Hi Niamh; As Bill said, it is called a " KVM " switch. I use 1 myself, & it works great. All I have to do, to switch from 1 computer to the other & vice a versa, is, press the scroll lock button, twice quickly. I don't know where you are physically located but, here in United States, they can be purchased at stores like Best Buy or on line, from places like Tiger Direct. You can get KVM switches that will operate up to 8 computers using just the 1 keyboard, monitor, & mouse. Hope this helps. Take care. Mike
----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Gallik To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 9:11 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] Is there a gadget ... Niamh (apparently) asks: "Is there a gadget which would allow me to connect two computers to one monitor? my problem is I am having to run a laptop and destop at work.i don't want to ask my employer for help,but increasingly i need sighted help and a simple switch would help." You can purchase a device referred to as a "KVM Switch" (Keyboard, Video, Mouse), this will permit a pair of PCs (desktop and/or laptop) to use a single Keyboard, Video (monitor) and Mouse. Some of these KVM switches also support a keystroke that will execute the "switch over" from one PC to the other. Bear in mind that this will not allow for activities on both PCs to be visible on the Video screen simultaneously, only one PC at a time can interact with the Keyboard, Video and Mouse via this configuration. I suppose, if it were necessary to be able to watch what was going on both PCs the video connection could be ignored on this gadget and regular channels could be used to utilize the monitors per each PC. And I can't say whether or not the video output on the laptop might not still appear on the laptop's screen in addition to the monitor connected via the KVM (when I used my KVM Switch, it was connected to a pair of desktops). -------- Holland's Person, Bill - "The biggest seller is cookbooks and the second is diet books - how not to eat what you've just learned how to cook." - Andy Rooney For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ Send any questions regarding list management to: [email protected] For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ Send any questions regarding list management to: [email protected]
