>Hi all > >I'm this close .<>. to buying and OMNIVIEW KVM SWITCH so that I can share a >monitor, keyboard and mouse. It's a Linux server, Win 2k box, >Win98 Box and >a MAC. I know.. Anyway, b4 I part with my hard cash on something that is >not inexpensive, does anyone know of an alternative to the KVM Switches but >not marketed in the same way..? I would appreciate any comments you may >have.. thanks guys and gals.. Apostolus >
I use an AdderView GEM for my three laptops (NT, W2K and Linux) and an AIX box and cannot fault it. It has a slight advantage over the Belkin in using more standard cables but if you are using a KVM at all I would suggest you go the whole hog and buy the best cables you can (esp. video). The 3-in-1 KVM cables make it all a lot tidier too. Without trying to be condescending, make sure that whatever you buy has the right ports for your equipment (do you need USB? AT style connectors?). VNC is great if everything is already working as is just setting everything up headless and accessing it all remotely but PC's tend to like this a lot less than Unix boxes. I would still use VNC rather than X on anything running Windows and for any remote access over a WAN regardless of OS. VMWare is another approach but if you already have the hardware it is probably not what you want (and it probably doesn't do Mac). Rather than have a Linux box and several Windows ones just have a big powerful server hosting the OS machines of your choice, whether you want Windows or Linux to be the host is up to you, I've done both and can say it is great either way. I can set up a system to deliberately break it and not affect anything alongside it, I can test network software on a virtual LAN and not get flak from the network admins, I can even send a virtual machine to someone else for them to work on - all in all a very useful product. I got my switch from www.kvmswitchdirect.com and it was all delivered within 48 hours of ordering. I've no connection with them apart from being a customer. Michael -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
