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A while back I posted a question on KVMs for use with a mixture of linux and Win7 computers. <BR>
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To report back, after the various bits of research and advice I bought a StarTech 4 port USB KVM. <BR>
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Thus far, very satisfied with it. The whole schmutz (with 4 cable sets) was around $100. You can get cable sets individually with whatever length you want, which is good for me, because I need one short cable set, one 6' cable set, one 15' cable set. <BR>
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The unit has 4 select buttons on it, which positively pick which CPU it's connected to. As opposed to some magic keystroke sequence which doesn't always work. <BR>
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I had to toss my beloved PS2 keyboard and trackman, and bought a Logitech cordless trackball and USB keyboard. The Logitech dongle plugs into the Startech KVM.<BR>
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It's been several months now, and the important thing is it's never failed, hung, become unresponsive, failed to switch, etc, like the cheap Belkin and IOGear switches. The switching between Fedora Core 10, and Centos 6.x has been flawless. Never failed to "just work". Switching to the Win7 notebook has generally been fine; a couple of times it has failed when I switched and the notebook was asleep. Always corrected on reboot. And you have to switch to the Win7 notebook before you plug in the VGA to the notebook; otherwise it doesn't correctly figure out the monitor resolution. Minor. <BR>
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The major annoyance I had with the other KVMs, where the unit would hang, and I had to disconnect every last computer in order for it to lose power and reset has never happened. <BR>
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Neal Rhodes<BR>
MNOP Ltd
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