could have been that switch, > but it was new at the time. The newer ones, however, might be > better so do not take my anecdotal evidence too strongly > unless you are acquiring a used Belkin. Thanks for that clarification, Richard. I've got a IOGear PS2 model that has been buried under a mound of cables behind my monitor stack for three years, or so, and I've never had to get to it because it just works. This whole problem is actually someone else's, my employer, and his situation is slightly complicated by the fact that he's got a kvm connected to his kvm; he's got an Avocent remote unit that is connected via CAT5 to a KVM in our server farm, so he can do server administration from his office; the remote Avocent unit in his office then connects to a local KVM which allows him to switch between various computers in his office and the remote Avocent. We suspect that the issues he's having involve the USB protocols and how they behave. I think with USB KVM's, at least older units, each time you switch to a different machine, the machine had to redetect the keyboard and mouse as newly-plugged-in-devices, and this was causing issues in the environment in which we were operating. We're going to look at a newer IOGear unit I found on their website that seems to address this: "With IOGEAR's USB Sniffing Technology you can use your favorite USB keyboard to control all features of the USB KVM. The MiniView™ II USB features keyboard and mouse emulation so your computer never loses touch with its peripherals." (From the IOGear website page on the model #GCS124U KVM) Hopefully, the emulation will solve the issues we've been having. I'll report back since this seems to be an issue of interest. -- Claude Jones Brunswick, MD, USA
