USB switch (crossover, peripheral sharing, etc)

[ascii]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here had recommendations for a certain product/accessory type.  I'm looking for a [box] that will allow me to plug in at least two USB 2.0 devices (Keyboard, mouse mainly) and switch them between two (or more) computers independently.  At least one each PC and Mac.  Self powered would be preferable to keep from getting hub power exceeded warnings.

I don't need video switching with this, ONLY USB.  The problems I've run into are that the ones I've found have either been discontinued, are only usb 1.slow, only for a single peripheral (printer switches), or don't function well.

Another criteria is fast switching.  I don't want to wait for 2-5 seconds after every switch before being able to use the keyboard/mouse to be usable.

Something like this HAS to exist, right?

Thanks!

ps:  Not looking for a LAN based solution here, I've been using those for a while.  I want a physical switched connection for this.

[Gerk]

You can use any USB capable KVM switch (and just not use the video portion of it).  No waiting with those, they are pretty much instant (at least in my experience).  They are likely not USB2 but not sure why that would make a difference for a keyboard and a mouse.  No one I know of can type that fast -- if you're wanting to share and switch other faster USB2 devices (like drives) you're going to have to constantly unmount them before switching, which would be a royal pain at best.  If you do need to do that I'd keep it separate from your keyboard and mouse switching solution anyway.  I use a 4 port KVM from monoprice that was around $40 or so and it works great for my needs (I do video with it as well).

Just my $0.02.

[alaricljs]

If it's not a KVM then you are not going to get near-instant keyboard and mouse switching.  KVMs lie to the systems connected and present a keyboard and mouse at all times whereas a USB peripheral switch really does disconnect and reconnect the devices.  You have to wait for the usual USB hot-add/remove driver init sequence to complete with these.

[AlleyViper]

There are some quite useful utils that can accomplish it by software via network like Input Director, kavoom or synergy among others. It's easy as if you were working on a dual monitor setup, switching when your mouse goes past the edge of your monitor.
I believe synergy is one of the few that supports multiple OS combinations, it's also free.

[Gerk]

If it's not a KVM then you are not going to get near-instant keyboard and mouse switching.  KVMs lie to the systems connected and present a keyboard and mouse at all times whereas a USB peripheral switch really does disconnect and reconnect the devices.  You have to wait for the usual USB hot-add/remove driver init sequence to complete with these.

+1

[ascii]

The reason I wanted to avoid the KVM option is because most of the KVM's I've used at home or work take too long to switch (USB and video), mainly because of the video portion of it.  I understand that they tend to lie to the system about being connected to it.  However, I'd only like to go this route if it's very fast/near instantaneous switching of USB only.

The reason I wanted USB 2.slow is for future proofing it a bit (or making it current), but there are two things that annoy me when I see them:
1) "this device can work faster"
2) "USB hub power exceeded"

Now if I only got these messages once the first time I use a device on a new machine, that's one thing.  No, they complain every time.  Just like the iPhone's airplane mode warning.  HATE.

Also, the way I'll have this set up, the PC is in a rack (soon to be joined by the Mac Pro).  This would be a convenient way for me to mount the USB switch at my desk and not have to go to the rack to plug in a peripheral/thumb drive.

There are some quite useful utils that can accomplish it by software via network like Input Director, kavoom or synergy among others. It's easy as if you were working on a dual monitor setup, switching when your mouse goes past the edge of your monitor.
I believe synergy is one of the few that supports multiple OS combinations, it's also free.

Thanks, I already use Synergy and Teleport (nice GUI for mac) and they work pretty well for daily stuff, but not so well for gaming.  I've also got a J5Create Wormhole cable, but that's kinda a hack at the moment.  It's technically only PC compatible, though it will pass the Keyboard and Mouse input over to the mac.  It tends to drop key presses occasionally though.

[alaricljs]

The slow part of KVM switching is the MONITOR resyncing to the signal.  Everything else is near instant.

[Gerk]

Yep, my KVM is pretty much instant on the keyboard/mouse switching as well (actually even the video is really fast too).  I have a similar type setup but it's on my servers (2xLinux, 2xOSX, 1xBSD) ... sorry no windows (sounds like a windows warning message about the USB speed).  With just a keyboard and a mouse on a proper KVM you should never see a warning about the power being exceeded.  Sounds like you just need a better KVM.

[ascii]

Someone on another forum just posted results of his KVM in USB only mode and said that USB switches "near instantly."  It does look like a KVM would be the easiest solution.  However, I was trying to see if there were other options out there before going that route again.  It would also be helpful to have individually switching USB ports.

I guess I was just using crappy or "feature filled" KVM's (consumer and server)

^^  Yeah, Both of those messages have come from Win7.  OS X gives a different message.  I wouldn't expect that message out of a KVM as long as it's 2.0

[alaricljs]

You're not going to find the 'quick switching' to be available in anything but a KVM... so that's why it's our only answer.

[Gerk]

I've never seen any kind of message from my KVM ever (even on OSX), maybe the one you used just wasn't great.

[ascii]

Oh, I haven't gotten that message with a KVM.  Only with other usb hubs and the hubs built into some (crappy) OEM keyboards.  It is just something that I want to avoid seeing with the solution I go with.

[ascii]

Wanted to update this thread now that I've taken care of this need.  I tend to follow the trend of "go big or go home."  Since a plain old simple USB switch wasn't an option and I had to go with a KVM, might as well get one with a bit of overhead to grow into.  Ended up going with an IOGear GCS1784 ( http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS1784/ ) 4 port Dual Link DVI KVMP).  Ended up getting it through Amazon (Prime shipping FTW + a decent price).

First impressions of it:  You HAVE to RTFM.  It is not going to work right out of the box.  It will take you some time to get the hang of configuring the KVM using only keyboard input, beeps, and text output via "it will type the config into a text editor."  The learning curve isn't that bad though and once you get it configured for your setup, it seems to be pretty solid and fast switching.  Since everyone's environment will be different, you're just going to have to hack around and troubleshoot as you're setting it up.

As for config settings, I'm referring to mouse emulation and keyboard emulation mode.  It generally seems to work best when you have both turned "off."  This setting allows the key presses/button presses to be passed through to the computer untranslated.  I noticed a bit of an issue with this setting and keyboard delay when switching.  A reboot of all machines after the initial setup fixed this.

The easiest way to switch between machines is via keyboard hot keys (scroll scroll [number] [k] enter) and it will allow you to switch the whole KVM or just USB if you want (hence the U option).  the Manual will explain all of these options.  READ IT.

Once it was set up properly impressions:  It is pretty fast at switching the K/M and better than I was expecting for video switching.  I tested it with general computer use, video, and gaming and didn't see any distortion or problems in the video signals.  In my testing, switching has been reliable overall.  It only got confused once or twice, waiting about 10 seconds for both computers and the KVM to settle down, then switching again resolved the problems.  I think it'll do the job nicely.  I've also got my PS3 hooked up to it, If I set up my Xbox 360 again, it will be hooked up to the 4th computer port.

Other things:
- It has screw holes for rack mount ears and is the correct dimensions for 1U.  However, IOGear doesn't sell ears, the pair I found didn't line up, I haven't found another pair yet.  It needs to go in the rack though.
- You can turn off the beeps but not the lights.  You can't dim the lights either.  Only a small issue in a dark work environment.
- Don't bother with IOGear's website support chat.  It was crap, when the rep would actually respond to questions, they didn't provide much if any useful information.  That said, they only have one chat option for the whole site, so actual tech support might work better than technical questions.  That's kinda sad though.

Overall, the GCS1784 is probably one of the best KVM's I've used.  It's the first one I haven't hated.  It should be very usable for daily computing work.  I would actually recommend it or the two port version (GCS1782).  It seems to have a good feature set and is solid overall.

[ascii]

As an update, After getting the Realforce 87 key without scroll lock, I needed to switch the hot key.  The manual isn't very clear on how to do this.  Anyway, here are the steps:

- Plug in a full sized keyboard w/ scroll lock
- Invoke HSM ( hold [num], press and release [-], release [num] )
- [T]
- [Ctrl][Ctrl][Enter]
- [Esc]

The guy had me do the [Ctrl][Ctrl][Enter] Twice, but I think it got it the first time.  

After that, you can use [Ctrl][Ctrl] instead of [Scroll][Scroll] to initiate a hot key command.