[ale] OT: stupid hardware question

[Greg]

To put in my 2 cents worth, I would heartily suggest what "Wandered Inn"
said about getting the good stuff.  My company (total MS shop) has had an
ongoing problem w/ KVM's that lose the mouse connection.  That seems to be
the rule in my experience regardless of p.c. or os that is used.  Like jenn
said I religiously log in before I ever switch, otherwise the p.c. doesn't
seem to pick up a component.  My LinkSys ProConnect 4 port does that and so
I just live with 4 mice on my desk (at least until I get my rack up
tomorrow).. and 2 at work (one for my Linux box and the other for the NT
2000 box), but the monitor and keyboards seem to work fine.  What they are
using at work are Masterviews and can be had at Cyberguys 1.800.892.1010 or
www.cyberguys.com .  Mine and just about all that I see have ports for both
AT and the PS/2 connections.  I would also recommend one that comes with
some type of switching the power over "gently".   Some come with cables or
you can get them at Office Depot or anywhere else.  The sysadmins at work
swear that they work, but I haven't been in the server room in a while, so I
can't personally support that claim.

Good Luck

-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-ale at ale.org [mailto:owner-ale at ale.org] On Behalf Of Wandered Inn
Sent:	Saturday, July 28, 2001 8:49 AM
To:	ale at ale.org
Subject:	Re: [ale] OT: stupid hardware question

I've gone the route with these switches and I'll say that if you want to
do this, you should get one of the more expensive ones that contain
electronics that 'fools' the machine into thinking it's still
connected.  I've got a 4 port Linksys that I've been using for about 4
years now.  I don't remember how much it was, but I'm pretty sure it's
in the $70-$100 range.  They are pricing, but the bloody work and they
don't wear out.  I had a couple of mechanical switches before this, and
they all got flaky after a while.

I've never heard or experienced the problem you've outlined below
though.  I have had my switch loose power and when it does, the mouse
and keyboard would not respond.  If I switched from one machine to
another, I'd get the keyboard back, but the mouse would not return
(that's in X) so I would end up having to restart X.

By the way, the linksys switch I have controls the monitor, keyboard and
mouse. It enables you to switch from one machine to another via buttons
on the front of the switch as well as a set of key sequences.  It also
has a mode where it will rotate through all systems it's connected to.
Seems like something you might use for a security system, but not
something I ever take advantage of.  They also make larger switches, I
think up to 7 or 8 boxes.


"Joseph A. Knapka" wrote:
>
> Displaying my ignorance... again...
>
> Today I got a 4-port KVM switch. It doesn't have a keyboard
> emulation circuit; the instructions said, "unplug the keyboard
> from your computer and plug it back in; if the machine still
> responds to the keyboard then it will work with this switch."
> So I did that (thinking even at the time that I'd heard
> somewhere it wasn't a good idea, but what the hell, I'm
> following instructions, right?) And the instant I pulled
> the keyboard connector out the machine died - powered off. And
> wouldn't power on again. Power supply is dead. (Amazingly enough,
> the motherboard is uninjured - moved it to another case and
> it booted fine.)
>
> So is this behavior I should have expected? I'm very hesitant
> to try using the KVM switch with any of my machines now,
> since switching machines is the moral (and electrical)
> equivalent of unplugging the keybord. Incidentally, it
> was an AT keyboard connector, on an AT motherboard, if that
> matters.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- Joe Knapka
> "You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
>  can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
> // Linux MM Documentation in progress:
> // http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
> 2nd Lbl A + 1 = 2nd Pause 2nd Prt GTO 2 R/S
> --
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--
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at denali.atlnet.com

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit
to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his
intelligence." - Albert Einstein
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