Use a Laptop As a KVM Switch
May 6, 2008 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
I’ve thought of another feature I wish existed for a laptop. I frequently work on people’s computers for them. If I have them bring me their desktop machine I tell them to unplug everything and don’t worry about bringing me the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. I’ve got all of these things at my house that I can hook up if I need.
Map Laptop Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor to Desktop Machine
The problem is that I’d like to be able to sit the CPU down next to me on the couch and then sit on the couch with my laptop and review their system. I’d like to somehow be able to plug-in the desktop to my laptop and be able to map my laptop’s keyboard, mouse and monitor to the desktop.
I know you could kind of accomplish this with Microsoft Remote Terminal Services client, but that’s kind of hard to initially setup at your first boot-up of the machine. But even then there’s challenges if it’s not on your network or is having Ethernet problems.
Does this type of functionality exist somehow? Let me know!
I use a freeware product named Synergy; it’s on Sourceforge. Allows you to use your cursor and keyboard across multiple computers. Mostly works well, occasionally not. I’ve used across Win2K and Vista.
I’ve wanted the same thing for when I do in-the-field installations so that I don’t have to travel with a keyboard/monitor. The closest thing I’ve been able to find is this usb2.0 device. Almost exactly what I want, although ideally I’d want an expresscard version so that it could use the better bus to get me better color depth and framerate (since what I do is graphics intensive). Also it would be nice if you had a choice between the VGA/PS2 dongle and a VGA/USB one. But still, pretty close. Might be good enough for what you want.
http://www.epiphan.com/products/product.php?pid=27
I just published a long review for the device that does just that :)
http://hubpages.com/hub/laptop-as-kvm-switch-kvm2usb-review
Gleb
Jason,
IOGEAR now has a KVM solution for what you are talking about. It is a USB KVM switch that will allow you to control another computer from your laptop. It also allows for file transfers as well. Here is the link:
http://www.iogear.com/blog/2009/07/08/usb-laptop-kvm-switch/
Best Buy had it for $49.99. Hope this helps!!
Brian J, thanks for the link, that’s awesome! I’ll have to check it out.
I’ve tried this device out and while it works great for Win2K and XP, it will not allow you BIOS level access to the remote machine.
First off the device requires that you initially set up it’s driver on the remote machine. This means that you have to have a keyboard, mouse and monitor on it to install the driver.
Step 2 is to install the driver on the local or controlling machine.
Both machines must be running at least Win2K and what you see is a window of the remote’s desktop: XP remote desktop without the internet.
Using a laptop to gain BIOS level control will require a USB to PS2 w/VGA input device like the one that epiphan.com has.